Sitting in the psychology test room waiting for the result to be announced within few minutes and suddenly an old man entered in the room carrying a disfigured bag('jhola').No,there were no 'alvida' gifts in that,it contained our mobile phones submitted at the SSB Bangalore center on the first day.He returned our cells and took away a piece of cloth from us so called chest number.'Chest number 2' this was the name i was called by everyone through whole five days.Those who would have cleared the test will get new chest number white in color with a plus sign embedded on them.Oh! i think i have come too far too early..lets rewind the time a bit.
It was in November 2010 when Indian Army came to our college at UES level for technical entry. Though there were good number of students turned up for the interview i still felt the amount of enthusiasm was not that much as it would have been had any MNC was there.Still the competition was not less, groups of about 15 people were formed for group discussion and out of that 2-3 students were selected from each group for personal interview.The PI was exciting,hilarious and completely unexpected.After few days i came to know that i have been selected for IA SSB.Months passed,gave 7th semester exams,got selected in TCS company and for the time being forgot about SSB thing.Then one day recieved the call letter for SSB to be held at bangalore center. My parents were more happy than me as if in the call letter i was mentioned as Lieutenant Rajat Gupta.Was confused till the last day before departure as exactly what documents,clothes,shoes to carry as there were quiet a bit of things mentioned in the letter.
I reached Bangalore one day before SSB due to some constraints in the train timings.On that day went to a disc in evening at Brigade road with few friends living there.Then from there went straight to nandi hills.Returned back at 11 am in the morning next day and had to report at 2:30 pm at bangalore juction.It was good that first day at SSB was just for filling the forms and verification of documents as i was too tired and dint had the sleep too.But first day was not all easy and fun ,what came as a shock for us was when we saw about 20 contenders sent back to home because of incomplete documents.Not having Bonafied certificate from college was the major reason.Before coming i dint think that they would be so strict on documents.Then we all were made to sleep in a huge hall containing about 100 beds and having just 10-15 fans.Were woken up at 4 am in the morning next day as we had to report at 6 am in the morning.The screening test started with 2 papers containing objective type questions.First question paper was all about simple aptitude and logical based reasoning while second paper contained missing figures and pictures which had to be chosen from options given according to some logic or similarity,extracted from seeing the figure in the question .About 15-20 minutes were given for each paper.Then came the most important test known as story writing.A blurred picture was shown to us for about half a minute on which we had to write a story clearly mentioning the central character in about 5 minutes.Almost no one was able to complete the story and i could only write a paragraph on the paper.After few minutes we were called for the group discussion on the story.We were made to sit in open air with three top people from army ssb center judging us.There were about 20 contenders in a group and each one was asked to explain his story within a minute without looking at the paper on which we wrote the story.After explaining there was group discussion on the same and we as a group was asked to come up with one single story which should be agreed by all the members of the group.We as a group could not come to conclusive story but towards the end about 6 members agreed upon my story as the best one among the group.In GD those who forcefully tried to dominate were not selected.It is good to open the conversation but one should not do it repeatedly if get the chance as the GD is often interrupted by the officer sitting there due to formation of fish market.Give others the chance to speak and most importantly listen to others when they are talking.Never speak during the fish market conversation and try to grab that silent moment when every one stops speaking for a second.It was not how much one spoke but how well and how logical one spoke even if it was just two lines.We were given traveling allowance of maximum 3rd A.C class including return journey( on showing the ticket), pertaining to the shortest route from one's home to SSB center .It came to us as a pleasant surprise because in the call letter it was mentioned for sleeper class only.In the morning only, we were asked to pack all our luggage and keep it outside.Those who were not selected were sent back to station immediately and 18 of us who were selected were allotted new rooms which were quite opulent compared to that big hall.
Next day, there was psychology test.We were shown 10 slides one after other.Each slide, representing a picture,shown to us for half a minute and we had to write a story in 4 minutes based on our perception.After non-stop story writing we were given a break of 5 minutes Then came the word test in which each word was shown to us for 5 seconds and we had to write a sentence,whatever comes to our mind first, on that in 10 seconds.There were about 30 words(don't remember exactly).Again after 5 minutes break there was situation reaction test consisting of 60 different real life situations on which we have to write our reactions in about 40 minutes ,assuming ourselves to be in that situations.Never in my life i would have written so fast.One must not think much else would miss the questions.The test is to bring out the true character of you and is structured in such a way so that you cant manipulate your thinking and responses in order to impress the others.
Third day was for group task.Dressed in white from top to bottom we were asked to perform some physical tasks in group.We had to use wooden planks,ropes and structures built there to reach the other end without touching the ground.Each member of the group needed to reach safely to other end along with the load given to us.The structures were painted in red,white and green representing danger, safe and semi-safe conditions.The end of the task was with 'snake race' .And this was the most exiting and thrilling task among all.I had never felt so enthusiastic and selfless before.Also understood the real meaning of team work after this.
Fourth day consisted of individual task and also model based problem.First in the morning there was GD held on two different topics and then we were shown a model based on real life situation and containing various problems.We had to give solution keeping in mind the priorities,time and distance constraints.Individual task consisted of 10 different task given points one to ten according to its difficulty level.In this i got injured when performing one task, my hand slipped through the rope and i collided straight to the wall.Though i tried to complete the remaining task but my performance got sucked up badly.There was also a individual presentation on topic given to us in which we had to speak on that for about 5 minutes.
Meanwhile,we were also called for Personal Interview in between these days.PI is make or break for one's final selection.Can't remember exactly but probably the officer who took PI was Major General.Try not to listen others when they come out of interview room as it may plant unnecessary presumptions and fear in your mind.In the interview,he bombarded me with 7-10 questions together and you have to remember each question in the serial wise and answer according to that.Never lie or make false stories else you will be trapped in your own web and trust me your chances of clearing will be buried deep in to the hole right at that moment.To describe the whole interview and the questions asked would take a whole new post,in short it was one of the most grilling interview i have ever faced.
The fifth and final day was the conference day.All the top officers, who were involved in judging you ,were dressed in full fledged army uniform, sitting in a room, and you have to walk inside on the red carpet for your final appearance .It was hardly for a minute in which i was asked about my stay there and if i had any suggestions or complains.We were made to rehearse in the morning on how to walk and sit in front of them..he he.
So back to where i started ,as my time machine has also run out of petrol.As soon as we got our cell phones,i quickly grabbed the opportunity of clicking some pics of us together before some one enters in the room.And then came the lady officer whom i mainly saw her in salwaar-suit for whole five days but as my eyes saw her in uniform,my mind wondered whether there could be any better combination of beauty,dignity and discipline.She started addressing us and told us what the requirements of army are,appreciated us on our performance and all other things.I was completely absorbed in the elegance of her way of talking and her music of words made me feel like i was smoothly surfing on waves but slowly and slowly those waves were getting larger and i could felt that.Her last sentence brought the tsunami in the room as she spoke"But none of you are recommended for medical though many of you were on the border line but we want 100% and wont compromise on even 99.99% ".To be honest i was amazed and sad not for myself but for few people there.There were many of them who were completely dedicated towards joining army,some were from NCC backgrounds,some were sitting for 5th or 6th time,and i could see the pain in their eyes.
About the food and other facilities,i would say quite good.Camrom and chess board was provided to play inside the room and in the evening we used to play basketball.Songs from English to Telugu were loaded in computer system. We were allowed to go outside and roam wherever we like after 2:30 pm but had to return before 7 pm.Army bus was also there in case one would like to go in group and see the landmarks of the city ,on the payment of Rs 200 for a day.
It was in November 2010 when Indian Army came to our college at UES level for technical entry. Though there were good number of students turned up for the interview i still felt the amount of enthusiasm was not that much as it would have been had any MNC was there.Still the competition was not less, groups of about 15 people were formed for group discussion and out of that 2-3 students were selected from each group for personal interview.The PI was exciting,hilarious and completely unexpected.After few days i came to know that i have been selected for IA SSB.Months passed,gave 7th semester exams,got selected in TCS company and for the time being forgot about SSB thing.Then one day recieved the call letter for SSB to be held at bangalore center. My parents were more happy than me as if in the call letter i was mentioned as Lieutenant Rajat Gupta.Was confused till the last day before departure as exactly what documents,clothes,shoes to carry as there were quiet a bit of things mentioned in the letter.
I reached Bangalore one day before SSB due to some constraints in the train timings.On that day went to a disc in evening at Brigade road with few friends living there.Then from there went straight to nandi hills.Returned back at 11 am in the morning next day and had to report at 2:30 pm at bangalore juction.It was good that first day at SSB was just for filling the forms and verification of documents as i was too tired and dint had the sleep too.But first day was not all easy and fun ,what came as a shock for us was when we saw about 20 contenders sent back to home because of incomplete documents.Not having Bonafied certificate from college was the major reason.Before coming i dint think that they would be so strict on documents.Then we all were made to sleep in a huge hall containing about 100 beds and having just 10-15 fans.Were woken up at 4 am in the morning next day as we had to report at 6 am in the morning.The screening test started with 2 papers containing objective type questions.First question paper was all about simple aptitude and logical based reasoning while second paper contained missing figures and pictures which had to be chosen from options given according to some logic or similarity,extracted from seeing the figure in the question .About 15-20 minutes were given for each paper.Then came the most important test known as story writing.A blurred picture was shown to us for about half a minute on which we had to write a story clearly mentioning the central character in about 5 minutes.Almost no one was able to complete the story and i could only write a paragraph on the paper.After few minutes we were called for the group discussion on the story.We were made to sit in open air with three top people from army ssb center judging us.There were about 20 contenders in a group and each one was asked to explain his story within a minute without looking at the paper on which we wrote the story.After explaining there was group discussion on the same and we as a group was asked to come up with one single story which should be agreed by all the members of the group.We as a group could not come to conclusive story but towards the end about 6 members agreed upon my story as the best one among the group.In GD those who forcefully tried to dominate were not selected.It is good to open the conversation but one should not do it repeatedly if get the chance as the GD is often interrupted by the officer sitting there due to formation of fish market.Give others the chance to speak and most importantly listen to others when they are talking.Never speak during the fish market conversation and try to grab that silent moment when every one stops speaking for a second.It was not how much one spoke but how well and how logical one spoke even if it was just two lines.We were given traveling allowance of maximum 3rd A.C class including return journey( on showing the ticket), pertaining to the shortest route from one's home to SSB center .It came to us as a pleasant surprise because in the call letter it was mentioned for sleeper class only.In the morning only, we were asked to pack all our luggage and keep it outside.Those who were not selected were sent back to station immediately and 18 of us who were selected were allotted new rooms which were quite opulent compared to that big hall.
Next day, there was psychology test.We were shown 10 slides one after other.Each slide, representing a picture,shown to us for half a minute and we had to write a story in 4 minutes based on our perception.After non-stop story writing we were given a break of 5 minutes Then came the word test in which each word was shown to us for 5 seconds and we had to write a sentence,whatever comes to our mind first, on that in 10 seconds.There were about 30 words(don't remember exactly).Again after 5 minutes break there was situation reaction test consisting of 60 different real life situations on which we have to write our reactions in about 40 minutes ,assuming ourselves to be in that situations.Never in my life i would have written so fast.One must not think much else would miss the questions.The test is to bring out the true character of you and is structured in such a way so that you cant manipulate your thinking and responses in order to impress the others.
Third day was for group task.Dressed in white from top to bottom we were asked to perform some physical tasks in group.We had to use wooden planks,ropes and structures built there to reach the other end without touching the ground.Each member of the group needed to reach safely to other end along with the load given to us.The structures were painted in red,white and green representing danger, safe and semi-safe conditions.The end of the task was with 'snake race' .And this was the most exiting and thrilling task among all.I had never felt so enthusiastic and selfless before.Also understood the real meaning of team work after this.
Fourth day consisted of individual task and also model based problem.First in the morning there was GD held on two different topics and then we were shown a model based on real life situation and containing various problems.We had to give solution keeping in mind the priorities,time and distance constraints.Individual task consisted of 10 different task given points one to ten according to its difficulty level.In this i got injured when performing one task, my hand slipped through the rope and i collided straight to the wall.Though i tried to complete the remaining task but my performance got sucked up badly.There was also a individual presentation on topic given to us in which we had to speak on that for about 5 minutes.
Meanwhile,we were also called for Personal Interview in between these days.PI is make or break for one's final selection.Can't remember exactly but probably the officer who took PI was Major General.Try not to listen others when they come out of interview room as it may plant unnecessary presumptions and fear in your mind.In the interview,he bombarded me with 7-10 questions together and you have to remember each question in the serial wise and answer according to that.Never lie or make false stories else you will be trapped in your own web and trust me your chances of clearing will be buried deep in to the hole right at that moment.To describe the whole interview and the questions asked would take a whole new post,in short it was one of the most grilling interview i have ever faced.
The fifth and final day was the conference day.All the top officers, who were involved in judging you ,were dressed in full fledged army uniform, sitting in a room, and you have to walk inside on the red carpet for your final appearance .It was hardly for a minute in which i was asked about my stay there and if i had any suggestions or complains.We were made to rehearse in the morning on how to walk and sit in front of them..he he.
So back to where i started ,as my time machine has also run out of petrol.As soon as we got our cell phones,i quickly grabbed the opportunity of clicking some pics of us together before some one enters in the room.And then came the lady officer whom i mainly saw her in salwaar-suit for whole five days but as my eyes saw her in uniform,my mind wondered whether there could be any better combination of beauty,dignity and discipline.She started addressing us and told us what the requirements of army are,appreciated us on our performance and all other things.I was completely absorbed in the elegance of her way of talking and her music of words made me feel like i was smoothly surfing on waves but slowly and slowly those waves were getting larger and i could felt that.Her last sentence brought the tsunami in the room as she spoke"But none of you are recommended for medical though many of you were on the border line but we want 100% and wont compromise on even 99.99% ".To be honest i was amazed and sad not for myself but for few people there.There were many of them who were completely dedicated towards joining army,some were from NCC backgrounds,some were sitting for 5th or 6th time,and i could see the pain in their eyes.
About the food and other facilities,i would say quite good.Camrom and chess board was provided to play inside the room and in the evening we used to play basketball.Songs from English to Telugu were loaded in computer system. We were allowed to go outside and roam wherever we like after 2:30 pm but had to return before 7 pm.Army bus was also there in case one would like to go in group and see the landmarks of the city ,on the payment of Rs 200 for a day.
