TeRe NaAm "A true story"

Police training was over. We were around 400 cadets staying in the training campus.The rigorous training had transformed the normal boys into hardcore fighters. We developed nerves of steel. Became fearless .we were ready to be deployed .But the release date was being deliberately delayed. 400 plus cadets in house trainees meant a good market for the authority. We bought everything from the training school cooperative store. So the profit of the cooperative store was high. 9 months of physical training got extended into 13 months. Anger and hatred for the training authority was cropping up in the hearts of the trainees. During the holidays I usually go to home and return back the same day. Some would go to watch movies. During one such Sunday we went to see Salman Khan starrer TERE NAAM film. It was a hit film. It was being released in almost all the cinema halls in Guwahati. The cinema hall campus was packed with people. The ticket counters had become invisible due to ticket seekers. One was jumping over the other to push his hand through the big hole of the counter window. We pushed Lakhi forward to get the tickets. We were also trying other options as Lakhi would have managed only 3 or 4 tickets. The black rates were very high. As we were negotiating we heard loud shouts. We turned and saw that Lakhi had picked up a fight with the locals. There were other groups from our training school as well. They too got involved in the fight. One of the locals hit very hard one of our trainee in the head with a rod. Seeing this our boys pounced on the locals and beat them black and blue. Soon the police arrived and the crowd dispersed. We too left the hall as we couldn't manage to get the tickets. Some of our fellows managed to get the tickets and watched the movie. Later the locals regrouped during the movie. They identified one or two trainees and attacked them inside the hall. The locals were in huge numbers. Some how police intervened and our trainees managed to leave the hall. Some of our trainees were severely injured . I reached training center during night counting time. During night counting time i found the training campus very tense. The boys had a plan. There were news that the locals that participated in hitting our trainees are seen in the saat mile market. Saat mile market is about 600 meters from our training campus. Their plan was dangerous. They were planning to ransack the market place and to destroy the shops. I thought nobody from this training school has till date gathered courage to attack any public place. I therefore ignored their discussion and proceeded to my barrack. Ridip dutta my room mate had thrown a wine party in the barrack as his birthday was on the following day. His girlfriend didn't gave him permission to swallow wine on his birthday, so he threw his birthday party one day earlier. Fried pork , chilly chicken and some full bottles of Mc Dowell's whiskey were the items. Jitendra emptied the full bottles in his empty water filter. He was our barrack's peg maker. The party started and every one was enjoying it. Suddenly Debu appeared and said that the boys are marching to sat mile market. And that he was also going to join them. He was already drunk. He invited everyone to join him. He was intimidating us . Rakesh jumped from his bed and followed Debu. Both were under the spell of liquor. Actually all were drunk. One by one everybody followed Debu. Ridip and I were the last one to follow the mob. We had to move out due to barrack sentiment. Ridip was very scared as he had supplied liquor to the barrack inmates.There were total 15 barracks. Each barrack accommodate around 50 trainees. About half of the inmates had gone to vandalise sat mile market that night. When we reached halfway we heard the noises of destruction. The trainees had done their job. The training authorities' were trying their level best to bring the boys back to the barracks. But the boys were unstopable. At last police along with CRPF personnel arrived at the scene. They had to fire shots in the air to disperse the mob. The boys finally returned. Counting was again done to see if anyone was missing. All were in. The boys were very much satisfied as they did what they planned. But the consequences were going to be very bad. The next day our training school was flooded with reporters , representatives of human rights organisation, shop owners . They all had a meeting with the training authorities and a deal was struck between the two. The training authority agreed to pay for the damages . The damage inflicted was not much. The situation became normal after the authority paid compensation to the shop keepers. A preliminary enquiry was conducted by the authority and Departmental proceedings were drawn up against those found guilty. Increments of all the 400 trainees were blocked for the next six years. The training authority was to some extent responsible for this debacle. They extended the training for a long period. After one month of this incident all the trainees were posted all over Assam.