A Species called Coursemate
Air Force veterans of the 38 NDA/107 PC had a reunion at Hyderabad recently in Feb ’25. Hyderabad was important for them because the Air Force Academy at Dundigal had begun in January 1971 with the 38 NDA along with the direct entry cadets of the 107 Pilots Course as the first entrants to the academy. They visited their Alma mater, AFA proudly attired in formals.
Having known many of the 38 NDA/107 PC officers since our younger days, it was indeed delightful to meet them on the sidelines of their reunion.
Just a month ago, we had a reunion of our Aeronautical Engineers Course, 4 AEC, also in Hyderabad. The venue was incidental without any historical connect with Hyderabad. Unfortunately, we haven’t had the privilege of going through the portals of AFA – the engineers have started coming to AFA only recently.
Reunions have great similarities, high levels of nostalgia being the most common factor. Happy energies during reunions are believed to add a few healthy years to each one’s life.
The term ‘Coursemate’ is specific to the military, the others being ‘classmate’ and ‘batchmate’. The IAS officers have adopted a lot of their culture from the armed forces. However, all those who share classrooms for two years in their academy, call themselves ‘batchmates’. ‘Classmates’ from schools, colleges, universities and Business Schools are common in all walks of life. Coursemates, however, are unique, far more than classmates and batchmates.
We had our ‘Golden Jubilee Reunion’ at IIT Roorkee three years ago. Some
of us, who had missed the Silver Jubilee, were meeting classmates/
batchmates for the first time in 50 years. We had instantly travelled back to
our classrooms and playgrounds to relive those lovely years. Life had dealt
different cards to us, turning out some of the back benchers into reputed
professors and a few top ranked students to initially struggle. Back at Roorkee,
we were happily on the same old benches
without differences. However, barring a few who were in contact through
the fifty years after graduation, there was little common ground with the
others and their spouses.
Therefore, these two recent Air Force course reunions particularly brought home to me the uniqueness of the species called ‘Coursemate’.
The IAS and other services batchmates also meet regularly. Since they have attended classes together, they share fond memories of their younger days. They do run parallel in service, but they are scattered in different states and districts. Rarely would you find officers from the same batch posted together in one department. The same goes for Business School graduates.
In comparison, our young officers from a course are posted many to a squadron or a station together. Senior and junior course officers also come out as thick friends just like the coursemates.
We grow in service together, get married and share bonds with families within a big family called the squadron or unit. We do have operational emergencies unknown to the civilian world, which intensely bind the families together. Those happy times as well as tough times are remembered throughout. Coursemates revel in one another’s success and milestones and they are there in one another’s hardships.
A Coursemate is therefore, a classmate, a colleague and more. We must truly envy our Ex-NDA friends. They are classmates at two impressionable levels in life, one in NDA just out of school and the other at Air Force Academy. Their bonds are further strengthened during fighter, transport, helicopter conversion levels. And they have coursemates across different branches from pilots, navigators to the other ground duties as well. That’s a big, big plus!
As engineers, we had missed the fun of having the other branch officers as our coursemates. Good things do take time to happen. The recent policy of getting AE courses first to AFA for one term has been a blessing for engineers. Now they have coursemates at places of their first posting, facilitating a rollicking start to their innings in the Air Force.
We have long-awaited the establishment of an Air Force Engineering College - an in-house degree course would provide longer duration for military character-building process. Besides that, the coursemate effect would be tremendous, like that for the NDA graduates. Both the Army and the Navy have many institutions awarding engineering degrees in-house. But somehow the Air Force could never get the requisite approvals. The foundation stone for an Air Force Engineering College was once expected to be laid by the Raksha Mantri in Kanpur. However, we couldn't follow up.
Happily, now the policy of getting NDA graduates to come to AFTC for acquiring an engineering degree and join the AE branch has come about. I hope that this policy is sustained. This will surely enhance the coursemate effect and sore up the operational effectiveness.
Long live the Coursemates!
Air Mshl PV Athawale
So so true. Wonderfully written. Brings back a lot of memories. GOD Bless you Pramod.
ReplyDeleteThis has brought back sweet memories of a half century ago. ‘Coursemate’ is not a term that can be simply defined—it is a feeling that can only be experienced. AE officer trainees spending six months at AFA is a good step forward. 😊
ReplyDeleteGreat article Pramod. Yes the word ‘course mate’ is very special and specific used for officers of same course in services as brought out by you
ReplyDeleteThe bondage and feelings for one another are for ever. In our recent reunion it was amazing to see and experience how well all the course mates including the lovely ladies enjoyed the entire stay like one big family. Many of us might have met after so long but time doesn’t deter or distance us. Like vintage wine it only brings us further closer
Thanks for writing such lovely article highlighting the same Pramod
Much more than a classmate or a colleague is what the author underlined to be the definition of a coursemates.Indeed it is very military.He is happy that the Air Force Academy has finally brought under its combined aegis,(latest being the Engineers of the Technical Branch) almost all the training of different branches to build this unique sense of camaraderie that distinguishes a coursemate.In a sense he feels this integration in an important sense would emulate the culture of the NDA wherein this unique species called coursemate was perhaps born, nurtured and developed.Yes and with the women cadets being the latest inclusion we are really standing at the cusp of history of another qualitative dimension.
ReplyDeleteI'd add that it is perhaps the shared physical and mental rigors at an early age for over a couple of years almost every minute of your lives that infuses the strange but mystical bonding which outlasts individual lives literally.Also it is the regimentation typically of the Army in individual regiments with its very deep-set traditions and values,its mythology and history that this feeling of oneness and filial connect bred and brought up in NDA or IMA that it flourishes and consumes your persona.So much so you notice this in conversations of the time spent earlier - a Delta,India or Charlie squadrons peppering almost as second nature.Buggered together is not a vulgar expression anymore but the steel in which their lives were forged.We notice perhaps a little of it in the fighter squadrons and I hear, in the attack helicopter units of today.I'm fortunate to feel it even to this day having been a Parajump Instructor at Paratroopers Training School for over a decade.
Air Force needs to work harder towards genuine integration to instil that enigmatic spirit which makes a Coursemate that the author highlights. More of the unknown together ?
Wonderfully written sir, taking me back to my AFA days. I realised the Staff College, Higher Command Coursemates too form an important bonding. Nicely written
ReplyDeleteExcellent article Sir. Thank you so much for sharing.
ReplyDeleteVery true sir. Coursemate bonds are entirely different than that of classmate and batchmate. Very nicely written.
ReplyDeleteSir,WONDERFULLY WORDED TEXT.Your writing skills are Par Excellence.It has the power to instil an urge to read further as one reads the first sentence and it continues.Such is the brilliance in writing the TOPIC OF COURSEMATES.MAY GOD BESTOW GOOD HEALTH & HAPPINESS TO YOU BOTH.Charan Sparsh. Shri Krishan
ReplyDeleteExcellent article . We all realise how close the course / batch mates are only after our retirement & more so - when we grow older . I have been reading all your articles in AFA magazine . Wish you all the best for your excellent writing skills on service matters in a very simple language .
ReplyDeleteVery well written, as always!!!
ReplyDeleteSir some old memories of our coursemates get to gether were revived after going through your article. Very well written, covering all possible species of coursemates.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing sir.