The military has a strong tradition of song and dance and entertainment and there are always talented singers and musicians to be found among the men and women in uniform. We see this in the many regimental bands of each of the three branches of the military, viz. the army, air force and navy. And they all start early, as can be seen in this video featuring cadets of the NDA (National Defence Academy). Watch the video as these vigorous, tuneful voices belt out a beautiful Bollywood medley.
The youngsters can be seen enthusiastically singing to the accompaniment of guitar and some sort of percussion instruments. They clearly seem to be enjoying themselves; which is what is even lovelier to see.
The tweeple, including many military veterans, enjoyed the video and felt nostalgic about their own times when they would have participated in similar events and ensembles.
Traditionally military personnel will always have their own sources of entertainment at parties, unit events, bada khanas and so on. Perhaps this evolved because of the strong sense of community in army cantonments, air force stations and so on. These are close knit communities that were often located in remote areas and per force had to create their own entertainment.
These traditions still continue even in today’s times of 24x7 entertainment on demand. Not only veterans, but other tweeple also loved the video, which now has over 4 lakh views – clearly, everyone enjoyed watching the high spirits and talent of the cadets.
As I always say, the fauji lifestyle permits people to continue to enjoy the sort of stuff we did in college even later in life. Where else would we find officers putting up a funny play gently ribbing their seniors, professional soldiers performing folk dances, spouses of personnel singing and dancing, older women doing a fashion show? For any event, there will be different personnel put in charge of the venue, catering, the official part, décor and of course, entertainment!
The National Defence Academy is where cadets receive training for all the three defence service branches. It is tough to get in and even tougher to stay the course of this exacting, challenging and difficult path to becoming an Indian military officer. Some of the top leaders of the forces today count the NDA as their alma mater.
The young men are good singers and musicians as the tweeple pointed out. This is a rousing enjoyable video not just because young men in training are performing – it is objectively a great rendition!
I was a student of Fergusson College in Pune, so I am long familiar with this talent of the NDA cadets. They always stood out back in those days of Insynch, our college festival – not just because of their excellent manners, uniforms and regulation haircuts, but also because of their very competent performances. They routinely picked up some of the top prizes at the time – talents and abilities that have not diminished with time, as this fauji wife is delighted to see. This video of NDA cadets singing is just one of the many reasons we are so proud of our men and women in uniform.
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