AFVOA Newsletter 03 of 2020

Section 5 - Memoirs CV 2 No. 03 / 2020 Page 134 of 167 17 Life Was Just A Breeze Maj Gen Jose Manavalan AVSM Genre: Reflections hese are a few reminiscences about my early years in uniform. I do not know where to begin. My journey began at IMA on 20 December 1970, when we faced the world with booming confidence and a smile on our lips. IMA had trained us well, reinforcing our grooming at NDA and teaching us the basic tenets of leadership. I had got the Regiment of my choice – Engineers – and from then on, I didn’t have a care in the world. Luckily for me, I didn’t have any sermons from anyone telling me that I should do well in all my courses and that I must excel! My Dad, who had retired as an ECO from 2/5 GR, told me to be myself. And that’s what I did. My Early Years IMA honed all my skills and gave me complete confidence to face anything. As I grew up in the service, maybe I learnt the right things from the right seniors. With great excitement I arrived at my Regiment in June 1971 after our YO’s course at CME, ready to take on whatever challenges we had to face. While the others sweated it out studying, I had a ball at CME. Musical Evening CME 1971 Rangapara North was a quaint place in Assam, amongst tea gardens. Within a month we moved to Tripura and by December were in the thick of operations in Bangladesh. I got T