It is 3 p.m. and the heat is searing; but the 20-year-old Shaheen Rahimi is unruffled as he runs, jumps, crawls and climbs through the obstacle course along with other cadets at the Officers Training Academy (OTA) in Chennai.
“When I came here, I was the youngest of the whole batch. I was just 19. I turned 20 last September,” the lanky young Afghan cadet says with pride.
Part of a large team
Rahimi is one of the foreign cadets currently training at the OTA. He hails from Afghanistan. He has three brothers — two are in the Armed forces and one is a police officer.
“I came here because of the friendship between India and Afghanistan. I came here after passing out directly from college and came via the Ministries of Defence of both the countries,” Mr. Rahimi told The Hindu.
Mr. Rahimi says while they are all called Foreign Gentleman Cadets (FGCs) — currently there are 22 Afghans under training at OTA — “there is no difference in training, academics or anything. We are all taught the same things.”
“I am feeling like I am at home. We feel as if we are in an academy in Afghanistan,” he says.
Mr. Rahimi, who is expected to graduate from the Academy on March 11, says he has learnt a number of skills such as boxing, swimming and horse riding, besides completing a 40-km marathon and a 50-km marathon with a 22-kg combat gear, including the rifle.
Following the passing out parade on March 11, he and the other senior cadets from Afghanistan will head back and complete another three months of training before being inducted into the Afghan army.
When asked what the motivation was for him to join the army, Mr. Rahimi says, “India and Afghanistan have a common enemy. That’s why I want to join the army and serve my country.”
