They fired rifles and monkeyed across ropes. Then they sang and danced as a packed auditorium resounded with applause. All the while, an over-awed actor mingled with the soldiers, encouraging them to step up and display their hidden talents that few other than their colleagues know about.
Popular actor and TV host Maniesh Paul on Saturday visited the Border Security Force frontier base at Jammu to spend time with the personnel and entertain them.
Nurturing skills
“It has always been a tradition among the BSF to encourage our personnel to pursue their talents. If we find out that a particular jawan or officer has a certain skill set, we do our best to give them every opportunity to nurture it,” a BSF spokesperson told The Hindu .
Mr Paul, who was in Jammu to participate in a Spread The Cheer event organised by Comedy Central, reached the BSF base around 2 p.m. on Friday.
The BSF top brass then took him on a tour of the base, which serves as an administrative as well as training facility for BSF jawans. Mr Paul visited several sections of the base, where personnel undergo rigorous training every day, including physical training, target practice and weapons training as well as combat manoeuvres. Mr Paul tried his hand at some of the exercises.
In one of the exercises, the personnel made their way across a horizontally tied rope using their hands and legs.
Just when everyone thought they couldn't get any better, a jawan marched smartly up to the rope and stood still while his colleagues strapped four self loading rifles (SLRs) around his back, each gun weighing close to five kilograms.
As the instructor issued the order, the soldier made his way up the rope, suspended himself from the horizontal part and made his way across at the same speed, the weight of the four rifles notwithstanding.
As the display of combat readiness wound down, a senior BSF official asked Mr Paul to spot a sniper hidden on the base. After looking everywhere, Mr Paul finally gave up. The smiling officer pointed to the tree under which the actor stood. It still took several seconds to spot the well-camouflaged sniper. “I was later told that the sniper can stay hidden without moving for three to four days at a stretch,” Mr Paul said.
Moving to the auditorium Mr Paul was introduced by Sub Inspector Arnav Ghosh, a veteran of 14 years with the BSF and an experienced compere and singer.
“The life we lead in movies is a fake life, where we play characters. But the people gathered here today are the real heroes,” Mr Paul told the audience.
“I will never forget what you people have done today,” Mr Paul said. “You called me here to perform and instead left me with a huge inferiority complex.”
(The writer was in Jammu at the invitation of Comedy Central)
