Sainik School Terms (A to M)

Back roll: A relatively easy form of punishment, mostly asked to perform on grass beds and on particularly bad days, on concrete floors, where a person has to roll on his back. An easy way is to lie on your back and then gradually lift your legs, until the only portion touching the ground will be the head, before rolling.

Bhaiti: Its literal meaning is ‘younger brother’ in Assamese. The word defines an idea where a senior forms a ‘bhaiti’ from amongst the juniors and apart from chit chats and conversations, often endows the ‘bhaiti’ with generosities like, rights to visit ‘out of bound’ canteens and shielding from punishments.

Bhokla: The khaki shorts that we are issued as part of our uniforms. Perhaps the term comes from the enourmous size of those shorts.

Big Tarzan: The highlight of the obstacles course. Two planks of wood separated by a long rope, each standing on abnormal heights and the aim is to reach the other plank swinging on the rope. After overcoming the fear of heights, the second challenge is when you almost touch the ground while swinging, only to fly upwards towards the other plank. Many drop to the ground, and several of those who reach the other plank, still end up hurting themselves in the groin. Many of us use the term ‘Omlette’ for such injuries.

Crawling: One of the few forms of punishment, which actually helped us in survival. Crawling often entailed that we lie on the ground on our belly and move forward using the elbow. A great way of moving without being detected, most of us have used this technique while on our way from PWD and WESTERN canteens.

Cream roll: When front rolls and back rolls, go out of vogue, some tormentors came up with the idea of a cream roll. While its unthinkably difficult to reach from one point to another performing either front or back roll, cream roll makes it worse. Here one has to do two front rolls, followed by a single back roll and the cycle continues.

Chair position: a form of punishment, where a person is asked to sit on the air, as if he was sitting on a chair. This form can have accessories like, having to draw your hands parallel to the ground and some weights being placed on the hands. It hurts the thighs. Also see ‘Maharaja Position’ below.

Frog jump: A relatively easy form of punishment, where a person jumps like a frog. The real pain comes after a few happy jumps when the thigh starts hurting. People often have difficulty walking temporarily for the next 2-3 hours or even less.

Gandhi position: Perhaps the most ‘un interesting’ and least innovative amongst all forms of punishment in Sainik School. It mostly happens during the initial introductory sessions, when juniors are shifted to their respective senior houses once they are promoted to IXth (in some cases VIIIth) standards. Here one has to climb and stand atop the green steel cupboards and stand like ‘Mahatma Gandhi’ leaning on his walking stick. The only pain from this exercise is the extreme sense of boredom.

Hair cut: A good way of avoiding the ‘dreadfully sleepy’ prep classes in the afternoon. The khaki clad, cycling barber would often be bribed to spare them of his rusting scissors.

Hanuman Chal: A personal favourite of Mr. P.K. Jena. It’s a from of exercise, where a person runs like a mad man throwing both his hands upwards alternately towards the head without bending the elbow, complimented with similar movement of the feet, with minimal bending on the knees. I am not too certain if the mythological Hanuman actually ran like this.

Jungle side: Each House enclosed a quadrangle at the centre. So each rooms would have a line of windows facing the quadrangle. The other set of windows would facing the outside, is called the termed as the jungle side. Its so, as most of these windows would open up to uninhabited land, full of trees and shrubs.

Mess duty: It’s a once in a life time kind of opportunity in Sainik School, where a student (or two) do not have to attend classes, and gets to spend the entire day in the mess. Though the primary aim was to check the quality of food being cooked, it was mostly a day to eat for the resourceful students, esp. if non-vegetarian food was on the menu! Don’t know if it still exists.

Maharaja position: A stylish form of punishment (look chair position above), where a person sits on the air, with one of his legs folded (lifted) on another. A practically unattainable form of punishment, when one hears the posture. But as the motto goes. ‘Everything is Possible’.