by Shikhar Parjan (Author)
Middle class India, 1989:
George H W Bush was the newly elected President of the US, the Berlin Wall was still standing along with the Soviet Union, and India was still in the pre-liberalization 'License Raj' era, where an 800 cc Maruti Suzuki was considered a symbol of having arrived, and the nation's gold stockpile was on the verge of being mortgaged.
In that milieu, career choices for middle class boys like myself were engineering, medicine, accounting, and for those who 'couldn't get anywhere else' (per my snooty neighborhood uncle, - Armed Forces.
Yet getting into India's tri-services Academy was no joke. 50,000 Senior year (12th grade) students took the written exam that's conducted and announced by the Central Govt. After Services Selection Boards chose 6 out of 34 applicants, medical tests took out another few, a group of about 250 'cadets' were invited to join, New Years Eve 1990.
India was soon to undergo transformation, and so were we. For the next 3 years in the heat of Pune, and another year in Dehradun, we were relentlessly subjected to situations, where quick thinking was essential, survival dependent on your composure under pressure, and most importantly, retaining a sense of humor and composure.
Many years later, as the tides of destiny swept me away from the Armed Forces, into civilian world, in India, and then in the United States, in the famed Silicon Valley, I have dived deep, long and hard into the muscle and brain memory of those days, and been able to work my way through situations, personalities and problems.
While the career options for high-schoolers have multiplied, the burdens life puts on those shoulders have also grown more complex, yet needing the same attributes of leadership, courage and self-deprecation, that worked for my lot all those years back.
Number of Pages: 120
Dimensions: 0.28 x 9 x 6 IN
Publication Date: December 14, 2025
