Reflections on my experience in NPCC

Last year at approximately the start of February I found out that i got into this Co-Curricular Activity called NPCC, which stands for National Police Cadet Corps. At first I was not very interested to join this Co-Curricular Activity. But as time passed I gradually learnt to love the happenings when I am in NPCC.

Let me describe the changes of my attitude towards NPCC. As a cadet I was not a very enthusiastic one. Just an average cadet who somehow passed everything, although I never did so with flying colours. I treated NPCC as an obstacle, a bug that was irritating me, i hated the fact that i was in NPCC. I tried to slack through trainings and not make an effort to improve myself. But ever since the first uniform check, where our officers inspect our uniform, where I was embarrassed by the fact that i had a lot of mistakes, I decided to make myself interested in being in this CCA and start working hard for it. Since I am already in this, why not make the best out of it. This thought changed my attitude towards NPCC. As I move on, I listened carefully to every pointer the officers gave us, and received tips from my friends and remember them. Also due to the fact that I have seen how we as a NPCC squad can bond together to form such a friendship that may last forever, i have seen how much effort our officers have put it to groom us to become like them someday. So i took them as a target for me to work towards, I too wanted to be admired by my juniors in the future. I hope to be an inspiration for my juniors and my peers and to carry on the tradition of NPCC cadets and fulfil the vision "To Mould the Builders of a Safe and Secure Home" by training hard and become better seniors.
Although having the thought to being able to become an inspiring senior, fatigue has also caused to me want to slack through trainings. Standing almost still for almost 3 hours, it is both boring and tiring. Every Friday training always stuck in between going home to enjoy a good rest or going to training to stand like a log. This contradiction gets into your head, not sure if you have made the right choice to come for training or whether you are able to face the consequences if you skipped training. Of course, some trainings are much fun than you could expect it to be, where you can laugh along with the officers and joke around with your squad mates. These much more fun trainings would be during camp-craft trainings where we learn to tie knots, lashings, learn to light a lamp or learn to pitch a tent. These trainings which we do not have to stand still the whole training but doing much more interesting things. For these trainings preparation of the NPCC uniform is not needed, giving the cadets more time to rest after a whole day of school.
The uniform which has many expectations to meet is one of the most time-consuming. The beret has to be seasoned, the crest has to be in the correct position, the collars have to stand, the iron-lines have to be started and ended at specific points. The badges have to be at every specific points and angles to be correct. Nothing should be wrong, unless you have not been putting in enough effort. Some people may ask, “Hey how hard can that be?” I would reply, you would never have imagined.
Interacting with much more interesting things, for example doing drills with the baton or the mock rifle. Where you feel the pressure to do the drills properly as if the baton or rifle is dropped, punishment awaits you. The pressure we have when doing drills is a rather interesting one, because if you do it well you are well rewarded, if not the consequences would not be an easy one too. Rewards, mostly water breaks which may last about 3 to 4 minutes, where 40+ of us have to share a same tap to drink from, and we are so united that everyone would get to drink. We go through tough times together as buddies and go through good times as pals.
Training may be tough but it is always fun. When training is not fun, it is when we did something wrong. As our officers always say to us “You give me standards I give you welfare”. This to me is a very reasonable statement, to work hard for what you may want. To go through the so called “Torture Chamber” as one and leaving it as one. To share as one to give as one. This are the values NPCC has imbued into me, and I am truly grateful to all my seniors for having put in all their efforts to help my squad progress.