Visit by Major Karthik

It’s not quite often that an Army officer visits my company, let alone addressing my team. My team’s VP had arranged for a session with one of his friends from the Army, Major Karthik on Tuesday (10th February). The entire team had gathered on our working floor to listen to him. After the initial introduction by my VP, Major Karthik started with his speech/ talk.

He started off by introducing himself. I thought for an Army officer, he had a very milder voice. He recounted on how he chose the path less travelled (joining the Army through NDA) and how he’s proud to say that it has made all the difference. His was a very interesting speech filled with lot of ‘Straight from the Heart’ comments and observations, interspersed with witty comments and Anecdotes. Sample – He said, ‘The Man in love can do anything’, after a very short pause he added ‘Because the woman in love can ask for anything’.

He also described about the various development activities that his unit was carrying out in the border areas. He was very happy that in a state such as J&K that has been ravaged by insurgency and terrorism people actually started using democratic means such voting and public rallies to express their opinions. To a question about how the gap in officers level in the Services can be bridged, he replied that the Services should have tie-ups with corporates to absorb the servicemen who complete their short service commission and decide to move on to civilian jobs. He said that if these ex-servicemen find it very difficult to find a mainstream job, then it will discourage other youngsters in choosing short service commission as a career option.

Overall his speech was very informative and interesting and I think he was a very Ambassador for the Army. The only thing that could have been better was if he had turned up in his Army uniform rather than a civilian outfit. But I guess, there is a Army Protocol on when and where the Servicemen can turn up in their uniforms, so can’t complain a lot about this fact.