After calisthenics, the brand new recruits were led off to breakfast. Devaya's ass was throbbing (later that evening when he inspected his ass in the privacy of the barracks toilet, he would find two long, angry red welts on his golden ass). Thinking he was not observed, he gingerly touched his behind. One of the other recruits chuckled, "Oh Devaya, you looked so funny when he was twisting your ear, " he whispered. Devaya darted him a furious glance, and he could feel himself blushing with embarassment. He must have looked a fool, and in front of all his friends.
Venugopal noticed Devaya flush, and he felt a certain sympathy for the good looking Coorgi boy. As luck would have it, they were sitting next to each other at the long tables where their idlis and sambhar were served. The benches were crowded, and the soliders had to sit very close together. Devaya was sitting at the end of a bench, and Venugopal was sitting beside him. Venugopal's bare, soft black leg rested gently against Devaya's golden one. Neither boy said anything to the other. But Devaya felt a certain undefined comfort from that gentle contact, and he appreciated Venugopal not teasing him or referring to the incident that morning. The food was good, and the NCOs did not harass the soldiers while they were eating.
After breakfast, the soldiers were taken to a nearby field and given a lecture by Guruswamy and his junior NCO Jayachandra. First, Guruswamy instructed them on the uniform they would wear: for calisthenics and when they were cleaning their rifles, they would wear thick white cotton vests and khaki shorts with their boots and socks. During close order drill, both foot drill and rifle drill, they would wear the uniform they had been wearing that morning. Big baggy blue undershorts, short olive green shorts with belts, khaki shirts, and dark blue berets. Guruswamy demonstrated several times the exact way to put on the belt and beret, and the precise way in which the shirts had to be tucked in. "Every day," he told the recruits, "there will be a dress inspection." It was hot outside, and one of the recruits, Menezes, allowed his attention to wander. His eyes wandered around the parade ground, and he absent mindedly, left the position of stand at ease (what Americans would call stand easy) to scratch his bottom). Jayachandra's eagle eye observed him, and he descended on Menezes and cuffed him savagely on the head and then hit him about four times on the arse. Menezes was one of those recruits who would screw up on a regular basis during training, and fairly efficient soldiers like Venugopal and super efficient soldiers like Devaya came to be glad of such screw ups, because the NCO's attention would be diverted from them onto the hapless screw ups. However, Menezes was a small, rather ugly peasant boy with a perpetual sniffle (he had allergies). So, while Jayachandra and Guruswamy punished him savagely, discipline must be maintained, they did not derive the pleasure from the disciplining that they did when they punished a pretty boy like Devaya or Venugopal.
After the lecture on uniforms, the soldiers began to practice basic drill movements. When Venugopal first enlisted, he had been shown the rudiments of marching, but now his training had really began. The NCOs began by demonstrating how one stood at a position of attention and how one stood when one was "at ease." After Guruswamy had demonstrated a couple of times, he called out the order, and he and Jayachandra went down the ranks critiquing the boys and readjusting their positions. Guruswamy came behind Venugopal. Venugopal felt slightly uneasy as he felt the presence of someone behind him breathing down his neck, but he forced himself to look ahead. Then he felt Guruswamy's hands roughly but efficiently touching his own, adjusting the fingers, touching his elbows, straightening his arms, and then moving on to the boy beside him. When they were practicing standing at attention, Jayachandra kicked Venugopal's boots, motioning him to change the angle at which they were inclined slightly. The kick was forceful but it was not punishment it was instruction.
Then, they began to learn how to march. First, they had to learn how to march in place. Jayachandra now called out the cadence, "Bahai hath (left), dahai hath (right), bahai hath." To show the soldiers exactly how their feet were to be positioned, the NCOs made them hold their feet up, and then went down the ranks adjusting feet. If the boys were not scared, they would have found it funny. The rows of young men with left legs up in the air, trying not to sway, and keep their balance. One young Sikh, Sachdev, allowed his foot to drop. "Keep it up" screamed Guruswamy and kicked him viciously in the shin. Instead of reacting stoically, Sachdev involuntarily rubbed his shin, and hopped up and down once or twice. "Don't move, ooloo (owl), screeched Guruswamy. He caught Sachdev by the collar, shook him from side to side, and then in a leisurely manner with his other hand slapped the frightened boy's face hard. The fair Punjabi boy's face visibly flushed.
Jayachandra and Guruswamy efficiently and not particularly erotically handled the boys legs and thighs, adjusting their feet, manipulating their thighs. The boys were too scared and intent on listening to the NCOs instructions to find this manipulation erotic, and the NCOs were too busy teaching the raw recruits what to do to find the manipulation erotic, but the hairy little voyeur observing their training longed himself to be able to stroke those smooth, delicate black, and golden, and white thighs and ankles, manipulating them gently, having those recruits completely in his control. Just as his thirty-eight year old avatar still fantasizes about being in that much control.