Although Ramesh was deeply humiliated by his punishment, he was slightly relieved that his squad had marched ahead to the other end of the parade ground while he was being instructed by Guruswamy, so they had not witnessed his humiliation. He was faintly aware of another squad marching by, but since the squads did not get to mix much, it was not so painful for him that they had seen his chastising.
Although the soldiers in various squads did not mix much, over time they did get to learn about the very different standards that various NCOs applied. All the NCOs were fairly conscientious, and all of them wanted to truly prepare their soldiers for battle. But some of them, like Guruswamy and Jayachandra believed that this duty involved terrifying and torturing their charges. Others were far softer. Mahnidra Bose, the senior NCO in the third squad, for instance, usually punished those of his recruits who screwed up by making them do extra calisthenics. Although he carried around his swagger stick, he rarely used it on the arses of his charges. His junior NCO was far more inclined to beat the boys, but while Bose would never dream of undermining his authority by stopping him from beating the recruits, the junior NCO soon got the message that Bose did not fully approve of such action and wanting a good evaluation from his superior, he restrained his inclinations. Recruits like Venugopal and Devaya would sometimes bitterly wonder why fate had placed them in a squad instructed by two sadists like Guruswamy and Jayachandra. But while theoretically heartily applauding Bose's humanity, the hairy perv at the fence in practice could only pray for more red-blooded sadists like Guruswamy and Jayachandra.
At this point, the whistle blew for the second break. The second break was the last break before lunch. And after lunch, there was a three hour break period, before rifle cleaning and play activities in the evening. The recruits who had been told the schedule were relieved. Just one more period of drill. While they were relaxing, smoking, and drinking water, Guruswamy let himself into his office. Carefully locking the door and putting down the blinds, he lowered himself into his comfy armchair. Then, he unbuttoned his trousers. His large, rather thick _c_o_c_k_ was tenting up in his undershorts. He leaned back luxuriously in the armchair, closed his eyes and began to visualize Ramesh, trembling with fear, with his large moist black eyes, and the feel of that soft black hand, straining against his control as the swagger stick came down. And the crack of the stick. Oh! With a great gush, cum splattered all over Guruswamy's hairy hand and reached as far as his hairy navel. Sighing with contentment, he began mopping it up with a rag he kept handy, at one point, with some relish licking a big yellow gob. Then, the whistle blew. It was time for the last drill period.
For the last period of drill, Guruswamy and Jayachandra had the recruits fall out in twos and perform in front of the squad. The few recruits who had performed to the NCOs satisfaction were allowed to form one line. The recruits who messed up were made to kneel in the sun and wait for instruction.
Devaya and Menezes were one of the pairs of recruits. Devaya, who was very intelligent, and who was now scared of the NCOs, performed excellently. "Ooloo," said Jayachandra gruffly to Menezes, "See how well Devaya is performing. You should learn from him." Devaya flushed with pleasure. After his humiliation at calisthenics, this was music to the golden-skinned Coorgi recruit's ears. But as we will see, the approval of the NCOs was going to be a double edged sword: on the one hand, it would earn Devaya a promotion. He would be the recruit in charge of his squad. This would mean extra pay. But it would also mean that if anything went wrong with the squad, it would be Devaya who would dearly pay at the hands of the NCOs.
Venugopal and another Tamilian Mahesh, whom he didn't know well yet, were a pair. They began marking time. Guruswamy stood behind Venugopal, and as the recruit's soft black legs rose and fell, the NCO covertly admired the welts that were visible on the soldier's soft black thighs. There was nothing wrong with Venugopal's performance, but Guruswamy could not resist pretending that his leg needed adjusting. He reached out and with his nail dug into one of the welts while pretending to adjust Venugopal's leg. The boy bit his lip to prevent gasping with pain. Mahesh did not raise his legs high enough, so he was made to kneel with the problem recruits, but Venugopal was greatly relieved to be among the small group of soldiers who performed well. But there was a nasty surprise awaiting them.
After all the groups of two had performed, Jayachandra declared that the soldiers who knew their drill would be teamed up with another soldier. In three days time, the soldiers would be tested in twos again. The soldier who knew his drill needed to teach his partner. If the partner screwed up, both of them would share punishment. At first, Venugopal thought he would be teamed with Mahesh. This would not be a problem since Mahesh seemed intelligent (and although Venugopal would not admit it to himself pretty as well), but the teams were based on the soldiers' place on the roster, and Venugopal ended up with the ugly screw up Menezes as his partner. Poor Venugopal; lucky perv! It's going to be a long, hot (in every sense of the word) summer for squad 1 of the Pioneer Training Regiment.