I noticed that one of the jawans in the front row though appearing to look straight forward through the corner of his eye was curiously looking at me. From one of the NCO's body language, I realized that he too had become aware of me gawping at the recruits' punishment and was uncomfortable. A whistle blew and the jawans were on break, allowed to smoke and drink water. They congregated some distance away under a tree, and I moved as far away from them as possible. The last thing I wanted to do was to draw attention to myself and be expelled from perverse paradise.
While I was sitting there, a young jawan passed by. He went forward and then came back. Touching his cap, he said, "Kiskay milay, sahib," meaning, "Whom to do you want to see, sir?" Unfortunately, he was not a very _s_e_x_y jawan, but I was turned on by the use of "milay." In Hindi there are three forms of address - - the pronoun "thoo" is directed at inferiors, "thum" is directed at equals, "aap" is directed at older people and superiors. The construction, "milay" goes with the "aap" pronoun. On the one hand that made me aware of my middle age in relation to the boy. He clearly saw me as someone who could be his daddy or even his slightly virile auntie. On the other hand, it gave me the same rush that I get when my cute my little American dinge bottom Jacko moans, "One, sir," with the emphasis on "sir.'
The whistle blew signalling that drill was resuming. The soldiers reassembled. They were now quite a distance away from me, and I made the mistake of moving closer. The NCOs' treatment of the jawans was noteably different. Everything was being done by the book; no one was being punished, and I got a couple of suspicious looks from the NCOs. But I still could not persuade myself to leave. Then, the NCOs marched the squads even further away from where I was standing and proceeded with their extra pc drilling.
Near where I was standing was a field in which punishment drill was evidently being conducted. Soldiers were being made to fall flat on the ground and roll in the mud, then get up and jog around the field, fall prone again and do push ups, etc. But from the look of them, these were older soldiers who had _f_u_c_k_ed up and were in the brig, rather than jawans in bootcamp. Many of them were quite unattractive, and even though the soldier in charge of them had a swagger stick, he seemed bored by the proceedings and didn't punish them. Not much of a turn on, alas. But do not fear mon lecteur, mon frere semblable, there are kinkier things to come.