THE WALKAROUND

The Learning Curve

They had actually joined the NDA one week earlier than its scheduled opening. All cadets he had met were those who had been denied their mid-term vacations as they had failed in their end of term examinations and had stayed back for the period to get extra coaching prior to their re-tests. Failure in these re-tests meant relegation to their junior course and a loss of six months. Hell would break loose when the entire Squadron re-assembled a week later, he was told.

Among those who had been present during that first week were the Cadet Appointees as Supervisors, all from the sixth term. This meant that they saw their Squadron Cadet Captain or SCC and their Squadron Sergeant Major, or CSM. It was these senior cadets’ responsibility to look after the freshers and guide them through their first week. The first item on their agenda was a haircut. They had all trooped to the Saloon where a dozen barbers were waiting. The haircut was fast. The barber had put a beret on their heads and shaved off whatever was visible. After taking the beret off, they used their scissors with gay abandon and reduced the length of their hair to one centimetre.

After a shower, they had to walk around the entire Campus, a trudge of over 25 km, including the Gliderdrome, the Equitation Lines, Khadakwasla Lake, still known to old timers as Lake Fife, and the various establishments along the Perimeter Road of an area that encompassed some 23,000 acres of land. He could never have imagined how vast and complete the NDA was, with the imposing edifice named after the Country that had paid for its cost of construction, the 'Sudan Block'. The other imposing building was the Science Block, with a clock tower visible from anywhere to cadets. Its clock, the ‘Big Ben’ and its chimes was an exact replica of the original as the architect was British. All construction was solid and totally fault-free. No signs of poor or cheap construction that was so prevalent in Civvy Street.

The Library and the Auditorium were replicas of each other, down to the nearest detail, though their insides were different. The theatre was the largest in Asia with a seating capacity of two thousand in relative comfort. All lawns looked like new Billiards Tables, manicured to near perfection. All gardens were beautiful and a sight for sore eyes. The Cadets Mess could seat two thousand people though it was generally limited to one thousand six hundred seats, with the central wooden dance floor, waxed till it reflected even candlelight, cordoned off. The kitchen was huge, automated and spotlessly clean. The swimming pool was of Olympic Standards and the water pellucid. The Gymnasium was again huge and had every facility available; it could house six hundred heads at any time. The playing fields were neatly laid out, all twelve of them and all were of the size of a football field. The Stadium that housed the Cricket pitch was simply superb. It had hosted the West Indian team in 1956 when they played against the Services in a three-day match. The Athletics track was laid around the Cricket ground.  The Polo grounds seemed vast, nestled as they were between the foothills of the leeward side of the Western Ghats of India. The Quartermaster's Fort was just that-a walled Fortress that housed all items of uniform or kits for fifteen hundred Cadets. The layout inside was perfect, as expected. Nothing seemed out of place and the courtyard was huge; after all, it had to house fifteen hundred of them before marching out for the end of term Ceremony called the Passing-out Parade when they bade the 6^th termers goodbye.

The historic Sinhagad Fort dominated the skyline, and the vagaries of Nature had crafted the peaks of the hill next to it to resemble what was then known as Ursula's Tit, so named after a prominent film actress of the current era. Later he would learn the names of the many hills surrounding the Campus, which was in a bowl of some kind and very similar to the famous city of Kandy in Ceylon, now Sri Lanka. They were taken to the NDA Gate as the Portal to the Academy was called. From there, one got his first view of the NDA, which was so pretty and picturesque that it took one's breath away. Small wonder that all visitors to the NDA were impressed beyond words. The layout was so perfectly symmetrical that one couldn't but marvel at the vision of the Architects and Designers of this hallowed institution. Wordsworth could well have written his famous poem from there, so entrancing the view and so salubrious the climate.