Just back from attending the Commandant’s Rehearsal of the Passing out Parade. The same crisp morning air, the sun rising over the Quarter-Guard and the rays flashing through the branches of the trees that line the parade ground, with the Sinhagad fort looming imposingly in the background.
The familiar shouts of ‘Praaaadee..Savdhan, Praaaade Vishram’ that echo all over the ground, the handsome white charger trotting behind the contingents as they are inspected, And the impressive sound of a thousand boots as they stamp in perfect unison on the hard tarmac…music to my ears.
It was yesterday once more all the way.
There are five battalions now and squadrons that go up to Quebec and Romeo. But the champion squadron still leads the parade,with the ‘nishaan toli’; proudly bearing the colours; in the centre while the band plays ‘Hum NDA ke cadet hain’ and of course ‘Saare Jahaan se Accha’.
The commentary in chaste Hindi and impeccable English never fails to delight me and the familiar strains of ‘Auld Lang Syne’ as the cadets step upto the ‘antim path’ and beyond still brings a lump to my throat.
This time I was accompanied by my daughter, to whom I could smugly explain certain parts of the parade which the commentators didn’t. And as one of my students was passing out (hence the invitation),we were craning our necks to spot him in the march past.The crowds of spectators are much larger now (since this was the rehearsal) We were seated next to a row of squirming school children and a harried teacher to whom I gave sympathetic looks and stern ones to her students!
There were also the inevitable compulsive, selfie-crazed morons who blithely disobeyed instructions to switch off their mobiles and clicked away during the march past. But thankfully they were fewer in number.
As the Sukhois roared past overhead, I once again sent up a prayer of thanks for all the memories that this place has given me and a big God Bless to the cadet who invited me, thus giving me another chance to relive so many of them.
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