Designs of the Heart

Learning new things during school days always held a sense of awe and wonder which I believe would continue forever. One such beautiful information, we were taught about ships, the small, the big and the mighty ones. Many thanks to Christopher Columbus and his voyages (that were a part of our curriculum) and also to my dear teacher who in all earnestness gave us the details of Nina, Pinta and Santa Mariya for this. All school going kids love to come home and share the load of fun that they had during the day with others. Not being an exception, I too did the same and lo my parents enthusiastically updated me about India’s aircraft carriers. At that age it was a great experience to let my imaginations soar.  Later as I grew up, I learnt more about it and finally got a chance to go on board the aircraft carrier as an NCC cadet.

Walking into the ship was like a dream come true. Prior to our visit we were given a brief instruction about the ship and all its specialties. Once on board the 860 ft. long ship with  thousand and odd people working in there, knowledge expanded as we were told about the radars, the hull mounted sonar, the guns, the air to air combat missiles, the cannons, the torpedoes et al. The deck was the landing place of the Sea Harriers, the Chetak and Dhruv. The airports we knew had long runways compared to the space we saw on the ship and we marveled at the technique adopted for this.

I still vividly remember the details of the flights that landed on the deck with the help of the tail hook attached to the plane’s tail. The arresting wires stretched across the deck to stop the aircraft travelling at 150 miles per hour in just two seconds. The officers also told us that as soon as the aircrafts landed, they would be chained down on the side of the flight deck. As the deck rocks back and forth, the inactive aircrafts are always tightly secured to keep them from sliding away. Our toy cars rolling across the floor at home were normal but the huge aircrafts sliding away was a piece of new information. There was a peel of laughter among the young hearts as we were walking back knowing that flight deck personnel too faced the risk of a jet engine blowing them overboard. We were dressed up in our best white ironed out uniforms yet when we were lined up, the officers we saluted seemed so spotlessly white and we looked as though we needed a ‘Tide’ cleansing’ while upgrading our knowledge about the colour white.

Now after so many years, the news report about the decommissioning of another aircraft carrier revived the old memories. For the present young hearts 930ft. long INS Vikramaditya is there as a lone soldier guarding the seas and for the future ones by 2030 we will have INS Vishal which will be able to accommodate up to 55 aircrafts using the new electromagnetic aircraft launch system technology. As we bid adieu to the Giant, INS Viraat, after thirty years of service to the Indian Navy, let’s hope that it will soon be converted into a maritime museum or onto an offshore entertainment hub.