A casual visit to the Maidan during the weekend turned out to be quite a novel experience for many Calcuttans, who were pleasantly surprised to find cadets in uniform soaring in the sky with colourful para-sails strapped to their backs. A more spectacular sight awaits them on Monday, when the cadets will fly in microlight aircrafts.

All this is in preparation for the National Cadet Corps (NCC) Day celebrations, scheduled to be held on November 28. If the rigorous training that 600 cadets from West Bengal and Sikkim are undergoing at the Maidan is anything to go by, the finale promises to be extraordinary.

?The celebrations will be held on the Brigade Parade Grounds and will be inaugurated by the chief minister. A cultural show will be held in the evening at the NCC Clubhouse on Park Street,? said Lt Col. S. Banerjee of Group Headquarters Calcutta-B. ?A blood donation camp has been organised on November 24, followed by a full dress rehearsal on November 26. This year?s novelty is the microlight, a two-seater propeller aircraft, which will be flown by some cadets,? he added.

Other activities planned for the NCC Day celebrations, apart from the regular parade, and microlight flying and para-sailing, include lectures on deforestation and environment conservancy. There will be a display of equipment used by the armed forces, and an aero-modelling exhibition featuring both static and dynamic models made and presented by the cadets.

?Aero-modelling involves elements of applied physics and engineering. It?s a fun activity which hones one?s skills,? said flight cadet Abhishek Das, who has also been taking the microlight for a few sorties.

?For a civilian, flying an aircraft is either an unfulfilled dream or an expensive hobby. I come from a middle-class Bengali family in Howrah, and I know that it would have been impossible for me to ever fly an aircraft, had it not been for the NCC. I am not only realising a cherished dream, but also getting a training to join the air force later,? he said.

The training sessions of the cadets have captured the hearts of the city students. A group from Calcutta Girls? School that chanced upon cadets from Darjeeling while they were practising para-sailing could barely suppress their admiration.

?It must be so exciting to fly like a bird. I only wish we could go para-sailing, too,? said Sonia Agarwal, a student of Class XI of the school. When told that the cadets would be flying microlights on Monday, she and her friends said they would try to visit the grounds again.

Several city youths have approached the instructors to find out how they can take part in activities like para-sailing and microlight flying. ?There are two ways. You can either go to a club that has the facilities and spend thousands of rupees for a five-minute sortie. Or you can join the NCC,? said an instructor with a smile.