The volcano with an ice cap

THE Central Police Training College (CPTC) at Mount Abu was the training institution for officers selected for the IPS in the 1950s and 1960s. Apart from in-house classes, there were outdoor training courses that were extremely tough.

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There was an overwhelming emphasis on drill, parade, physical exercises and horse riding. The underlying premise was that young IPS officers had to be like Spartan Generals — tough, muscular and strong.

For the trainees, it was an agonising experience. Those found wanting during the drill and the parade were the butt of acidic comments.

Among the outdoor trainers, the most fearsome one was chief drill inspector S Spadigam. He was an officer of the Malabar Special Police who had been promoted and sent to the CPTC. Short, swarthy and well-built with curly hair and blazing eyes, he was a terror in the parade ground and would roar at us whenever any lapse on our part would come to his notice. He had a repertoire of stinging words and would make lavish use of them without discrimination.

While admonishing a trainee for his lacklustre performance in the parade ground, he ‘advised’ him to die and assured him of a good police funeral.

However, despite his rough exterior, he was a well-wisher of young trainee officers and genuinely felt that unless they knew their tradecraft well, they would not be able to command the allegiance of their subordinates. Once, while admonishing some of us, he said IPS officers were the police leaders of tomorrow and they would not be able to lead by example unless they were competent.

The dreaded martinet would change completely outside the parade ground. He would be extremely polite and treat us with utmost civility. During our training days, many of us chafed at the undue stress on drill and parade, but now with the wisdom of hindsight, I feel that stamina and physical fitness are direly needed for police work in the field.

Spadigam believed that tough training should generate in us a lifelong passion for physical fitness, which unfortunately is missing in many police officers. But he was not just a rough-hewn police officer. He was well-read and well-versed in English literature and would quote lines from Thomas Gray’s Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard or Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

Though quite junior in rank in the police hierarchy, he was never sycophantic and would express his views without equivocation during meetings. The trainees and trainers feared as well as respected him for his total commitment to the job.

Generations of IPS officers will never forget this human volcano with an ice cap.