I begin studying theory of flight in Clive House – the house where Lord Clive stayed

Clive House is believed to be the oldest building in Kolkata and was the residence of Lord Clive in the 1750s. However, this was the location of Air Technical Training Institute where I landed up to take my first tentative steps into the world of aviation.
The building in 1961 was falling apart and while the front portion was where our classes were held in the upper floor, the rear portion was occupied by a number of refugee families. The partition walls were such that we could hear the loud voices as the members began to argue.
Anyway, my brief tenure in ATTI was an exciting one because the students had arrive from different corners of the country and we even had a student from Africa – he had come on a government scholarship. Among my classmates were a Kashmiri, a Sardarji, a boy from New Delhi and others from Bihar and Hyderabad apart from some Bengalis from Kolkata and suburbs.
Our theory classes were conducted by teachers who had retired from different branches of civil aviation and one of them, a vey senior gentleman, had worked with our Principal in London during the WWII. He would come in his own car, I think it was a Morris Minor and it was rumored that he drank heavily.
Anyway – it was a new type of experience for me because I had begun to widen my vision by interacting with people from different locations and strata of society. It was all a great learning process for me, learning not just the nitty-gritty of aircraft materials, theory of flight and IC Engines but also about human nature. (to be continued …)