Schedule completion party in AMD Kanpur

As I have mentioned earlier, I was employed in AMD Kanpur during 1963 to 1965 and was engaged in manufacturing the HS 748 transport aircraft. The work force consisted of people from the Indian Air Force plus some civilians like me and all of us were assisted by specialists from the Hawker Siddley Company of Britain. It was a totally new type of work for all of us and construction of the aircraft was a long exercise.
The complete work was confined to four hangars of the Air Force Base namely Hangar numbers 1, 4, 7 and 10. The assembly of fuselage was in one of these hangars and, the first fuselage was completed after nearly one year. Immediately, as per the IAF tradition, a picnic was arranged to celebrate the occasion.
Any picnic in the IAF meant drinks and this was no exception – and the venue was a park on the outskirts of Kanpur known as Allen Forest. Cooking was no problem because the cooks were requisitioned from the canteen. And, for drinks, the responsibility was given to a teetotaler – he happened be a Bengali.
As to transportation, a Queen Mary was requisitioned – it was a huge trolley on wheels and was known as the work horse of the IAF. The complete group of airmen and civilians boarded the Queen Mary and went to the venue. On the outward journey they were sober, on the return journey, some of them were dead drunk. In fact, they had to be located from different corners of the Allen Forest – they were found sprawling in the grass, too drunk to move. (to be continued ..)

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