Temporary Duty at Bareilly Air Force Station

The bus journey from ISBT to Bareilly was a memorable one. For those not in the know, ISBT was the short firm of Inter State Bus Terminus and it was a massive affair – the time was December 1982 and the route passed through forests and dangerous terrain. There was an armed guard inside the bus and, along the route, there were policemen on horses. It was assuring because the region was notorious for dacoits. Anyway, we reached Bareilly early morning and my colleague took me to his house. Both of us were tired and fell asleep and when we woke up it was quite late. We finished a hurried breakfast – and, here also, there were chapatis with curd and pickles. It was similar to the combination that I had in Delhi – curd and pickles for breakfast even in winter is something that the north Indians relish.

Breakfast over, both of us came to the Air Force mess where I kept my suitcase. Then we went to the office of the Service Engineer. It was a single room assigned to the Service Engineers of HAL Nashik Division and HAL Koraput Division. The engineer of Koraput Division had to give coverage for the engines. He was a Bengali and my colleague introduced me to him and left to finish some unfinished work. And, the two of us spent the rest of the day taking stock of the inventory of various papers, drawings, documents that were being held in the custody of my colleague. However, my colleague did not turn up for the rest of the day. Neither did he come to office next morning. Therefore, in consultation with the Koraput service engineer, we decided to complete the handing-over taking-over formalities. He signed as ‘handed-over’ and I signed as ‘taken-over’. Then I had my lunch and took a cycle rickshaw to Bareilly railway station. I had to now proceed to Tejpur to take over that inventory as well. And, for my journey to Tejpur, I had to first reach Kolkata and from there take a flight to Tejpur. (to be continued ..)


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