Landing up at Lucknow railway station at 4am

As I have already mentioned earlier, I had to keep moving out on official duties to different places. When I was I customer services department, I had to go to Indian Air Force bases because they were our customers. Later, when I set up my own department, I had to liaise with sister divisions of HAL. These sister divisions were in Lucknow, Korwa and Hyderabad. They were a part of the accessories complex and were entrusted with the responsibility of supplying new accessories of MiG-27 aircraft and also, servicing and repairing them.
Therefore, since the MiG-27 aircraft would arrive at Nashik for overhaul, we had to remove the accessories and send them to the respective divisions for overhauling and return back to Nashik. Subsequently, these would be fitted on the aircraft during overhaul and handed back to the IAF.
My responsibility was to keep track of dispatch and receipt of these individual units and maintain a continuous follow-up with the respective divisions. And, in order to do this efficiently, I had arranged to develop a computerized system.

For this and other such development activities on computers, I was fortunate to have with me a trainee engineer who happened to be the son of one of my colleagues. The kid was smart and could anticipate my requirements and, accordingly, introduce suitable changes in the system.
Anyway, one morning, I received a phone call from my boss. The time was around 10am – and, when I entered his office, I saw him browsing through a file. He motioned to me to take a seat and, pushing aside the file, looked me in the eye and said – Ghose, you have to make a trip to Lucknow.
When? – I asked him.
Today, he said. Go to the cash section, collect some advance and take the first available train. I want you to get the updated supply status of Lucknow and fax it to me. I also want you to create a man-to-man rapport with your counterparts in Lucknow.
Yes Sir, I said and left.
I went home, told my wife about the sudden development and got a suitcase ready. Then after dinner, I left for the railway station. I did not have any reservation and, therefore, boarded the Punjab Mail. It left at 9pm and reached Jhansi by midnight. Fortunately, there was another train from Jhansi to Lucknow waiting at another platform and I boarded it. By the time I reached Lucknow, it was 4am and I was famished. I took a cycle rickshaw from the station to HAL Guest House and found it in total darkness. Somehow I woke up the guard and walked into a new world. (to be continued …)

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