Trip to HAL Lucknow becomes a regular affair

My first trip to Lucknow was one of familiarizing myself with a new territory and gaining the confidence of others at not just the working level but, also at senior levels. Trust and confidence can play vital roles in any arrangement and, for this, I will always be grateful to my new boss who made me feel important.
I remember his telephone calls that would come to me by exception and, invariably, the purpose of those calls would be to test out my efficiency.

For example – one morning he rang up and gave me the part number of an item. It seems IAF wanted the item badly and they rang up to him and he, in turn, asked me to get the information about its availability. Well – immediately, I set my wheels in motion. I rang up here and there and, within half an hour, I had gathered enough information. I was like Hanuman with the Mount Rishabha, a mountain in which was hidden the herb that would cure Lakshman-ji.
My boss was satisfied and, after testing out my abilities through some more similar cases, he came to rely on my information system. That was a huge boost to my confidence.
Anyway, after my first visit to Lucknow, it became a regular feature once every three months because such interdependency between divisions of HAL was a new concept and there were innumerable hurdles to be sorted out. Therefore, a close follow-up was necessary to smoothen out the bumps.
Therefore, I would book a berth in the Kushinagar Express that originated in Mumbai and went on to Kushinagar, a district in north Uttar Pradesh. Lucknow was on its route and, hence, it was a convenient mode of transport for me. But, the timing was terrible – its arrival time at Nashik Road station was 2.30am and it reached Lucknow at 4am. (to be continued …)

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