The Founder’s Day celebrations in ATTI

It took us another day to get a couple of more ads and, since the payments had been made by checks, we deposited those with our office and got separate checks issued to pay the printers. Simultaneously I had to generate enough reading material to cover 16 pages – for this I requested our teachers and instructors to write some articles and I myself compiled a few interesting aviation news from magazines.
On the appointed day, I was ready with my bunch of souvenirs – it was a novelty for the guests who began to arrive as evening fell. I was worried because Clive House was an old dilapidated building of the17th century and the wooden floorboards on the staircase reverberated as the guests climbed to the first floor.
They were important people attached to the aviation industry in Kolkata and were employed in the Indian Airlines or the Kolkata Airport or the other small airlines – they came because of the influence that our Principal wielded in the close knit community. As usual, there were a couple of speeches and the unveiling of the souvenir. Then followed a break for tea and snacks and the last item on the program was a movie. In between I took some photographs in my box camera using flash bulbs of the guests enjoying the snacks. The movie was an English movie of 1958 titled ‘I accuse’.
In the course of the program, I tried to impress a couple of the guests and exploit the opportunity that presented itself to my advantage but I was no match in front of my Delhi friend. He had a way with people, thanks to his upbringing in a metro like Delhi where even the girls were known to take the initiative. (to be continued …)

I lose a bet on Come September

One day one of my friends in ATTI announced that a new and wonderful movie has come to town – he had seen the trailer and loved what he saw. He wanted me and a couple of other friends to accompany him to watch the movie. I wanted to know which movie and he did not divulge anything – he only made a bet that he would pay for the tickets in advance but whoever accompanies him must repay him twice the amount after seeing it - if he liked it.
The proposition was an attractive one because he did not mention the name of the movie but he did mention the name of the hall and, if I remembered correctly, the Bengali newspaper in its Friday movie review section did not rate it high – in fact, the reviewer did not have many nice words to say about it.
The damaging statement was that the attendance at the opening show left much to be desired and that influenced my decision to accept my friend’s bet. In my mind’s eye, I knew that my friend would lose the bet – hence, I readily agreed. But the quartet of Rock Hudson, Gina Lollobrigida, Bobby Darin and Sandra Dee changed all that. The song ‘multiplication, that’s the name of the game’ was lovely as was the drunk parrot perched on its stand – when touched, it just rolled over with its claws still clutching the stand. And, the theme music of Come September is still one of the best and has been copied in many other movies.
Incidentally, the movie ran to packed houses and became a super hit and whoever had written the review must have had a hard time explaining to his bosses why he chose to derate it. (to be continued …)