Interaction with Russian interpreters

There were Russian specialists in practically all the departments and, whilst there was one specifically meant to advise the General Manager, there were others in the design department, in the workshops, even in the planning departments. The gentleman in the planning department would come every morning with his worksheet to check and record how much work had been completed till then and submit the report to his higher ups.
Along with the Russian specialists were their interpreters – some of them were Russians and some of them were Indians. Moreover, before the actual work began on manufacturing the MiG fighter aircraft, groups of employees who had a diploma in engineering had been given training in Russian language. Most of them were attached to the design department and the planning department where documents would be coming regularly from Russia about updates. These would require to be translated on priority and passed on to the user departments for implementation.
Obviously, there was a fad to learn the language.
Here I must make a mention of one Russian interpreter. She was from one of the earliest batches of Russians who had come to Nashik and, as luck would have it, she fell in love with an Indian boy. It became a scandal of sorts. Then there was another interpreter – she was a Punjabi and had many admirers.
To cater to the Russians, there was a shop in the township dedicated to products that Russians loved – and, there was a Russian Mess where the cooks were trained to cook meals for Russians, the way they love them in their own country. In the initial stages, Russians were not permitted to have their families with them and they relied on the Russian Mess for their meals. Later, the restriction was removed but the mess remained because many of the Russians were bachelors while many of them preferred to live without their families.
For marketing, there would be buses on Sundays and the Russians would go to Deolali. They would roam the streets peering into the shops, do their marketing and return back in the evening. (to be continued …)

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