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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Wanting a change, I decide to leave Kanpur

I has joined AMD Kanpur as a trainee Supervisor – it was a one-year training after which I did another one year service by which time I lost interest in the work. It was a routine monotonous work and there was practically no scope of innovation. In fact, it was boring stuff.
It was at that time that a deal was signed between India and Russia to undertake manufacture of MiG-21 fighter aircrafts. The time was just after the Chinese aggression and India wanted to arm itself with sophisticated fighter aircrafts.
I wanted a transfer to this newly formed setup but my application was turned down by my boss. He was an officer of the IAF and we had an exchange of hot words. I was young, my blood was hot and, in my opinion, it was the only decision at the time. The result was that I came out of his office and penned my resignation.
Of course, I was not the only one to resign because a couple of others who had joined the training course also opted out – the initial charm had worn off.
Anyway, my course mates arranged a farewell party for me and, I returned back to Kolkata with my eyes set on joining the MiG complex.
I had sent a letter to my father after submitting my resignation and he did not say no, neither did he approve. To him, it was my personal decision and he did not want to influence my decisions – I had to live my life and, in case I made any mistake, I would have to suffer.
Anyway – I could not sit at home and twiddle my thumbs till I got a job in the MiG complex. Therefore, I went to ATTI and requested the Principal to accommodate me till such time my dream was fulfilled. He had a soft corner for me because of my involvement on bringing out souvenirs when I was a student there.
And so, I joined there as a Trainee Instructor – I taught the students different subjects and kept waiting for the opportunity to move out. The MiG complex had three units – one in Nashik to manufacture the complete aircraft, another unit in Hyderabad to manufacture and supply the electronic equipment to Nashik and a third one at Koraput to manufacture and supply the engine.
My target was Nashik. (to be continued …)