The Peepal Tree And Chicken

                                       KANG'S BULLET

One offr from 30 Sqn, a Flt Lt TS Kang had just purchased a gleaming red Bullet motorcycle and brought it himself from MaDras, now Chennai. His stories of travel on a goods train were both amusing and terrifying. He loved his bike so much that he would tune it twice a day, keeping many of them awake till midnight. The icons of old, viz, Irfan Haidari, PPK Naidu, S Bhalla, Yezdi Irani and their ilk, warned him to desist. But, love is indeed a many splendoured thing and Kang decided to take them on. One midnight, the gang got together and silently lifted the Bike to the base of a massive Peepal tree and hoisted it 50-odd feet up, invisible to the ignorant. Kang was put through a grilling time, with Police dogs thrown in, 3^rd degree questioning of the orderlies, et al. There was a slightly dodgy moment when one dog headed for the tree; but only to lift his left hind leg. Good training, what? One week later, the bike was as silently restored, to the paeans of unbridled ecstasy of a chastened owner. Tragically, Kang was killed in a road accident on the same bike in Pune. May he rest in peace.

       The IAC dispersal was opposite the ATC. The hostesses then were very pretty and this led Yezdi Irani, the Operations Adjutant [Flying] to phone in a bomb threat. The intention was to get to know the Hostesses better. Yezdi rushed out to the F-27 as the passengers were now back in their waiting room. Alas, the Stn CDr reached first and ordered him to look after the Pilots! Guess who looked after the Air Hostesses?

       CTO was a Wg CDr Mukhodadhya, who spent his spare time rearing chicken, not for eating though. He once went on two weeks leave, handing over care of the birds to his neighbour, a Flt Lt MS Dalhi. A farewell was in the offing and 4 Sqn was tasked with the Food.  As their policy was ‘Drink before eat’, they forgot to set up the Menu. Chicken was a rare delicacy and when Denzil Uncle realised what had happened, he organised a quiet nocturnal abduction, intending to replace the previous night’s fowl with imported ones. The CTO was livid with rage on return and this was the probable cause of his raising the undercarriage on a MiG-21 during a ground run!  Incidentally, he is the only  Officer of any branch to have ever repeated this feat.

       Accidents do happen and that era was no different except that were no limitations, no irrelevant stuff. His course-mate, Plt Offr Tanwar ejected at 1030 hrs. He was recovered by 1230 hrs and sent up to fly a repeat sortie at 1600 hrs. He then debriefed all of us on his misadventure. His primary lesson was “I will never fly again without my cigarettes.” At all of 5’2”, he thought that getting out of the 8’ Elephant grass was far more terrifying than the ejection. He flew 17 sorties before Air HQ stopped his flying altogether. He moved over to Jorhat, to fly Tpt ac.