My initial bachelor days in Air-India were quite hand to mouth.  I started at a monthly salary of Rs. 250 plus a Dearness Allowance of Rs. 108, totaling Rs. 358.  After my first month in the Tariffs Division, I received a Specialization amount of Rs. 75 which gave me a total of Rs. 433 per month.  From 1957 till early 1960, I stayed with a cousin of mine and life was quite comfortable, even though money was tight.

My cousin was transferred to Delhi in 1960 and after moving around, I finally entered the bachelor apartment on A Road in Churchgate.  It was a 2 bedroom apartment and my roommates were Harish Malik, B.L. Nichani (a Flight Purser) and Rajani who worked in the MES. It was a carefree existence even though I was broke by the end of the third week of each month.

My one savior was Pesi Guard who was the Station Accountant.  Pesi came to my rescue whenever I was truly desperate.  He would give me my salary a couple of days before the due date.

Until December 1964 when I got married, I was able to spend freely and indulge on whatever my mind and heart wanted.  I traveled quite a bit on business, attending IATA and airline meetings and was able to purchase clothing and personal articles abroad.  The problem was that my per diem barely covered my expenses overseas.  A daily allowance of UK Pounds 5 or US Dollars 15 did not go very far.  So, I used up all my Indian Rupees which I could “smuggle out”.

My immediate boss, Derek Menezes who was Deputy Tariffs Manager and I spent quite a few evenings together.  He introduced me to an “Aunty” who maintained a beer parlor at Cooperage.  In turn, I took him to one of the Indian Navy ships whenever one of my naval friends was in town.  Both Derek and I were smokers and I was surprised when one morning, he came to my desk and dropped his cigarette pack on it saying that he had decided to quit.  I told him that I would not be following suit.

However, once I was engaged to be married, I took stock of my finances.  In future, I would now have another person(s) dependent upon me and the first item of expenditure that took a beating was smoking.  I had smoked since the age of 19 while in college and continued when I joined Air-India.  I used to smoke Pall Malls, an American cigarette and as much as two and a half packs a day.

This was one item that I needed to delete from my budget and so, I went “cold turkey” one day.  I carried a packet in my shirt front pocket and dared myself to light up.  Fortunately, my will power held and I quit smoking as from that date.

Let me digress and go back to the days when I stayed with my cousin on Altamount Road.  One weekend, the bell rang and I opened the front door to find a well dressed young man who asked for my cousin by name .  I seated him in the living room and asked for his name.  Balraj was his answer and I told my cousin that a gentleman named Balraj had come to visit him.  I left them and soon heard voices and laughter emanating from the living room.  After the gentleman left, I asked my cousin who he was since his face looked quite familiar.  My cousin smiled and asked “So, you did not recognize him.  He is Sunil Dutt, the film actor”.  I said “But he said his name was Balraj” to which my cousin replied “Yes, that is true, but his screen name is Sunil Dutt”.

It was many years later, almost 20 years to the day, when I next met Sunil Dutt and reminded him of his visit to my cousin’s house.  He remembered since they had been good friends.  More on this later.

During my carefree bachelor days, one of my college friends came to visit.  He had always wanted to act in Indian films and hence, came to Bombay to try his luck.  He had some valuable contacts and on a weekend, he asked me to accompany him to Juhu where we met  someone who took us to the house of Goldie Anand, the younger brother of Dev Anand.  Goldie was the Director of Dev Anand’s films.  I did meet Goldie and through him, met someone who would become one of my closest friends in years to come - Yash Johar.  

Yash was an asst. cameraman in those days and later went on to produce his own films.  Unfortunately for him, he had little success in his venture and he dropped out of the film business and decided to export Indian handicrafts where he had better success.  Then one day, out of the blue, he came to our home and said - “Inder, I have decided to get back into the film business”.  However, he was unsure of what to do with his thriving export business and wanted my advice.

I told Yash Johar that Manju, my wife, was getting bored as a part time teacher and perhaps, she may be interested in helping him out.  Yash and Manju talked and soon thereafter, she managed his office at Mahalaxmi working half a day while the children were at school.  Yash once again went into the film industry and this time, he hit the jackpot.

My younger son, Sarat, always wanted to see Amitabh Bachhan’s movies and Yash used to arrange a private showing for Sarat and his friends on his birthdays with cakes, pastries and soft drinks.  

Yash’s movies were now a great success and his son, Karan whom we had seen growing up as a small child became a very famous Director of Yash’s films.  

Manju’s association with Yash Johar’s export Company came to an end when I decided to leave Air-India and move to the USA.  However, our friendship continued and I will never forget when at a farewell dinner, Yash broke down and cried.  He said that he had lost his brother, which was the term he always used when he addressed me.

Through my association with Yash Johar, we met many interesting film personalities and I would like to relate one incident which occurred in London when we all happened to be in that city at the same time.  Yash Johar was accompanied by film star Sadhana and I invited them for lunch where Raj Vaide, our Sales Manager - UK was also present.  Raj had obviously had a couple of drinks and could not stop looking at Sadhana and he suddenly blurted out “Madam, you are delicious”.  To her great credit, Sadhana smiled and bowed her head and Raj, realizing what he had done, apologized very sincerely.  Both Yash and I never let him forget this incident, of which we reminded him every time an occasion arose. I have never seen Raj Vaide so embarrassed.  

Yash Johar and I maintained contact even while we were separated by thousands of miles.  On one occasion, when I was working with Air Mauritius, Yash called me from Singapore and said that he was planning to go to Mauritius and needed help getting accommodation and airline seats as he planned to shoot a film there.  I arranged everything and the movie that he produced was Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, which was a great success.

The next time when Yash asked for my advice was when he planned his production of Kal Ho Na Ho.  A portion of the movie was shot in New York and we discussed some locations.  It was during this visit that he discovered that the soreness in his throat which had been bothering him for some time, was actually cancer of the esophagus.  Manju and I visited him and Hiroo in Bombay just before he passed away.  He was in great spirits even though all of us knew that this would be the last time that we would be together.

I lost a great and truly genuine friend.  May God bless his soul.

In early February 1980, I accompanied Mr. J.C. Malani to a meeting with BOAC in London prior to our intended transatlantic operations.  At this meeting, it was decided that I should visit New York to file our Tariffs with the U.S. Civil Aeronautics Board.  I left for NYC late February and returned after 6 weeks.  The task which should have taken about 3 to 4 weeks was delayed as the Company which did the actual filing was headed by a gentleman who was constantly inebriated and did not attend office every day.  

We met the deadline for filing after he finally “woke up” and enlisted the support of three other individuals.  One of these was John Champion of PanAm who later became VP-Government Affairs of the airline and a very good friend.  

Later that year, I went back to NYC and we made a fresh filing using the services of BOAC where I met and became good friends with David Schneider, who worked in their Tariffs Branch in NYC.  David’s name will come up again in another anecdote when I was working with Kuwait Airways.

In addition to the above three trips, I traveled overseas on four occasions on AI business in the year 1960, including the Fares & Rates Conference held in Cannes, which I have written about earlier.

In 1981, I went overseas only once and that was to attend the IATA Prorate Meeting at the Hague.  I accompanied Mr. F.A. Nentin, Senior Accounts Officer who had the annoying habit of calling me “Laddie”.  While I was waiting at Bombay airport to board our flight to London, I was approached by Stan Pinto, who was then our Manager, Bombay.  Mr. Pinto said that he had arranged for me to sit next to Mr. Jimmy Nagarvala who was the Inspector General of Police and was also traveling on the same flight.  He handed me a bunch of Indian currency notes and asked that I use these funds to purchase any liquor that Mr. Nagarvala would like to drink.

I happily agreed and made acquaintance with Jimmy soon after we were seated and offered him a drink which he accepted.  We spent a memorable time until the aircraft reached Beirut at which time, I was advised by the AI ground staff that they were offloading Mr. Nentin and me due to overbooking of the flight.  I said goodbye to Jimmy Nagarvala and disembarked at Beirut.  Mr. Nentin and I were rebooked to Amsterdam on KLM the next day and we spent a night in Beirut as AI guests.

1992 was an year when I undertook more trips on AI business and I will comment on them in my next Post.