Just got back from a trip up north to spend some time with the children and grandchildren.  It was wonderful to be with the family and we really appreciate these moments as we grow older.

Many of us have had one or more embarrassing moment  and I would like to relate one such occasion.  It so happened that Air-India was sponsoring a cricket match at Brabourne Stadium and Chtrappal Singh asked me to inaugurate the event by umpiring the first over.

We had a very important person who had agreed to honor this event - he was none other than the top Indian cricketer at that time - Sunil Gavaskar.  I was introduced to him by Chtrappal before the start of the match.

He (Sunil Gavaskar) helped me into an Umpire’s Coat.  Chtrappal took me aside and said that here were 6 pebbles in the right hand pocket.  After each ball is bowled, I should transfer one pebble to the left hand pocket so that once 6 balls were bowled, I would not have any pebbles left in the right hand pocket and should signal the end of the over.

As fate would have it, I missed transferring one of the pebbles and so the bowler ended up bowling 7 balls.  Once the over was finished, I handed over the Umpire’s Coat to the real Umpire who whispered to me that I had allowed 7 balls to be bowled.  You cannot how embarrassed I felt as I had committed this blunder in the presence of India’s best batsman.

During my career with AI, I had the honor of inaugurating some offices.  The first was the Aeroflot office in Churchgate on February 9, 1978 and the occasion coincided with a hockey match between Indi and Pakistan being played at Brabourne Stadium.  My younger son, Sarat had come to my office after his school and tennis lessons and I took him with me.  After the match, we went across the street to inaugurate the Aeroflot office.  I was given a pair of ceremonial sterling silver scissors (with my name, date and the occasion inscribed) to cut the ribbon after which refreshments were served.

I suddenly heard a young voice saying that the drink he was having was “very nice” and to my horror, I realized that Sarat, at age 9, was drinking Russian Champagne.  I quickly took the glass away from him and whispered that he was not to tell his mother otherwise I was in for a stern talk.

During the course of the next two years, I inaugurated four other offices: three of which were - Air Mauritius in Bombay, Trade Wings in Goa and the new office of Mercury Travels in Bombay and I have in my  possession a total of 4 ceremonial sterling silver scissors which bring back great memories whenever I look at them. 

The fourth office was our own (AI) in Jullundur and I flew to Delhi and then took an overnight train to that city accompanied by Randhir Singh, our Manager, North India and Jimmy Martin, our P.R. Manager.   Apart from the snoring competition between my companions, the trip was uneventful.  What was of great joy to me was the occasion.  Instead of a ceremonial pair of scissors, I lit the traditional brass lamp and we had a good lunch which was preceded by some speeches.  I have in one of my albums, photographs of the lamp lighting and one of all the staff who were there.

This occasion came to my mind more than 3 decades later when Manju and I were traveling from JFK to Delhi.  The Airport Manager met us at check-in and having met him for the first time, asked for his background and was very pleasantly surprised that during the course of his career, he had been Sales Manager in Jullundur.  I mentioned that I had inaugurated this office and was absolutely delighted to hear him respond “the photograph of the occasion still hangs in the office”.  It made me proud and yet, saddened that I was a part of that airline which we built together and which does not exist any longer.  

Every time I think back and write these Blogs, I get very sentimental and have very mixed feelings; some happy but mostly sad and despondent.

Sometime ago, I had written about the airline’s interest in developing sports.  I missed mentioning our contributions to two other sports.  The first was golf.  This sport was only played by a very limited number of Indian athletes and we had very few professional golfers of international stature and fame.  The Indian Golf Union tried very hard to develop interest in this sport and invited the Asian Tour to hold one of its events  in India.  I received a request from the IGU to reschedule one of our KUL-BOM flights to stop in Calcutta which had been selected as the venue of the event.

We rescheduled the flight.  The next year, the event was shifted to Delhi and we once again rescheduled our flight to bring golfers to this event.  I am not aware if we continued to reschedule our flights to assist the IGU in its endeavors, after I left AI.  However, I am happy to note here that the Indian Open is now a regular event in the Asian Tour.

If I may take the liberty of boasting a little, I come from a golfing family and Billoo Sethi, my first cousin was the first amateur to win the Indian Open.  A nephew has won the Indian Junior Championship.  Billoo's photograph hangs on the wall as you enter the Delhi Golf Club.

The other sport was a minor one but of importance to the Indian Navy.  I received a request from the Naval Department to transport its team and equipment to Japan for a tournament and we were very happy to assist.  A short while after the event, I received a call from Vice Admiral Rusi Gandhi, C-in-C of the Western Fleet inviting Manju and me to dinner at Lion Gate.  We were delighted to attend and he made it a point to inform the gathering of Air-India’s assistance in their hour of need. 

Rusi Gandhi became a good friend and invited me to a Fleet Exercise.  He also extended an invitation to Mr. JRD Tata and we had a very interested full day on board the aircraft carrier, the INS Vikrant.