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I
t was on the 14th day of March 1966 – a chilly, foggy
morning – that a young man in his early twenties boarded
a Fokker Friendship Indian Airlines hopping flight from
Calcutta to Tezpur. The aircraft landed at Gauhati and its
charted route was Cal – Gau – Tez – Lil – Dib (Mohanbari)
and back to Calcutta via Tezpur.The flights, piloted mostly by
ex-IAF pilots and those formerly with Jamair and Kalinga
Airlines, were invariably on time and without much turbulence!
Giri Sodhi was told in Four Mangoe Lane, Calcutta, by
Mr Gillem Sandys Lumsdaine that he would be received at
Tezpur airport by Mr W. J. Lyness, the Manager of
Majulighur T.E.
There were several people at the terminal at Tezpur and when
all, including the expatriates had left, only two remained – one
of them a short, middle-aged Bengali gentleman and yours
truly. At this juncture,Mihir Chaudhary (father to Bidhan and
Neela) hesitantly walked up to me and enquired if I could
possibly be G.S. Sodhi, the Assistant Manager designate of
Majulighur T. E. My nod invited a most disapproving look,
probably because the wait at the terminal had been
considerably long! I then asked whether he, by any chance,
happened to be Mr W. J. Lyness to which his reply was a short
and curt, “No such luck! I am just his Pilot Assistant.”
The immediate ‘fallout’was to head for the IAF Mess a stone’s
throw away and we found ourselves in the midst of six fighter
pilots who had just returned from their early morning Sortie.
When offered a drink I opted for a beer of which there was
plenty around the table! Mihir immediately turned around
and said, “All this young blighter deserves is a beer mug full
of milk!”
The drive to Majulighur was smooth – perhaps lubricated by
the couple of beers we had imbibed!
Mihir’s wife, Geeta, was a great hostess – a charming and very
warm human being. She took care of me for the next three days
or so till Mihir decided that there was a chance of a Fan Club
developing right under his very own roof and unceremoniously
shunted me off to occupy my own accommodation – No. 5
Bungalow. (I was posted in the Factory.)
Jimmy and Barbara Lyness were great Burra Sahab and Burra
Memsahab, except on the evening that I was invited for
dinner to meet K.P.S. Gill and B.D. Kharagwal (then the
Superintendent and Additional Superintendent of Police
respectively, of the erstwhile Darrang District. Both later
became DGPs of Assam). Seeing that I had arrived sans a
necktie, Jimmy kept me concealed from Barbara in the
verandah till he fetched me one from his wardrobe. He
obviously knew his gracious but ‘ pucca pucca’ wife very well!
A few months later I was asked to share my bungalow with
Bhushan Chhabra, then posted as Mistri Sahab at the
neighbouring Pertabghur T.E. At that point of time,
Pertabghur was one bungalow short as the Chung Bungalow
occupied by Alan Leonard had been gutted in a fire.This was
one of several thatched bungalows (heavily insured) to be
gutted during the late 60s much to the dismay and disbelief of
the insurers.
Bhushan was very possessive of his newly acquired sky blue
Herald car and most reluctant to part with the steering wheel
even to his good friend, Giri Sodhi, particularly driving back
from an Air Force party in the wee hours of the morning! He
would rather pull off the road and take a short snooze to
freshen up, but always drove himself.The only exception to the
rule was his bearer-cum-driver, Dasro, who had the privilege
of driving this buggy out of the garage, washing, polishing and
putting it back under covers every Sunday. All was well for a
few Sundays till one fine morning Dasro, while reversing the
car into the garage, put his foot on the accelerator instead of
the brake… The deafening crash woke Bhushan up! After
expensive repairs, he willingly offered the vehicle to his good
and trusted friend, yours truly, who by then had been allocated
a ten-month-old white Ambassador car in almost mint
condition which had belonged to John Stephen, the Mistri
Sahab at Behali T.E.
Although I did not take up Bhushan’s offer often, I did so on
one or two occasions, to look up my girlfriend at Monabarie –
perhaps the first step towards the merger with Jardine
Henderson or what is today known as MRIL!!
Mr Giri Sodhi retired as Visiting Agent, Assam, after a distinguished career spanning
more than three decades. In partnership with his wife, Prabha , he is presently engaged
in the promotion of medicinal plants related to oncology, in north-east India .
My Early Days in ‘Tea’–Anecdotes
~ G.S. Sodhi, Tezpur
04 July 2016