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Thursday, May 28, 2015

Flying my Girl Friend in a Chopper: Kisses at 5000 ft

Life has many vicissitudes and twists some of them memorable that makes one smile years later. When I was in school, I had read the story of Don Juan. Somehow this man appealed to me as he was a swashbuckling swords man and a great lover. I had taken this book from the school library.

About the same time we had a school inspection and our class teacher informed us that the school inspector will come and he may ask a question as to who is the man you admire most. She also suggested that if anyone was asked he or she must answer Gandhi, Nehru, Lincoln or Lord Krishna.  Being a back bencher I never expected to be asked this question, but surprisingly the inspector pointed to me and asked the question. Without thinking I replied ‘Don Juan’. There was a moments awkward silence and the Inspector went on to the next student.
After class, my class teacher was livid (later I learnt she got a reprimand for my answer) and she made me stay back for two hours and write “I will never do this mistake again” 2000 times. Well that was that and Don Juan remained a fixation with me.
As a young Flying Officer I was posted to Kerala in South India. After going there I realized that girls from Kerala and Tamil Nadu have a fixation for Punjabi North Indians. I cannot say why, but it’s very much there. I became friends with a young MBA student and I was keen to show her my prowess. I promised to fly her in the Air Force helicopter. I got my chance soon enough and I was given a solo exercise one fine day. In the meantime I had asked my girl to drive down to a desolate field which I had identified earlier.

After getting airborne in my Allouette I hovered and soon saw my girl. She recognized it was me and I slowly landed in the field. She rushed in and climbed in and without switching off I took off again. This was a thrill, here was my girl sitting next to me and I was flying her in an Air Force chopper. She was excited and kissed me repeatedly. Those kisses in flight have remained the most memorable ones for me.
I was in touch with ATC all along and soon the flight commander asked me to return. I told her I would drop her and once again came down and my girl hopped off. There were 2 or 3 people standing among the bushes at some distance and I thought I was safe. Alas! I do not know how, but my CO and Flight Commander got whiff of my amorous escapade and I got a reprimand for it.
“Heavens “said my flight Commander” man, don’t do it again”.
Now many years later I look back on this episode fondly. My girl is still in touch with me. as a matter of fact she  rang me up yester day from Trivandrum( Kerala)  and reminded me that it was the anniversary of  our fight to bliss.

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