Air Marshal (R) Harish Masand says: Hasimara Happiness December 2024 (Part–1)

(Forgive the errors in captions below photographs; These are as pulished in VAYU)

10 Mar 2025

166 Bde

Hasimara has been on my mind for a long long time and I personally carry some unforgettable memories from that place where I spent perhaps the best four years of my youth and literally turned from a boy to a man. Unfortunately, for one reason or another, I just could not make a visit after 1981 when our daughter, Ruheene, was born in 10 Air Force Hospital in Hasimara. Ever since we celebrated the Golden Jubilee of the 1971 Indo–Pak War in 2021 in Gauhati courtesy the then C– in–C Air Marshal DK Patnaik, many of my friends had also been egging me on to organise a visit to Hasimara. Most persistent amongst these was my course mate, Wing Commander VK “Actor” Vasudeva, who kept at asking me to organise this visit/reunion in Hasimara particularly after seeing the way I had organised the course reunion in Secunderabad in early January 2018 on the occasion of the Golden jubilee of our commissioning and getting our wings on 31 December 1967.

166 Bde and the ladies.

Druk and old memories.

The Guys with Pam Ma’am–All Smiles.

Ms Pam Chatrath.

Initially, I was waiting for 101 Squadron to celebrate its anniversary so as to combine the two events with the visit of the Hasimarans immediately after the 101 anniversary since I had done two tenures in 101, first on the Su–7s in 1973 and then on the MiG–21 in 1976–77, but that kept getting delayed since the Squadron had just converted on the latest fighter in the Indian Air Force, the French Rafale, and was busy with operational activities. Finally, around August 2024, I started planning for the visit and reunion of those who fought the War from Hasimara to coincide with the 53rd anniversary of the commencement of the War in the East on 4 December 2024. Our effort was to locate and contact all the surviving members of 16 Wing, 17 and 37 squadrons as well as 111 HU of those days and try and get them to join in on the lines of more the merrier since everyone would have had their own stories and anecdotes to narrate which would enrich the interaction with the current generation in Hasimara as also within ourselves when we found the time to sit around a fire and reminisce. Unfortunately, many of those days had passed on and many others were unable to join due to their other commitments and particularly reasons of poor health. In this effort, I was assisted by “Actor” Vasudeva in finding out contact numbers of people and forming the Hasimara Group on WhatsApp to ease communications and information flow. By September, I had 18 who said Yes to the idea which brought the total number of persons to about 30. However, by the time it came to firm up and commit, we had only nine members with a total of 16 persons. Despite this small number, we were encouraged by the fact that Mrs Pam Chatrath was eager for this trip down memory lane even at the age of 87.

Later, when we meet her after all these years, the old lesson dawned on us again that age is just a number and she led our Hasimarans team from the front, and all the while looking gorgeous, as the attached picture would show. Then Wing Commander N Chatrath was commanding 17 Squadron during the War and, I guess, leading from the front comes naturally to the Chatrath family since he led the first few raids from 17 Squadron against Kurmitola airfield in Dacca on 4 December 1971 and also downed an F–86 Sabre flown by Wg Cdr SM Ahmed in his very first mission at about 0720h IST/0750 East PST and was awarded the Vir Chakra for this and more that he did during the War.

Mrs Chatrath was accompanied by their son, Arvind, who was a small boy in those days and now a distinguished gentleman of 60. Next came Mrs Asha Cariappa, all of 85 years, but again her participation in every planned activity during the visit and the additional dance moves on the very first evening hosted by the Wing on the 4th put all younger members of the visit to shame. As a matter of fact, one of the young guys in Hasimara even asked me where we all got the energy from and where was the elixir hidden by us. Asha’s husband, then Squadron Leader KC “Nanda” Cariappa, was commanding 111 HU those days who later retired as an Air Marshal but could not join the visit. Despite this shortcoming in our VIP power, the very mention of daughter–in–law of the Field Marshal opened the door and the red carpet for us everywhere.

The two escorts to the ladies–Buxa Tiger Reserve.

Armt Dett 37 Jamnagar Oct 1970.

Wing Commanders VK “Actor” Vasudeva, with wife Indu, and PN “Chick” Paralkar, with wife Ritu, are both my course mates and were in 37 Squadron with me for almost the entire duration including the War. Chick was the tall handsome guy in the Squadron and perhaps the whole station, as you would see from the squadron armament detachment photograph of October 1970 in Jamnagar. Chick has remained youthful in more ways than one, as seen even in this visit. Actor on the other hand, left the Air Force early for greener pastures in Air India. Then came Air Marshal PK “Polly” Mehra, with Sarita, Wing Commanders Dev “DebDa” Ghosh, with Amrita and SK “pet name in the squadron prohibited” Sharma with Sushma, all of 99th GD(P). While DebDa and SK were in 37 Squadron with me and Deb was my roommate for over two years, Polly was in 17 Squadron at that time. Polly rose to be an Air Marshal and C–in–C while also having commanded Hasimara from December 2000 for over a year. Both Deb and SK again left for Air India early in their careers. The attached Group Photo, taken on the 5th with 20 Div Commander in Binaguri, would help identify each, as they look today. I came on my own and was popularly known as “Khappe” in the squadron and even flew the War with that callsign.

Phuntsholing lunch at Asian Kitchen.

166 Presentation.

Cooch Behar Palace with Subedar Mandeep Singh.

All in with 20 Div.

Another one of Buxa–Ms Chatrath looking up at Harsh.

Since I was organising and coordinating the whole event, all the brickbats for some minor hiccups due to last minute changes in the programme and other minor problems that always come up in a group outing, along with some accolades, came my way but all in a lighter vein and good humour with Amrita even calling me “Harris The Harassed”. Quite frankly, all this leg–pulling was a lot of fun and I don’t think anyone took offence to anything while riding together long ways from Bagdogra to Hasimara or during the visits to various places. To be honest, I haven’t laughed as much for a long long time and would narrate some of the funny stories of this visit later in this piece. Fortunately for us, I had found out in October when I attended the raising Day of 7 Para, the Battalion in which my younger brother Bharat had served during the War, in Jim Corbett Park that the Brigade in Hasimara was being commanded by Brigadier Ajinkya Jhadav, who was also from 7 Para. I had spoken to Ajinkya and the amount of support he provided us by going out of his way was truly remarkable in the true spirit of jointness, As a matter of fact, in the briefing and lunch hosted by the Brigade for all of us on the 6th, he made a specific mention that I was more a member of 7 Para.

Between him and the Wing, commanded by Air Commodore Ashish Kumar, the visit went amazingly smoothly due to the support they provided us. While Ashish was away during the visit for some work in Air HQ, I had been in touch with him as well as AOC Bagdogra for months and he had left the task to his 2 i/c and Chief Ops Officer, Group Captain Saurabh Pachauri and the Chief Adm Officer, Group Captain Pradeep Sharma. Both of them rose to the occasion admirably and supported us whole heartedly confirming the lesson that the unit must be capable of meeting every task even in the absence of its leader. The plan was for everyone to assemble in Bagdogra by lunch on 3 December 2024 and ride to Hasimara by that evening. Actor and Deb decided to come on the 2nd and spend the night in Bagdogra due to their flight schedules. Here, I must make a mention of the willing administrative support also provided by Bagdogra. Once again, the AOC, Air Commodore Manish Sharma, who had just taken over command, had to rush off somewhere and his responsibilities were ably discharged by his Chief Ops Officer, Group Captain Anupam Day. Special mention of Mrs Dey is also necessary. She came to meet us all when I reached Bagdogra to pick up everyone and we assembled in the Mess for lunch and she almost got into the bus with us to be with us in Hasimara after seeing the enthusiasm of everyone in the Group. We took the scenic northern route from Bagdogra to Hasimara through the Coronation Bridge on Teesta River to revive old memories of this route and, hopefully, see some wildlife even though this route was a little slower.

I remember an earlier incident of 1970–71 when a planter friend by the name of “Prof” Choudhary in Toorsa Tea Estate asked me to accompany him to pick up two of his Australian friends from Bagdogra, who were visiting him. As soon as we left Siliguri town, these two ladies started asking us to show them the wildlife in the area that they had read about. We told them that though there were some in the area, we didn’t normally see the animals on the road because of the traffic and human presence. Lo and behold, soon after the Coronation Bridge, we came across a python lying across the road and had to wait 15 odd minutes before it slithered across and we could ride on. Another 10–15 km later, we came across a herd of elephants and then further on, some wild boars.

Reception at Bagdogra.

With Sushil and Madhuri Shinde, Pragya and FL Prajul.

With Pragya and her husband.

With Asha Cariappa.

The girls looked at us in disbelief as if we didn’t know our own country and area. Well, unfortunately this time, we didn’t see any wildlife after 50 years of growth in traffic and even when we passed through about 20 kms of Chapramari forest reserve. In any case, it got dark by the time we were half way to Hasimara. I had reached Hasimara a day earlier on the 2nd, as the organiser, to tie up any loose ends and make sure the programme and our requests on requirements were known to all key appointment holders in Hasimara. For this, I had come through Cooch Behar by train from Delhi so as to be able to visit the palace that I had been to over five decades earlier when Maharani Gina was there and also to see what Cooch Behar airport looked like since I had escorted Rajesh “Laloolee” Lal to it for a forced landing there on the 10 December 1971 after carrying out a close air support mission against the Brigade HQ at Rangpur. Photographs of the palace, now a museum, are attached. As for the airfield, not much had changed except some new buildings with a proper control tower and better offices.

The runway was the same and of the same length of just over 1000 meters except for resurfacing and in use for a single Dornier flight a day. The local Director did not know about the Hunter having landed there during the War but, one of the young controllers, Mr Argha Banerjee, seemed interested in this historic piece of information. We exchanged a few pleasantries and our contact numbers and I sent him the article I had published on this episode by email the very next morning as attached. He confirmed that the article was printed in large fonts, framed and placed in the visitors’ gallery for all to know the role played by Cooch Behar during the War. He also seemed enthusiastic on working on an animated reconstruction of the sortie and forced landing and we are collaborating on making that happen. I was the guest of 14 Punjab at Cooch Behar under Brigadier Jadhav who took care of this visit and detailed Subedar Mandeep Singh with driver Havaldar Sushil who stayed with me till I left on the 8th. Lesson learnt was that we tend to take such events as routine when we are young overlooking their historic significance but years later, such events give a new meaning to the current generation and it is important for us to record such events for posterity as soon as we can, something that even I overlooked and am guilty of.

On arrival at Hasimara, I was met by the Officiating Commander, the COO, Gp Capt Saurabh Pachauri, the C Adm O Gp Capt Pradeep Sharma and the rest of the staff of the Mess and we quickly went over the room allocations and the rest of the arrangements before I charged off to a very pleasant evening hosted by the Brigade Commander and his charming wife, Rachna. Hasimara had also detailed an LO for us, a young and handsome Flying officer Harsh from 101 Squadron who had just joined the Squadron after his training on Hawks. Unfortunately, he was recovering from jaundice and while he was not flying, he also did not have a drink but stayed with me through my stay helping with odd knick–knacks and tie–ups everyday due to last minute changes in the programme necessitated by circumstances. This led to many minor cribs but more laughs when we recounted these later in the day over a drink. Frankly, while I was sometimes called “Harris The Harassed”, I haven’t laughed like this for a long long time. As for Harsh, Mrs Chatrath commented the very first evening in the Bar that Harsh reminded her of me in the younger days in Hasimara, apart from the similarity in names.

I don’t know whether Harsh was as harassed by me but all of us enjoyed his company through our stay. The reception at Hasimara on the evening of the 3rd when we came from Bagdogra swept everyone of us off our feet and was even more than what had been tied up. Almost every key appointment holder in Hasimara was there to welcome us and Saurabh had organised not just bearers to be at hand but also some female attendants to look after the ladies. Throughout our stay in the Mess rooms and the MES Inspection Bungalow, we were made very comfortable. Initially, I had planned that we would stay in the Hasimara Officers’ Mess premises with some spreading out to the Brigade Mess, if required, depending on the numbers. AOC Ashish had told me that they had 12 comfortable rooms for us but considering the initial 18 yeses and that we all should stay in one place to really enjoy these few days together, I had changed over to the Jungle Resorts in Madarihat. When the numbers dropped to 11 and less, we went back to the original plan of staying together in the Mess. There were some who felt that Mess rooms would not be as comfortable or interesting as the resort. Some others felt that the rank wise juniors would be given less comfortable rooms. I made sure that the rank bit did not come in our calculations; the best VIP rooms were allocated to the two single ladies, Mrs Chatrath and Mrs Cariappa, with others getting equally comfortable rooms. I chose the smallest staff officer’s room because I was not accompanied by my current wife. As it turned out, even the naysayers were more than happy and glad that we stayed on–base in familiar surroundings and were looked after much better than we would have been in a private resort.

Cooch Behar Palace.

With 20 Div Cdr-Vanthanu Raghu.

10 AF Hospital.

First evening at the bar.

What everyone felt like!

(To be continued in our next edition Issue 2 Mar/Apr 2025) Stay tuned!!