Awaiting an airlift

Kamal Baruah

(The writer can be reached at kamalbaruah@yahoo.com)

When I learned that the war has started, my heart skipped a beat. As the huge convoy of Russian armoured vehicles, tanks, towed artillery and logistical vehicles invaded Ukraine; hundreds of thousands of people fled home for the fear of shelling to the border of Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland. It was devastating and scary for tens of thousands of Indian students. People are sleeping in shelters and dying without access to food and water. The Red Army advanced, defying warnings of a humanitarian catastrophe and international appeals. Yet Ukrainians fight together for survival when their cities come under siege.

The MEA with Indian Embassy put forth for Indians back home under "Operation Ganga". India sent Air India, IndiGo and SpiceJet and recently IAF C-17 transport aircraft and relief supply for Ukraine as a humanitarian gesture to scale up the ongoing efforts for evacuation from the Romanian capital Bucharest as well as the Hungarian capital of Budapest. Evacuation from a war zone is no mean task. India would leave no stone unturned till their citizens were back home from the war zone.

We were chipping tea in the evening while watching Akshay Kumar's movie "Airlift" that highlighted a true story of 1.7 lakh Indians getting evacuated under "Operation Desert Storm" from a volatile Kuwait when it was attacked by Iraq and that heroic evacuation from Amman and Jordan to Bombay operating 488 flights by Air India won a Guinness World Record for India. There are other operations in that context such as "Operation Devi Shakti" after the fall of Kabul to the Taliban in 2021, "Vande Bharat Mission" to repatriate Indians stuck due to the COVID-19 in 2020.

My friend from Bangalore was narrating about his dramatic pick up by Air India while he got lost on foreign soil. The fascinating story seemed like fiction, though incidentally happened, that he had once been there. He was attending one International Conference SMiRT in Berlin on March 4, 1971, that provides possibilities for students and young engineers to meet the leading specialists for upbringing. He decided to move across European countries soon after completing the conference and his Diplomatic Passport facilitated hassle-free VISA movement.

He couldn't cross the Berlin Wall as it didn't fall then but moved entire Europe one after another. He witnessed the French Revolution at Eiffel Tower which was built to celebrate the centennial occasion and even climbed to see the mesmerizing views in the Swiss Alps. Refugees in the Czech Republic weren't a trace. People support immigrants during the European crisis. My friend didn't hesitate to be in the queue to have some US Dollars as he hadn't enough in his purse for moving from place to place.

He almost spent a month travelling by train, mostly in Europe and journeyed in the night to minimize spending for lodging and a tour he dare not sleep at the freebie dormitory. Pizza may be one of Italy's greatest success stories but he pulled on with slice bread and readily available hot water that made him a cuppa with tea from his kit bag. The leisurely ferried of one and half hour ride over the English Channel had its rewards. Europeans' love for Roman plays of Shakespeare realized tragedy in open theatres.

The ancient civilization and monuments of the majestic pharaohs have mesmerized him. It was the last leg of his journey in Egypt after a month-long trip but he missed the flight by a whisker while watching the Great Pyramids of Giza. He wasn't having enough Dollars to buy another ticket and the online money transfer was farsighted. He prepared for the unexpected and reported to the Indian Embassy in Cairo. It guessed they would assist its distressed people in the host country. The embassy then communicated to the Control Room, South Block and helpline activated.

It was a coincidence that Air India took delivery of its first Boeing 747-100 from California to Bombay on March 22, 1971. The aerodrome authority was convinced by the Indian embassy to refuel the aircraft at Cairo International Airport and to pick up the stranded engineer. It was not just one but two aircraft were awaiting him there. Welcome, Mr Huq to our first inaugural flight to India. Four crews and the only passenger in that operation of a specific mission took place.

He was humbled and honoured and very thankful for all Embassies' support but felt guilty of missing his earlier flight. When the refuelling was complete, Boeing started the engines at holding position marking and climbed quickly. He breathed a sigh of relief when he heard Captain's announcement "we are currently cruising at an altitude of 33,000 feet at an airspeed of 600 miles per hour". He sat back, relaxed and enjoyed the rest of the flight all alone inside that Jumbo Jet.