Wings of Duty — Page 5

5 In addition, planes in those days did not have the electronic instruments required to navigate at night and there was also the matter of his sleep and rest. Therefore, Mr Chawla had estimated he would need at least 15 days for this journey. Since he did not have the requisite funds to undertake it, estimated to be Rs 10,000, he had sent out requests for donations to the maharajas, rajas and nawabs of various Indian states. Each donor was asked to give Rs 500 to enable this expedition and enhance India’s prestige in the world. A copy of this request was also sent to Hazrat Khalifatul-Masih II ra and Huzoor was the first person to respond to it. Huzoor wrote back to him saying that if he came to Qadian in his plane and took a few members of the community for a ride in it, he would donate Rs 500 to him. And so it was that Mr Chawla brought his plane and a mechanic with him to Qadian. The plane landed in the town at 7pm on 30 December 1932. Back then, Qadian had a population of between 3000-4000 people. The entire town came out to see this airplane for the duration of its stay. There were oval semi-circles marked on each side of the landing ground and during the day, they would fill up with spectators. The visit of this plane took place a year