Wings of Duty — Page 19

19 off by touring the area surrounding Trichinopoly. In a few months, I had seen most parts of southern India by train, such as Mysore, Coimbatore, Medora, Madras, Bangalore (Bangaluru), Cody Canal, Nandipur, Wellington, Ootacamund (Ooty), Dhanshkody and so on. I was unable to go to Goa because it was still a Portuguese colony, though after Partition, India annexed it from Portugal. During these visits, I saw many south Indian temples and palaces. In this way, I learned a lot about the culture of south India and about Hindu religion and philosophy. Second, in February 1946, there was a mutiny on a group of Royal Navy vessels anchored in the port of Bombay. Rebel Indian sailors took their ships out to sea and some of them also killed the English officers on board. To crush this revolt, the Navy sent a company of fighter planes. Our squadron was also summoned to Bombay so that if needed, we could attack the mutineer ships. On the way to Bombay’s Santa Cruz Airport via Hakimpet, my airplane had a small accident for which I had to stop in Hakimpet for repairs. The rest of the squadron continued to Bombay. What had happened was that during my landing the tail wheel collapsed because the locking pin had broken. The lower rudder was also damaged and it took a few days to have it