Wings of Duty

Wings of Duty — Page 36

Syed Muhammad Ahmad 36 from the depths of my heart. Shaikh Bashir Ahmad rushed out and could not contain his remorse. He was extremely thankful that I was still there and the bag had not been lost. When he saw it on the tarmac, he was able to breathe a little more easily. He picked it up and said farewell to me once again before leaving in his car. I thanked Allah and we flew back to Qadian. After reaching Qadian, I went straight to Sahibzada Mirza Bashir Ahmad ra and told him what had happened. He urged me that under no circumstance was I to tell Huzoor that Shaikh Bashir Ahmad had forgotten the bag at the airport. Therefore, when I met Huzoor, I gave him the receipt but did not mention the incident to him, neither at the time, nor afterwards. Three more things need to be mentioned about this period. First, for private airplanes, there was a strict system of rationing. The quota for our L-5 was 4 gallons of petrol per week which was insufficient for our needs. We required 12 gallons just to fly from Qadian to Lahore and back. At Walton Airport there was a Shell petrol pump for small airplanes. The person who managed it was a young Anglo-Indian man who lived with his family in a house at the airport. There were no shops between