AFVOA Newsletter 03 of 2020

Section 5 - Memoirs CV 2 No. 03 / 2020 Page 143 of 167 among the people and more so among the photographers to record a major ceremonial surrender after World War II. The sun was about to set and there was no lighting arrangement. That was when the pens also refused to write. Apart from anything else, the helicopters were also to get airborne from the airfield at Kurmitola where the night light facilities had also been damaged during the war. Staying the night in war-torn Dacca was unthinkable. Two gold-capped pens of foreign make were tried initially. They refused to cooperate. Then the general's own pen was tried. Then another and finally a not so expensive pen did the trick. The first A of General A. A.K. Niazi's signature on the first sheet of the document was a witness to this non-acceptance act. "You flew the choppers at a much later stage of your service and how come you landed up there at Dacca with the helicopters?" he asked me, "all these days it never occurred to me what a fighter pilot, and that too a junior one, doing in Dacca that evening?" "You see, it was a kind gesture by the top brass of the Air Force to let the fighter boys to see for themselves the accuracy of the bombings. The fighters helped the land forces win the war but it was the helicopters which hastened the surrender", I replied. "If you carefully see the famous surrender ceremony photograph, I am in the row behind the Admiral, Air Marshal and General, witnessing the entire thing". "Sir", the staff officer gently reminded us of the delay. With a stylish flourish my course mate signed the visitor's book and I took the pen of 1971 fame back from him and put it back in my pocket. Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd