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Even though I was doing engineering in the lone engineering college of Indore, Govindram Seksaria Technical Institute or GSTI as it was known those days, I had joined the NCC Air Wing, then 16 (MP) Air Squadron, in Indore even before admissions to the College had been announced and the session commenced in July 1963 after I had completed Higher Secondary in April 1963. This was the unit that my elder brother, MG "Sonny" Masand, had left the year before as a Senior Under Officer. Because of this, the then CO of the NCC unit, Squadron leader AN Todd, had no reservations in letting me join the unit particularly after he saw my academic reports of the previous years. In that summer break, being keen on aeroplanes and flying, I got involved in aero-modelling with the help of JWO Karunakaran and Sergeant Ghoshal who let me have free access to the aero-modelling section and flying the ones I had built in the adjacent Holkar College grounds that the unit used for its aero-modelling activities. By the time summer ended and the academic session started, Squadron leader MS Rane took over the NCC Air Wing Unit from Todd. Sometime in 1964, the unit nomenclature also changed to 1 (MP) Air squadron NCC from 16 (MP).
NCC those days was mandatory for all college-going students so all colleges had an appropriate NCC unit attached to them. The GSTI had its own Engineers NCC unit that I was required to join. However, due to the fact that I had already enrolled in the Air Wing, the Principal of the college, Mr Dasgupta, gave me a special dispensation, after an interview and looking at my grades, by letting me continue with the Air Wing unit on the proviso that if I missed any classes or assignments in the college due to different timings for the NCC activities, I would submit the required assignments the very next morning. I never missed out on that commitment and looking at my grades in the engineering college, Mr Dasgupta never had an issue with my NCC and other activities. What he said to me when I left the course halfWay through in early 1966 to join the Air Force through the NCC after...