The first Vocational Training in Engineering

The engineering students that time were supposed to have a vocational training of six weeks after fourth and final years. The first training we had was at HAL Kanpur we had earlier made correspondence with the authorities of HAL Kanpur through our college and set off for training after appearing for examination of fourth year we means me and Kirtikumar Kahale (KKK) more popularly know in our batch. I talked to him last year at Dubai after getting his reference and telephone number from a relative Kirti was and should be very austrocate and perfectionist in his life style, a typical Maharashtrian Bramhanis “Nit Netke Pana” He was our neighbor also in the hostel so I know about his life style. Initially we stayed with my maternal uncle popularly known as “Gulkande Mama” He had a Paint Shop on the ‘P’ road opposite Gopal Talkies in Kanpur named as ‘Swadeshi Paint Store’ I do not know who owns the shop today but being a politician and an active member of congress party he could not keep the business flourishing and in the fag end of his life he spent his days at Chandrapur my Nani hal in UP District Agra Tahsheel Bah.
Coming back to our stay and training at Kanpur as Mama and his family of four daughters were living in a small room at Kanpur it was very difficult for us to stay there even other wise the HAL factory was based at Chakeri very far off from P road, we decided to shift to a locality called Lal Bangla in rented room. It was a Muslim family of one of a worker of HAL Kanpur who gave us a Paying Guest accommodation. It was not a very family of very high standards but we could adjust ourselves there for five weeks.
The HAL Kanpur manufactured HSA Hocker Sidley Aviation 747 aircraft In the decade of 1970-80 It was more than mediocre technology of air craft manufacturing. We were given training initially in the drawing and design department and later on in the different department stage wise. The Fuseloge (the Centre portion of the air craft) The Nose (the front portion) the Tail (The back portion) The body of an air craft is basically fabricated by special alloy of aluminum with two layers and using some soft material in between to make the aircraft should proof for the passengers sitting inside. The number of seats 747 used to have was around 100. The autopilot system, the electronic controls in the cockpit were very amusing for us that time and that training imparted a real practical knowledge and application of engineering.
We use to come to the city frequently particularly in the weekends we also saw some movies with my cousins there Kanpur is very famous for its tanneries and leather market that is why we made some purchasing of footwear and came back to our home towns after successful completion of training Continued in next Blog