Captain Ayodh Kapur turns 95 this month. But age barely comes in the way of a fascinating conversation with him, embellished with memories of “flying with JRD (Tata) and for JRD” and the incident when his flight was hijacked in Beirut.
“I wanted to be a pilot,” says Kapur, who has seen aviation, and India, evolve, having taken part in the Quit India movement, even getting arrested. But where did all the action begin, for this nonagenarian? To trace that we need go go back in time.
On completing his intermediate in Science, Kapur joined Tata Airlines as an apprentice engineer in 1944. “How I came to be in Tata Airlines is another story,” says Kapur, who has lost sight in one eye because of a “faulty” cataract operation and has diminished vision in the other eye, caused by an age-related condition.
Tata Airlines started operations in 1932, when Tata Sons launched regular air mail services between Karachi and Madras (as Chennai was then known). In 1946, the airline changed its name to Air India and, two years later, launched a weekly Mumbai-London flight. In 1953, Parliament nationalised Tata Airlines into Air India and Indian Airlines.
19/09/18 PT Jyothi Datta/Business Line
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“I wanted to be a pilot,” says Kapur, who has seen aviation, and India, evolve, having taken part in the Quit India movement, even getting arrested. But where did all the action begin, for this nonagenarian? To trace that we need go go back in time.
On completing his intermediate in Science, Kapur joined Tata Airlines as an apprentice engineer in 1944. “How I came to be in Tata Airlines is another story,” says Kapur, who has lost sight in one eye because of a “faulty” cataract operation and has diminished vision in the other eye, caused by an age-related condition.
Tata Airlines started operations in 1932, when Tata Sons launched regular air mail services between Karachi and Madras (as Chennai was then known). In 1946, the airline changed its name to Air India and, two years later, launched a weekly Mumbai-London flight. In 1953, Parliament nationalised Tata Airlines into Air India and Indian Airlines.
19/09/18 PT Jyothi Datta/Business Line
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