A Blast from the Past …

The Zachariah family was leaving town after having spent a lifetime in Jamshedpur. Their 3 sons Errol, Ian and Sam had finished school and already gone to college.

The couple, Moss and Ruby Zachariah, decided to pack up and leave Jamshedpur. However, the family piano, a German built Blüthner, was too heavy to take with them and had to be left behind.

So in 1964 the family gifted this sonorous, acoustic cottage piano to the up and coming Little Flower School in Telco.

This stately, warm sounding piano served to train many students who will testify about its outstanding duty to them.

Almost 60 years later the Symphony School of Music, Jamshedpur, received an urgent message from the principal of Little Flower School that they needed a piano tuner for two instruments. They called a piano tuner who tuned one and then was sent up to have a look at the other lying on the first floor. He was distressed since it needed a lot of material and would be very expensive to restore.

IN DESPERATION the Principal called up the Symphony School. The agreed to take it away and get it restored at the Boulevard Hotel.

The Story Continues

The children of the Zachariah family, now settled in the UK, got nostalgic about their home city. Sam, now a retired surgeon in London, decided to visit Jamshedpur and stay at the Boulevard Hotel.

Heritage

He, along with his elder brother Ian, hosted a dinner at the ‘Penthouse’ in the Boulevard Hotel. One of the guests had a son who is a student at the Symphony School and he offered to play ‘Fϋr Elise’. While he was playing, Ian approached the piano, recognised the sound, and was stunned. "This is the piano my mother gifted to Little Flower School. I am reconnected to my family heirloom, after 60 years !" He almost wept to see this long lost heirloom.

He said that he recognised the melodious sound which reminded him of happy days when his parents and friends like Joaquim Dias thumped away on it while all gathered to sing "beautiful, beautiful brown eyes".

The Boulevard Hotel is proud to add one more legacy piece belonging to this outstanding family to our heritage property.

 The Story of Aviation in Jamshedpur

 

1934 – The Landing Ground

JRD Tata

The Indian Aviation department issued its first Aviator Pilot’s License to JRD Tata in 1929. This focused interest in flying in India. Very soon, 2,000 kms away, Jamshedpur township was waking up to the importance of air travel.

In Jamshedpur, about 5 km North-west of the railway station, the officers and others used to gather on weekends to bet at the horse racing ground, a flat piece of land, overlooking the Dalma hills.This, the management decided, would be the ideallanding ground for the nascent aviation movement.

A landing strip was then appropriately constructed. This was very convenient for dignitaries like Governors and Rajas to visit the township. It was also used as a technical halt for the historic Calcutta to Bombay experimental flight in 1934. The “T” shaped landing ground was expanded from 550 yards to 1000 yards which would enable “even a KLM or Imperial Airmail liner to land”.

How the first Aeroplane in Jamshedpur was acquired

Local legend suggests that a Scottish engineer wrote to the Board of Directors requesting that TISCO acquires a small plane. Since he had to travel regularly on dusty roads to the collieries, he offered to fund half its costs.

Jehangir Ghandy, Assistant General Manager, thought it was a reasonable request since a landing field already existed. The company decided to fund the entire cost. And with this began the exciting and colourful history of aviation in Jamshedpur. An aircraft with a larger capacity than the usual Puss Moth was considered.

 

TISCO began its historic aviation journey with the Leopard Moth registered as VT-AHA in 1936

A British made De Havilland “Leopard Moth” monoplane made in the U.K. was delivered on the 22^nd of April, 1936. With a 130 H.P. engine, it cruised comfortably at 100 MPH and could carry two passengers besides the pilot. Two days later on the 24^th of AprilMr. Ghandy took the 7½ hour journey to Bombay and returned on the 27^th of April, satisfied that this new acquisition could be profitably used in better time management for the officers. After that it was used regularly to visit the nearby collieries.

J.J. Ghandy welcomes TISCO’s first aircraft

The first flight to Bombay

Waco 5 seater biplane

So successful was the new venture that the management felt the need for a larger aircraft to carry more than two passengers. By 1938, TISCO added a five seater Bi-plane – the American Waco fitted with a Jacob’s Radial 285 BHP engine, with a cruising speed of 140 MPH. This continued to be in service till the early fifties. Important dignitaries thus found it more convenient to visit Jamshedpur.

 

World War II effort

Aircraft of the local kingdoms

In 1941, Mr. Jehangir Ghandy stirred up the imagination of the citizens of Jamshedpur by conducting a collection drive leading to donating the proceeds of Rs 2,30,000/- to purchase two Spitfire fighters named Sakchi and Golmori. He managed to gather the aircrafts of the local kingdoms and ignited the imagination of the local people with aerobatics, low flying and even steep dives !

Growth from the late fifties

Since then the company continued to acquire a wide variety of interesting and modern aircraft from the Beechcraft, Cessna and the Pilatus range.

Tata Steel continued to upgrade its fleet. The Beechcraft, considered to be the Mercedes of executive planes, continued to be its favourite. There is a twin prop aircraft for long distances. For short hauls and to ferry company executives there are the two single prop STOL Pilatus and also the three Bell 429 helicopters.

The current range of aircraft

Flying for the citizens

With the interest in aviation increasing, TISCO encouraged locals to experience the thrill of flying by allowing the creation of Jamshedpur Cooperative Flying Club.

 

Commercial Flights

 In the fifties, private airlines like JamAir and ACC began commercial flights to Dum Dum, Calcutta, using the war horse of World War II – DC3 Dakotas.

This is what ignited the interest of young Niroop Mahanty, in flying.

 

Next, Vayudoot introduced the F-27 Fokker Friendship and sustained the service successfully for a few years. After that, a few private airlines like Kingfisher, Air Deccan and MDLR attempted service to Jamshedpur but gave up after a few months. Others also have, for a short time, attempted to own and operate aircrafts. 

 The Scotsman of the 1930s would surely be thrilled to see the results of what he had suggested !

-         Ronald D’Costa

Courtesy :

Capt. Neeraj Madaan

Niroop Mahanty

Dicky Mody

Swarup Sengupta

Merlyn F. Anklesaria