Nationalism and patriotism, both are different. Misunderstanding this to be same is the threat of hour. we’re not under a monarchy to believe that Government and country are same, Even if that may be the case, we’ve got independence to say this too ” the king is naked”. Religious, aethist, rich, poor, all fought shoulder to shoulder to get our independence. The existence of this great country solely dependant on this diversity.
If this diversity is exterminated by the concept of one religion,one language,one culture and one food. We should not encourage this concepts. I’m not sure whether I’ll be deported for saying this, still I’m saying, real patriotism is not in standing up for national anthem or killing people for having beef.
Even after completing 75 years of independence and we have still deaths upon starvation, is the cry over starvation is bigger than raising slogan for mother India ?
Pilots – by definition should be ” a person who blindly believes that he’ll never encounter a parcel of vacuum in atmosphere.”
There’re two kinds of pilots – those who fly with a bondome and those who don’t. The second are those who flies the most modern transport machines wearing white tucked in shirts and a good tie. They’re just majestic in airports and internet, guiding a trolley bag with a RayBan on, almost everybody who sees them wishes to be one.
Then the first kind, they’re convinced that flying a single engine helicopter over sea with no floats with a few oil leaks requires balls of Steel. They’re so convinced that over a period of time they find themselves more comfortable flying over sea than land. They wear all those fancy patches, carry a knife and some legends even carry toothbrush too, as they don’t know when there will be an oil leak and have to switch off a different deck. landing on a runway is a shaggy doggy story for these who land on a moving deck, which has got its own whims and fancies of rolling, pitching and yawing.
One trait that the second kind follow in common are they always keep the best plan as their standby plan, because they’re pretty sure that the first plan seldom works. they’ve seen the extremes of beauty and danger and may be that’s why they remain unruffled. Sitting with them if you discuss future, deep inside they might be laughing, because these are people who don’t believe in redundancies, the one who convinced them, convinced them well. Approaching these kind, either you bow down or you die, not with the knife but with the Helicopter’s turning blades.
You live only once, so do what is passionate about !!, Take chances professionally, Dare to fail and never be afraid to think outside the box, but remember!! Dreams without goals are just dreams and it ultimately fuel disappointment. So have dreams, but have goals Goals for your Life,Goals for this year, tommorow and for today!! Try to give yourself a challenge everyday and understand that to achieve those you must apply discipline with consistency, you have to work at it everyday .you have to plan everyday. You must’ve heard the saying “we don’t plan to fail,we fail to plan.”
Hard work really matters, it overrides talent Working really hard is what successful people do. In this world of Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp, don’t confuse movement with progress. Just because you are doing a lot more it doesn’t mean you’re getting a lot more done. Continue to dream ,continue to plan, continue to achieve. If you think you can achieve, it’s your instinct saying, trust that, claim it and when you get it ,reach back, pull someone else up Each one !teach one! Don’t just aspire to make a living! Aspire to make a difference
To be abreast with the technology around is one strong quality of a sound individual who strives to step ahead of its peers. In this era of advancement of technology, internet is a big revolution. The world around is so much dependent on internet that almost every deal we see around has something to do with the internet. A car’s navigation, online banking, shopping, travel bookings and social medias are few in the list.
People’s curiosity to know what’s happening around and the cravenness to showcase their life in public are the sole foundations of social media. The tech giants identified this long before and implemented it well in different platforms. With this, the pace of transfer of information became faster. This transfer of data ended up in piling up of large amount of valuable information in different online platforms. As we know, whatever transmitted in air and wire can be tracked and heard, therefore the smallest information which we think has no importance, gives our enemy one variable less, to infer his conclusion regarding something of a serious nature.
Often, we think that time and again why armed forces implement so much restrictions on social media. The reason is quite simple,’ you know a lot more than you actually think’. If you share that, you’re directly putting life of thousands at stake. Ninety nine times, nothing may happen, but that one time, the price of your sheer negligence would be paid by the blood of thousand innocents. Always remember, the location that you share along with your dashing photos in social medias might be the final information the enemy require to plan an attack.
One day in a school, the teacher told the students that following day there will be a test. Curious students asked the teacher the syllabus, the teacher replied, “nothing from the textbook, simply you have to draw a straight line on the board with free hand and everybody will be given a chance.” students went home, practised drawing straight lines on board, book, floor and wherever.
Next day, teacher came, class started, students were called upon one by one and were given a chance. Surprisingly, everybody in that class managed to draw a straight line, except one. One short, fat and gloomy guy. He was given multiple chances, but he couldn’t. Everybody started laughing, bullied him. The teacher sarcastically told that kid, “as you cannot draw a straight line, you master your curves”. Other students took it as an opportunity and poked him on his fat body curves.
The words of the master tingled in the ears of that child for long years, everyday rather than practising drawing a straight line, he focused mastering the curves. Years passed and he did magic with the curves. He did live painting sessions and attracted attention of thousands. The art and the artist travelled across the continent. Finally, he was invited to his school for a live painting session. with some dotted curves he recreated the same classroom where he was bullied, and in his closing speech he said, “those who could draw a straight line freehand, became a teacher and who mastered the curves became an artist”.
I came across this lovely poem
‘the topper of the class, is a happy homemaker. backbencher of the lot, is an entrepreneur.
the flamboyant fashionista, became a dreaded lawyer. often ignored Joe, became a well known writer.
the one who failed in maths, is a fashion designer. the one who got to stand outside the class, is a respected army officer.’
this taught me how people come with different layers, each child out there has a different story. We all are taught to respect others for what they are, but don’t you think that, we should also respect others for what they’re not?
After completing basic flying training in Airforce Academy, I had to report to the next unit for advanced flying training. With the proud feeling of becoming a ‘half pilot‘, took a connecting flight from Hyderabad to Kochi which had a halt at Mumbai. After check-in and luggage drop, I proceeded for security check. I, easily, stood out with my zero cut hair, trim body and a tucked-in t-shirt. The CISF officer at the security check identified me as a ‘fauji’ which boosted my confidence. Luckily, I got a window seat and through that I was closely monitoring the movement of flaps, taxiways and the in-flight announcements.
The aircraft took off from Hyderabad and landed in Mumbai. I assessed the landing and realized that it was a ‘hard landing’. The pilot inside me woke up.
Almost everyone deboarded the plane at Mumbai and ground crew were cleaning up the aircraft for Mumbai- kochi passengers. Instinctively, I walked up to the cockpit.
The Captain of the aircraft was a lady (trust me… I didn’t know that before!!) and as I introduced myself as a Military pilot. The sparkle in her eyes conveyed that she was impressed. However,the sparkle didn’t last long as, with inquisitiveness of a kid, I asked her, ” Ma’am your landing wasn’t that smooth. Were there any cross-winds or are you under training”?
Fortunately for me, she didn’t lose her cool. Very calmly, She replied, “Sir, I’m sorry for the trouble. I’m the captain and control for landing was with the first officer and he’s under training”.” Oh,that’s okay” I replied. With mere 55 hours of flying experience as a trainee pilot, I almost judged a pilot having more than 5000 hours of flying under her belt! Unpardonable!.
The aircraft landed in Kochi and I was standing in the queue to deboard the plane, the lady pilot came out of the cockpit, walked upto me and sarcastically asked, ” Sir, how was this landing?”. With a smiling face I said “Not bad”, as everybody around went clueless, we both bursted into laughter.
The perspective of a Jumbo pilot is always different. The whole gist of his existence is to save a drowning survivor. For an onlooker he’s just keeping stations. However, little does anyone know that we keenly monitor every LSO call, develops a knack of assessing every Glide path approach, that too without any navigational aid, and after sometime becomes a trained LSO in the cockpit. We sure have the best seats in the house for watching the majestic sights of panthers making overshoots, touch and go’s and traps. Sometimes prompting thoughts like, ” that’s too high on glidepath kid, come down”.
Nobody other than a Jumbo pilot, in the world might have seen Vikramaditya from so many angles- so beautiful that if captured on a camera would have won many prizes. The number of orbits that a civil pilot does in his entire career, a Jumbo pilot does in his one single tenure. People keep asking- ” Don’t you get bored doing so many orbits?”. The answer is plain simple ” Every Jumbo in the air is a promise. Ask a pilot who got ditched in sea for testimony. He might confess that the only thing he wishes, till he gets rescued is to hear the whirring sound of the Angel’s wings.
We will and always be -” Airborne until the last tail hooks”.
As a helicopter pilot, responsibility comes to you quite early. Once, as a young Sub Lieutenant, I embarked a ship as Captain of the aircraft for a month long deployment. The sailing of one month got extended and finally after almost two months it was finally time for disembarkation. Routine sortie briefing was carried out in the bridge and on the deck, the Helicopter was loaded and ready to fly back.
Just before manning, I saw the Executive Officer of the ship walking towards me in hurried steps. A senior sailor onboard got a call from ashore that his child has met with an accident and got critically injured. The kid was admitted in the ICU and therefore the sailor needed to be disembarked urgently. The ship’s entering harbour evolution may take another hour or two. There wasn’t much time to waste. looking at the fully loaded helicopter, I asked my senior crew member for his opinion. Without a moment’s hesitation, he said, “Captain of the aircraft, it’s your call”. While all these conversations were on, I could see the senior sailor waiting hopefully, with a small bag, evidently disturbed by the traumatising news. I couldn’t say a ‘NO’ in that situation. I flew that sortie as the captain of the aircraft with the senior sailor onboard and disembarked him safely.
Few weeks later, on a Sunday morning, I got a call from an unknown number, confirming my name, the voice on the other side said. “Jai Hind Sir, I’m that Master Chief_______, whom you disembarked. My child’s health is better now; it was God’s grace that I reached on time as I was the first blood donor to reach my child. I have given 25 years of service to the Navy and I never got an opportunity to fly in a helicopter, but when I needed one, I got one. Thank you for taking that decision to fly me out. Ironically I always used to think why such an old single engine aircraft is still required in Navy!!”
With a sense of content, I said, ” I hope you got your answer.”
Flybydot 