She’s getting ready to fly..fly away, fly away, fly away

My family, espcially my father's generation and mostly from his side has largely been from forces. Most retired but all from various wings of the army, airforce and the navy.

My father, for whatever compulsions did not enter either (and I did detect some resentment some years ago but hey he is my father, who would never complain again, to me..digressing again).

So any family function is inevitably entwined with meeting some batchmate at some function on some base some months ago.. and all these retired folks..well are immacualtely mannered, booming voices and very courteous.

The whole point of this introduction is that none of us- the children - have entered any of the forces. I mean like I was not interested in taking over my parents' business, similarly nobody wanted to join the forces.

These recent rains in Mumbai forced me renew acquaintances with a long lost cousin (Akki I shall call her) who was always posted with her dad and for whatever reasons, did not get to meet before. While watching water levels rise and all amenities slowly run out, she and I had no choice but soon start talking and getting to know each other better.

From the last time I had met her Akki had lost a lot of weight and I was very curious how and why she did it. It turned out a chain of events that made me go hmmmm...

A couple of months ago.. somewhere towards the end of last year Akki and her friend applied to Service Selection Board (SSB) only because her friend wanted to a pilot. Akki's dad was a pilot and retired after his last posting in Mumbai, a couple of years ago.

Akki and her friend got through the first batch of tests but by the wannabe pilot crashed out and Akki went through. In fact as days progressed (there are seven days of rigourous testing) she kept clearing each level till the last day when she was one of the four girls that were selected.

The only four in more than 250 candidates who came there. Akki was asked to lose weight and come back as she had cleared all other tests successfully. She lost weight and then some more and finally it was time for her to join but now she is eligible to join in for next year's course.

For some reason, I was beaming at the end of it all and was and am so so proud of her. One of us few and she is cleared all tests to become a pilot with the Indian Air Force.

Needless to say her father was very excited about it but her recollection of life on a posting must not be as pleasant because she has more or less made up her mind not to join and pursue academic intersts instead. But I am still proud of this cousin of mine who nearly became a pilot.