On a hot, sultry July morning, Air Chief Marshal Arjan Singh, Chief of Air Staff of the IAF, who was to retire on July 16. came on a farewell visit to the IAF station, Hindon.
The Hindon station commander and his men lined up for parade on the apron at one end of the runway.
Arjan Singh’s helicopter landed on the apron on the other end of the runway.
Anyone can be heroic from time to time, but a gentleman is something,
you must be all the time - Luigi Pirandello
My husband, Squadron Leader Prakash Kala, received the Air Chief. They got into an Ambassador car and drove along the taxiway toward the parade apron. About 500 meters later, the car engine stalled. The car starter did not work.
My husband and the Air Chief push-started the car.
At the parade apron, Arjun Singh got out of the car. All smiles. Had he mentioned the car problem, all hell would have broken loose, and many
heads would have rolled.
But he never did.
Arjun Singh was a great warrior who proved his mettle in the 1965 war with Pakistan.
But above and beyond that, he was a gentleman.
[He was the first Air Chief Marshal of the IAF and the only Marshal of the Indian Air Force (a five-star rank equal to a Field Marshal of the Army)]
(Note: Dr (Prof) Sadhana Kala is a USA-trained robotic & laparoscopic surgeon, Uppsala University, Sweden, trained fertility specialist, Icon Endoscopic Surgeon of North India, and National Icon Endoscopic Surgeon of India. She is rated as India's Best Gynaecologist by Google.)
(Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are the personal opinions of the author.)