While we are walking around feeling safe in the country, there are people who are standing strong somewhere and risking their lives to give us this safe life. Today we are bringing an interview of a person who has reached one of the top ranks while serving our country.
Interview with Prashant Khandekar,
Retired Air Marshal, Indian Air Force
First of all, congratulations on the President’s award. Its indeed a proud moment for all your friends and family. Lets start the interview from this question only:
Which special achievement fetched this extra
ordinary award to you?
There
are different kinds of recognition in the Armed Forces. For acts of gallantry or a specific activity,
there are awards such as PVC, MVC, VrC, Ashok, Kirti and Shaurya chakras, VM,
etc. For distinguished service of very
high order over decades or long duration, the VSM series of awards are listed. I was awarded Ati Vishisht Seva Medal by the
President on 26 January this year in recognition of my services.
2. Now going back, after completing
electronics engineering, what motivated you to join the air force?
3. We
have heard that you have very rich experience in flying SU-7, MIG-23, MIG-27
etc. For common civilians like us, can you pls explain the difference?
In a
conventional sense, any Air Force could be broadly divided into Aircraft,
Missiles, Radars, Communication networks and associated infrastructure
including specialist vehicles, arrester barriers and so on. In aircraft, one can further broadly classify
into Fighter aircraft, Transport aircraft and Helicopters. Now of course, there are addons such as Hovercraft,
UAVs etc. In fighter aircraft, there
used to be again a broad classification such as Air Defence aircraft mainly for
dog-fights in air, Ground Attack or Strike i.e. attacking enemy targets and Reconnaissance
aircraft that included photography/ imaging and electronic intelligence
gathering. Su-7, MiG-23 BN and MiG-27
formed our ground strike force those days.
Now the line is blurred and we have multi-role aircraft such as
Mirage-2000 and Su-30s. Being an
Engineer, my job was to maintain these aircraft in highest state of operational
preparedness.
4. You must have had quite a few unique
experiences due to your profession, can you please share a couple of them?
One
learns from experience and as one grows and goes up the ladder, he is expected
to handle tough situations. There are
many but one I would like to narrate when I was young. It was in early eighties when Punjab was declared
as a disturbed area and on an Exercise, I was asked to lead a convoy of 25
vehicles from Halwara (near Ludhiana) to Pathankot by road. I was young Flight Lieutenant with about five
years of service. That time,
instructions were “on sunset, park vehicles in police station or nearby base
overnight.” My BOSS said to me, “You are
the best judge but I expect you to give me call at about 8 pm from Pathankot
that you have reached!” A catch-22
situation! At sunset, we were at Jullunder
bypass when two IAF police came and gave the message that we have to park the
vehicles at Adampur, an IAF base about 20 km away. I asked my guys and they said, “Chak de
phatte, sir, let us carry on.” I had
most of them Sardars the Thinds, Awanas, Singhs, Gills, Sandhus, Walias,
Anirudhans, Pillays to give the colour of Indianness! I for a moment felt like young Shivaji with
his Mavalas! I said “OK we go ahead-
safety catches of pistols, SLRs forward, speed not to reduce below 50 kmph, no
stoppage except when military post stops us, open fire when in doubt!” We had Palma Russian radio telephony sets to
be in contact. Every 15 minutes calls to
confirm all is ok. We reached without
any event and I gave the much awaited call to the BOSS. Looking back I shudder to think what would
have happened if one or more of them had become trigger-happy due to tension
and excitement and start “opening fire” from inside vehicle shattering front
windscreens and collateral damages! But
then, that is what is boldness, action and ready to face consequences if
everything does not go your way. Luck
favours the brave! I would like to add
here- Yudhhasya katha ramya. A few
readers may not be able to “live” such moments thinking of so many thoughts
that cross your mind before taking bold decisions.
Another
incident is recent. After the Pathankot
incident, we were guarding our bases with high security. I was Commanding Maintenance Command and one
of the local commanders rang up in the afternoon around the Republic parade days
about suspicious movement around our biggest Ammunition Dump. We swung into action and activated everyone
with two helicopters landing at night there with troops and Garuds (IAF special
forces) to take care of the assets and the people there. We arranged a UAV sortie for the required
imagery to confirm that there was no threat.
The stakes were very high as nobody would have been spared if there was
another Pathankot. If you take it
lightly and something happens, heads were bound to roll and if you are
proactive nothing happens, one can criticize action as being
trigger-happy. Well….that is how it is.
5. In about 40 years of your long service,
have you participated in any war? Can you share some experiences from the
‘ground zero’?
I
joined IAF in Jul 77 and there has been no conventional war since then. However, we had Kargil, Op Parakram, Op
Vijay, which were in the category of specific limited warfare, restricted to a
particular geographical area. There have
been of course Maldives and Srilanka operations. Indian Air Force is offensive in nature and is
brought to bear in exceptional circumstances and needs political decision. In today’s world IAF is the First Responder. We continue to simulate war-like conditions
all through 24x7. For a Maintenance Man
in IAF, the job is onerous to say the least and faces war-like situation
everyday due to snags, rectifications, inspections and spares back-up. We form the excellent band of professionals
to maintain and keep the flying machines, missiles, radars in top condition to
give desired result all the time. We
simulate friendly forces and enemy forces and conduct miniscule to large scale
exercises. Then there are internally
disturbed situations such as Punjab, J & K, North east, Bastar to name a
few. We participate in all of them
directly or indirectly. Being a
Maintenance Man I with my staff was actively involved in making systems
serviceable and operational ready for instant use! I recall in 1983-84, when Siachin hotted up,
I was involved in modification of the aeroengines to resolve starting problems
due to high altitudes.
7. In
films we see that, military officer’s blood boils and they want to take tough
action against the enemy, but their hands are bound by orders from headquarters.
Is this a realistic situation? Have you ever faced it?
We
in military have to ACT and ACT fast since there is no second chance in
war. We are trained and tuned to act
decisively based on ground or air situation.
Conventional enemy is easy to deal with since you know who your friend
is and who your enemy is. In no war no
peace situation, it is difficult to identify this. Also we work on camaraderie, the unifying
spirit of brotherhood and anyone getting hurt is not acceptable- this is how
each uniformed person is groomed. Hence
it is right to a large extent that when there is a casualty, the blood
boils! But, there are larger issues of Situation
Awareness and diplomacy. Hence the
officer cadre is meant to “see the wood in the dark” and control the forces
placed below to ensure that Rambo actions are not taken. There is a definite Command and Control chain
with accountability and responsibility well prescribed.
8. Can
you imagine yourself as a civilian? Do you think your personality would have
been different if you have chosen a civilian job?
I
must admit that out of the three services i.e. Army, Navy and Air Force, Air
Force is one of the most progressive, “democratic” if I am permitted to use the
word with comparatively more freedom to express. So to that extent, we are accustomed to
listening to the differing and divergent views though the final decision is of
the BOSS and that is followed implicitly.
In a lighter vein, I used to call we as “civilians in uniform”! Ego is one which can be barrier to fill any
role and I have no ego! Hope I have
answered the first part. I have no
hesitation in saying that I would have been definitely a different person-
diplomat, hiding information that is not worth hiding, too materialistic,
competitive and hence perhaps unhappy in perpetuity! Good I did not face all that. But may be, the law of averages may catch up
sooner than later!
9. The overall lifestyle of people working in
military is different. It involves transfers, staying away from family, missing
out important occasions, risking life etc. You were physiologically prepared
for all this or you took it as it came?
I
think those who join Armed Forces are philosophical by thought or become one
once they join and face the vagaries of life.
In the indoctrination (ragging in old days), your physical and mental
toughness is ensured. The ego (that I am
great!) if any, is crushed and brought to ground zero- all equal, no difference
in one and another. I had represented
Vidarbha in first national junior kho-kho championship in Hyderabad in 1970;
used to play badminton and tennis. I
think, physical toughness is important- maximum in army, next in navy and then
in IAF due to the nature of work each service demands. One gets tuned to missing family functions
due to exercises, contingencies and other factors. We learn the way of life as “tomorrow’s bread
will come tomorrow”. Jokingly, we call
ourselves Gypsies moving from one place to another!
I do not know but being a Sagittarian, I
always enjoyed changes, challenges, uncertainties, tension and meeting people
from different areas, etc. I recall when
I met Manisha, she was just 20 and being an IAS officer’s daughter may have
thought services to be too good! I told
her, “I don’t know how much you understand but in services, there are three
things- don’t compare my salary with my friends’ after 20 years. Second there will be separation due to
exercises, courses, postings and tours.
Thirdly we do not get house immediately so we have to be happy with
make-shift arrangements.” That put me
always on a high moral ground and I always reminded her of my talk then
whenever situation demanded so! Of
course, she adopted, adapted and performed a perfect role of an ideal home
maker in sync with the changing environment around us with a total of 22
postings in 36 years averaging 1.6 years at one place! It is difficult for civilians to appreciate
the difficulties in adjustments especially with the children education. I was fortunate enough to have both my
daughters Manasi and Neeti adjusting them excellently every time.
10. To motivate youths to join forces, what
message would you like to give?
Each
one of us has Nationalism in the DNA which can be seen at Wagha Border and
during 26 Jan parade to name a few. I am
of the opinion that every true Indian “breathes” India
and serves the nation in some form or the other. To get charged up on the above occasions is
one thing but to marry “deshbhakti” by joining Armed Forces is a different cup
of tea.
If
one wants to join Govt service, Armed forces are best with dignity, no
reservation or quota system, good people around, opportunities, excitement in
action and use of weapons and fulfilling the desire of serving the nation in
direct manner. GoI has been kind enough
to look after the issues of the Armed forces to the extent possible and it is a
good package of nationalism, basics looked after, status and reasonably good
salary and perks and privileges. I will
say if you are after money, then don’t join but otherwise yes, yes and
yes. Another challenge I would like to
give to the youth will be first get through the series of tests and barriers,
prove yourself you are worthy to be selected and then you may take a call on
whether to join or not to join. Many
think that once they apply they will face the problem of whether to join or not,
well …there is a wide gap between the
cup and the lip as they say. I know many
in my relations and acquaintances who wanted to join but did not get through in
spite of many attempts. They have done
reasonably well in civil walk of life alright though. Another thing, one does not need any family
members in the services. Yours truly and
there are many shining examples with no service background doing well. Lastly, success is a function of hard work,
situation or opportunity and X factor. Count
the blessings, curses are many!
11. After
the highest possible reward –President’s medal in the service, what are your
plans for future?
It
took some time for us to move ourselves from Lyuten’s Delhi Lodhi estate to
Rohan Jharoka here. Now, it looks as if
we are settled now. My areas of interest
are education, writing, sight-seeing and perhaps social service of some kind. Charity begins at home and the jobs lined up
are looking after Manasi’s son Advaya and/ or Neeti’s daughter Kashvi (Laxmi
name) as when the situation demand!
Returning to basics of preparing morning tea (since marriage in Dec 81,
I have been making morning tea till I got some sahayaks which was after about
35 years of service) and other household activities, ha ha! Being a Fellow of Aeronautical Society of
India and Institution of Electronics & Telecommunication Engineers with
interest in Indigenisation and MSMEs role in Make in India, I am happy to think
that the plate is full.
12. Your wife, Mrs. Manisha has been recognized
for her significant social work for serviceman’s families. Can you please tell us
more about her activities and achievements?
Manisha
has been a table tennis player and a Beauty Queen in her college days. With keen interest in all activities, she has
been a pillar of strength for all of us all through these 35 years of
togetherness. She has special dedication
towards differently abled children. She
has been President of Air Force Wives’ Welfare Association local at Chandigarh,
Kanpur, Pune and President f Region at Nagpur.
For her exceptional contribution towards welfare activities she got best
AFWWA (L) award at Kanpur and AOC-in-C commendation at Nagpur- a unique honor for
a civilian not employed in air force.
She gets the credit to establish for the first time, Defense Wives’
Welfare Association- a tri-services set up at Pune. She is actively involved in welfare of AFWWA
members right from early days.
Before
I sign off, we as a couple are indebted to this wonderful service called Indian
Air Force for giving us the necessary exposure to be what we are today. Given a choice, we have no hesitation in
saying we will join Indian Air Force and “Touch the Sky with Glory”! Jai Hind!
Interview taken by
--- Gandhali Sewak
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteGreat interview. Interviewer is also great. Jay hind
ReplyDeleteSuperb!! Well done Gandhali.
ReplyDelete