(Translated from the original Malayalam story by Krishna Praveen)
“Many people doubted then that it was me who named the operation to capture Siachen Glacier in Kashmir as ‘Operation Meghdooth’. There is indeed a reason for that. In a way, the Siachen war started way back in 1978. The operation became a success on 13th April 1984. We used to send messages written on papers through ropes to the soldiers along with food and letters in Cheeta helicopters. “We will be back in 10 minutes. Before that all of you must write the letters to your kith and kin and should put it in the box”, this was the message. When we came back after 10 minutes and pulled back the boxes, we could see some words written using the blood on the same paper on which we send the message to the soldiers. The words read like this. “Dear Sir, to inform our relatives that we are still alive, we need a pen and a few papers as well”. We were in tears after reading that. Between the thick clouds, the view of the soldiers wretchedly looking up to the sky is still live in my eyes. It is to be remembered that Siachen is the tallest warfront in the world. The temperature ranges from minus 40 degree to 70 degree. Even the tears will solidify as transparent glass pieces and stick on the eyes causing pain. All the soldiers tie themselves together using a rope and move through the ice blocks. If anyone of them fall under the ice layers, all of them have to halt to break the ice layers and take the person out of the ice and remove his body from the rope to continue moving. This is the nature of Siachen operation. The villain there is not the Pakistan force, rather the extremely cruel climate. The war is with the cruel climate. We used to crack jokes that the Pakistani soldiers who are about to die due to non supply of food and that too in the extreme chillness, must be fed first and make them lively and then shoot them down.”
“I recollected the lines from the poem of Kalidasa- “Thenardhithwam twayi vidhivashath doorabandhoorgathoham!”. Don’t ask me what is the relation between war and Yaksha’s estrangement. The vulnerability on the realization that our death will not be known to our relatives is much bigger than war and its atrocities. Somebody told that Commander is mere romantic may be because of the reason that he is the son of the Mr. Ilayath master, Professor of Sanskrit Literature. May be it is true. Only a romantic can feel the freezing chillness of death. Is it not?”
He stopped talking. From the tray, he took a cigar and took a deep puff after lighting it. When the thick white smoke filled the room like a small bunch of clouds, Tobias signaled to switch of the camera. It is a 40 floored building and in the room that lies in the 37th floor, a recording of a programme titled “History through Me” for the T.V channel Safari is going on. There is no room available above the 37th floor which is good for living and that is why wing commander Neelakandan Ilayath alias commander Neel stay satisfied with his room in the 37th floor. The 20feet tall glass - wall adjacent to the door to the balcony is the main attraction of this room. The stay provides a feel of a flight hovering around the sky as it does not get the signal to land. The light spread fully in the room during day time and during the night, the room provides a magical feel of a big canvas of the starlight sky. During thunderous rain and lighting in the nights, it is an enticing hobby for him to sit in the dark looking at the mirror. In the background the song of Kishor Kumar, “Bheegi Bheegi rathom mem, meedhi meedhi bathom mem, kaisa lagtha hai” will be heard repeatedly. Along with this, he will smoke the imported Cuban cigars and puff- out the cloud –like smoke. He irresolutely watches the ice cubes getting melted in the glass which has the ‘Monkey Shoulder’. He does this as if he has bet someone on how long could he wait without keeping the glass on his lips.
Aboobacker is with him for the past 40 years. He is his manager, friend, cook, doctor, nurse, driver, great teacher, idiot-student, lover, waste bin, ‘all in one’. Abu knows the habits, weaknesses and stubbornness of the 86 year old commander. He is like a Sufi Saint who has got no likes and dislikes. If the commander calls out “Boo”, loudly he would appear even amidst of any busy work. He has even stopped his bath half way and has run wiping the head with the towel, to the call of the commander. Even while doing the 5 times namas a day, Aboo will lend the ears to the call of the commander. If the commander is in extreme anger or in disappointment, he has got only one word to call out and it is nothing but, ‘Boo’. In that call the entire pride and orphanity is apparent. His wife passed away 20 years ago and they have no children. Abu knows that though he looks humongous, he is as innocent as a little sparrow.
“Aboo, if you take care of me well, then all my possessions will be your’s and my body will be for the medical college students. Commander used to say this so often that perhaps Abu must have felt the aversion to life much more than him. Hasn’t he been with me for many years bereft of personal tastes, likes and pains? He never longed for anything. He is the only one in his household who earned sufficiently to marry off his sisters, took care of the medical expenses of his parents and renovated the house. He has been taken out when he was 15 as if something is taken out of the waste pit. Whenever the commander reminded him about his marriage, he eluded it by saying many excuses. Now as he has decided to stay the same at the age of 56, then what is the necessity of a bank balance, apartment and car?
Abu served tea to everyone during intervals. Fried cashews were there as well. Tobias signalled to change the camera position. All these moves were made in fear of the commander. The last day when they came to shoot the promo of the interview, the commander messed up things completely. Tobias tried to convince the commander, that the promo that they are planning for the interview will be unique which no other T.V channel programme had before. As an initial image of the promo, the crew planned to shoot the collapse of the 17-18 floored building in the background of the commander. He is going to unveil the dramatic incidents of his professional life which are extended like an era, through which he is going to attack the political doyens, fearlessly. Everyone was sure about that shot considering the nature of the interview. But Abu said that Commander was upset right from that morning. He regularly looked at the twin buildings, Alpha Serin, in Nettoor using his monoculars. When he saw the video of the buildings being demolished on the TV, he sighed and sat on the chair with his hands kept on his head. He shouted without any reason to the crew who went there to shoot the promo. He locked himself in his room and walked bound across the room. Maybe that he recollected the memories of the siren during the Second World War, and he ordered everyone to kneel on the floor. When he realized that nobody is following his instructions, he woke to consciousness and took the double barrel gun hung on the wall and pointed it toward others in the room and threatened them. In the panic, the crew lost vision of the collapse of the towers, which is very much clear from the apartment of the commander. The mushroom- cloud which forms when the atom bombs are dropped down was seen in the places where the buildings were located. Everyone got terrified when Tobias and crew moved out dropping their plans to shoot the promo. Two members who were agitated with the incidents moved out of that project. All eyes of the cameraman were on the library, during the intervals. Most of them were thick and decaying ones.
The Commander said, “It’s all my father’s possessions. The plan was to contribute the entire book to R.L.V College, Thripunithura. But I told Abu that it should be given only after my death. I too have a flavour in Sanskrit, not as much as my father had though. Bu the ‘height’ of those books cannot be seen in any other books. After reading the eyes of the commander, the cameraman took a few close shots of those books. A few low-angle shots of the commander reading the books were also taken.
“We will continue the next day, if you are tired, Sir”, said Tobias.
“Who is tired? You or me?”
“Not that. There is no hurry to complete this. Even if it gets extended, there are no issues at all. Some people have spoken for half an hour to sixty episodes”.
“You can stop if you are tired. I will be here only”.
Tobias was in dilemma. He however decided to go for another take and signalled the make-up man to touch up. The commander grasped the character.
“The earth became more round when I quit the force and joined the civil aviation”.
The commander laughed heavily looking at the crew who are wonderstruck, listening to the statement of commander.
I mean, I remained in the sky for more hours. There was no simulation method for pilot training as they have now. There were rules for the mandatory direct flying hours. Only then that license will be issued. It is not an easy job like teaching driving, giving the complete control of the flight and flying with the students who have no idea about flying an aircraft. It will take many months to learn the functions of the thousands of switches in the cockpit. A mishandling of one switch would tumble the flight. Trainees would always use the wrong switches out of their anxiety. It was a highly stressful job. Luckily there happened no disastrous incidents.
Even then, I had a deep fascination for the clouds. You see, when we taxi out the airport, line up the runway, operate the throttle and become completely airborne, then our companions to the right and left will be the clouds of varied size and texture. If the co-pilot does not annoy you by describing the matters of the earth, we can freely wander in the sky like clouds with no limits and boundaries. See, I said the matters of the “earth”. While flying above the clouds, the silk mattress of Sulthan on which the Sun’s silver lights are spread can be seen. What a call that is! We feel like jumping out of flight from that height and dying. It was not the first time. I was on the flight for 22 years. Slowly it became inebriation for me. The sky during the night, the sky just before the sunrise, the eye-piercing bright sky at noon, yes, you can see everything clearly at night. You will turn blind on the flight at the mid-noon of the day. Moonless sky is more romantic than moonlight. Still, the clouds, clouds, clouds!
We have to teach the different types and nature of clouds to the trainees. “You have to avoid clouds while flying”, isn’t it? There is no other way for that. Now we have the technology and ultra-modern facilities plus machinery. We had to detect the nature and type of the cloud, recognize the extent of the cloud and either lift or keep it down or take left or right, merely through the naked- vision. We had to know the electric charge as well as the chemical ingredients of the clouds as well.
By the way, if you have the facilities to show the visuals, I shall show you a chart. It is used to identify the different clouds based on their shape and height. “Do you have such provisions, Tobias”?
Yes sir. It will be of great help to the viewers. A picture is equal to 1000 words, isn’t it sir?
“Exactly. I will take it out. Please pause for a while.”
The commander took the papers neatly kept inside the wall shelf. His eyes stuck in between a few photos in that pile. He stayed ruminant for a while and kept things back properly.
“Boo”
At the end of the call, Boo appeared instantly at lightning speed.
“The… Other one… Do you remember where it is”?
“Sir, which one?”
The commander put everything down without answering that. Abu showed a few other papers and files kept at different corners of the shelves, without knowing what exactly the commander is searching for. Abu signalled Tobias with his eyes that “see, this is his nature” and he turned aside then.
Commander lost his patience.
“It was here only. I will show all that to you before you complete the shooting. In that there are specific details mentioned regarding the AGL, Above Ground Level etc. those are the pictures that the pilots should learn by heart.
Haven’t you seen clouds staying still as sheep? Those are the ones on top of most heights. The other type resembles long hair that dissolves in infinity. They are the ones named ‘Cirro status’. It seems, somebody has woken up early in the morning and swept the sky- yard using a big broomstick. The marks resemble the marks caused out of the In Erk on the yard. The Latin word Cirro means, hair string. Those clouds are above 20000 feet high. Those seen are ice crystals.
From there onwards, till 6500 feet high, we could see the clouds named ‘alto stratus’ or ‘alto cumulus’. Cumulus means something like a hump. Technically, there is much to say. At the extreme low ‘cumulo nimbus’ or ‘C.B clouds’ are seen. Thick, dark clouds that cause heavy rainfall are seen. These are the real villains of the sky. It contains a high electric charge. Once caught in, then that’s the end. Clouds can be seen only till 15000 feet. Above that height, it is a meditative mood. Can you imagine timelessness? Such is the experience there. I have almost 18 hours of non-stop flying experience above the Atlantic. What to say? you will become nothing. Below the poison- blue filled canopy, there lies the foamed cloud- mattress as wide as an ocean. The horizon will attract us like a magnet. It will be difficult for us to realize that we are travelling at a speed of 1000 miles per hour. During cloudless times, we look down to ensure that the earth is there still in its position. That is enough! ..ha..
The commander tried to bring in back that situation in his memories.
Nobody dares to break that meditation.
Burning silence!
Everybody’s eyes were stuck on his eyes. The camera was still rolling.
Tobias decided not to remove these moments while editing. What is required there is not the height of the non-stop flying sparrows, but rather the height of the meditative eagles. Let the viewers also have a few sights without me. There, we have facilities to make things work and to make the system better. There was a wing of adventurous and daring young people.
He woke up with an apology. He drank some water and continued speaking.
I finished that term quickly and joined ATC- Air Traffic Control Centre. There we have the opportunity to make use of the employers, to work and make things better. There was a bunch of efficient young workers who were ready for any work at any time. I used to identify the lazy workers quickly. There was a Dr. Sethurama Iyyer. There was a medical checkup for the pilots before getting into the cockpit. The doctor must certify the pilots, are medically fit, before getting into the flight. Sethurama Iyyer never comes to the office. He works from his home. Pilots would make a call to him before getting on the flight. He will ask, “How are you?” they will answer, “Fine, sir”. That is it. The checkup is over and he will certify, sitting in his home.
I identified this. I asked the officer- in charge, his phone number. I called him and asked, Mr Sethurama Iyyer, don’t you have a room at ATC?
Sethurama Iyyer came in typical Trivandrum style after one hour.
I told him, Mr Iyyer, you are younger than me. Don’t play this game at Aviation. Tomorrow onwards, you have to be at the airport and check the pilots. I will inspect your registration at any time. Isn’t there a divine cross-belt put across your chest? Don’t you have to show honesty at least to that?
Mr Sethurama Iyyer, who chants the Gayathri Mantra, 108 times a day, bent to my foot. Hadn’t I removed my legs immediately, he would have touched my feet.
There are many people like this. “Chalta Hai”, is their attitude. Things will go on like this. This is an attitude initiated by someone, at some point for some reason. We follow it unaware of the reason that is all. But when I started identifying these attitudes, things started getting cleared. If we do our job right, there is no need to kneel before others, isn’t it? Whenever the civil aviation minister comes, I never used to go meet him. I would make a call to him and tell him, “I am sorry sir; I am busy with some work here”. The minister knows that I would do my job properly. That is it.
I was in many centres even after that. In between, there was an incident while I was working as Assistant Director, in Trivandrum. My position was next to DGCA Director General of Civil Aviation. It was a risky job but as satisfying as it was. It’s been a long time ever since it all got over. I do not know whether I could reveal all those incidents now, at this point. Investigation details are not supposed to be revealed. Yet I will tell it now as it is a nightmarish experience for me.
When Tobias felt that the Commander is taking a long time to continue, he looked at the cameraman. When the lights went off immediately, everyone looked in that sudden darkness to the place where the commander was sitting. When they saw the thick smog rising out from that position, Tobias immediately felt the burn in his mouth. He moved towards the balcony on the other side and took a cigarette from his pocket and lighted it. He thought he might have to edit the video if the narration goes like this, without any serious incidents. But there is no need for it. He was beginning to say something serious.
Abu, who was not seen for a long time, is now seen with a tray of cut fruits. He served it to them. When everyone returned fresh, the Commander took a book, where edges have already been damaged and showed it to everyone. Clouds are always an obsession for poets. Kalidasa has described its mysteries in many of his stories. It is the only friend to those who are alone due to various reasons. It is the same for the Emperor and the poor. The clouds see everything, know everything and console everyone.
When the commander started narrating the literature, Tobias switched on the lights and started recording. He is slowly coming into a good mood. An aeronaut, who has got great mastery in classics, is always a wonder. He sat majestically on his seat and continued his narration. Clouds were an obsession for Shelly, Wordsworth and Ruskin, like Kalidasa. There is a biting study titled ‘Meghaalokam’ (Cloud overview) by our Shankunni Nair.
The Safari channel crew gazed at each other. “Which Shankunni Nair?”
The commander took a book titled ‘Chathravum Chamaravum’ (Canopy and Punkah). He flipped the pages.
See, how he has quoted Goethe-
“The first acquaintance with such a work always makes an epoch in our life”
This is about Kalidasa’s Meghadooth.
To portray the mysteries of human life, Kalidasa employed different dimensions of the clouds. Purooravassu asks Urvashi as if asking an air hostess, to take him to the palace, pointing to the clouds with lightning and rainbow. Shankunni Nair points out this.
The commander closed the book and flipped the book up and down and said-
This is an extraordinary book. But people failed to rise to his level hence they didn’t consider this work.
Haven’t we been discussing the incidents that happened in ATC, Trivandrum while I was working there? the story of that air crash stole my sleep for a long period! A small aircraft was found missing during its flight from Kochi to Trivandrum. During the training period, there is a session titled ‘Cross Country’ for the trainees. They have to learn to fly short distances at average heights. The Trivandrum ATC got the information when the flight took off from Kochi airport. “Expected time of arrival is at 7:00 PM. Report to us at each interval”. I gave this command and I got engaged in other works.
The time has passed 8 P.M and then 9 P.M. there is no information about the aircraft. A pilot, co-pilot and a trainee are the only people inside the aircraft. All three were brilliant. It is a team, for which the room for error is too low. The wife of one among the team is the senior staff in the office of the cabinet secretary; a person who has got a direct connection with the minister. She called me from Delhi at 10.P.M telling me that she could not connect with her husband. He said her that he will reach Trivandrum at 7 P.M. I told her that I will enquire about it and hung up the phone. After that, there were a series of enquiries. Somehow the news leaked and the media also got to know about it. It was total pandemonium. There were calls from DGCA, Minister Sindhya, Police, and the Public- a total mess up. I haven’t slept that night.
There is a facility named VOR- Virtual Omni Range. It is a signalling system. It is installed in many areas. The small aircraft identify their positions by looking at these VORs. We have received the signal until Kollam. After that, it was found missing. We can assume that, there, the flight is almost above the sea shore. The height maybe 2000 to 2500 feet. No flight crash is reported anywhere near the sea shores. Then what happened? I thought about all the possibilities till dawn.
If there were any confusion or engine failure, then definitely the pilot would have contacted us. Nothing of that kind has happened. Hence it is sure that it is not a case of an accident, that happened while trying to land the craft, due to engine failure, or any other similar issues. If it is tail-wind, that is, the forceful wind blowing from behind the flight, the flight will lose its control and deviates from its actual course of direction. There is no chance of such an incident. Then what could have happened? I called many people and asked about the possibilities. I got no idea about the incident. Since there were VOR responses till Kollam, I decided to go there for further enquiry. I and my assistant Mr Ranveer, a Punjabi officer, started to Kollam. Some people exaggerated that they saw a big fireball in the sky and some said it was on the top of a hill. We went there in search of the flight. But there was no clue about the flight. We searched the nook and corner of the entire seashore. Nothing! It was then that a fellow police officer spoke about a lady, who lives in a village, near Anchal. She has got the talent to prophesy these kinds of things. He said that many sensational police cases got solved from the lady’s prophesies. I agreed and decided to go there.
When we reached there, we could see a long queue of almost 500 people, waiting to listen to her prophesies. When the people saw the police and central government vehicles, they allowed us to go to the front. That lady mumbled a few mantras and came out to the yard and forcefully spit three times. She said then that, there is a Siva temple, where there has no worship or offerings, on a hilltop in some remote village near Kottayam. There is a dirty pool to the west of the temple. The aircraft has fallen in that pool. We were wonderstruck to see how the miraculous powers of a lady work, in a period where there are no GPS or radar facilities! We offered gifts to the lady and received her blessings and started off to Kottayam. We went along with the district collector, to that village. All the descriptions are true. A lonely unoccupied hill is seen. There is no way to go up. We can see the temple standing in the middle of a big rock. We climbed the slippery rock- me, Ranveer and the UP cadre civil service officer. When we saw the big statue of Nandikeswara before reaching the temple, our heartbeat started pounding up. We called out for our eternal mother out of our anxiety. We could see the closed front gates of the temple. What a celestial gift she has, to have a clear vision of all these! We prayed to stand in front of the closed gates and put 100 rupees as offerings in the box, kept in front of the temple. We proceeded to the backside of the temple, in search of the pond.
We found the pond. There is no water in it. It’s a pit made out of big rocks. The only possibility of water storage in that pit is during the rainy season. We and the police searched every nook and corner of that hill. We didn’t get even a small piece of iron from there. It was a big shame. By this time, when the villagers saw the police and other officers climbing the hill, they also started coming up the hill. What to do? We immediately gave the orders to clear the place and got out of that place. One should see the angry face of the Collector. He must have felt like cutting me into pieces out of anger. We were disappointed. We came down and returned. That is it.
Commander sighed heavily and drank a lot of water, rubbed his chest out of disappointment and moved around the room. Tobias became confused. “What is the point that you make? Or, have you finished narrating? Is this blunder that you did that you have had to share with us?”
While we were returning from the hill, cursing all the gods that we know, I noticed a humongous lonely cloud appear in the sky. “Jaatham vamshe bhuvanavidithe pushkalavarthakaanam”. I suddenly remembered the lines from ‘Meghadooth’ you were born in the world-famous ‘Pushkalavarthaka’ dynasty. ‘Pushkalavarthakas’ are heavy rain clouds prepared to shower heavily and sink the entire world during flood times. They are the chieftains of the cloud community. Is he the one who is standing above me? He is the one who appeared on the first day of the Ashadha masa (Rainy season- perhaps the month of July) to bless the Yaksha, when he became lonely in the Ramagiri Ashram, after losing his beloved wife. He looks like a big elephant bent down to hit its trunks on the ground. He is the C.B. cloud in our parlance; the lonely cloud, jet black in colour! It was a wonder. They are never seen alone. These rain clouds always appear in groups. The sight of a lonely cloud as seen by Kalidasa is indeed a mysterious sign. I was sure about it.
These groups of clouds are a nightmare for the aeronauts. The C.B clouds are formed by the composition of many chemicals in the atmosphere. He is highly aggressive. An aircraft has broken into pieces in front of my eyes, once it got into these clouds, while I was in Agra. It’s a body with an extremely high electric charge. While I was sitting in the car, with my head down out of shame, a few images passed through my mind. We dropped the collector in his office and expressed our apologies to him a hundred times, for the inconvenience caused and we returned to Kollam. Ranveer who is clueless about things is with me. “We have already searched there completely”, he said. I told him, “There is a priest in one of the churches. We have to meet him”. Poor lad! He sat silently.
I felt that the lonely cloud is following us whole along the way.
We moved to Kollam port through Changanassery and Karunagappilly. There is a priest whom I knew in one of the churches. ‘The Church of the Purifying Mother’; that’s the name, I remember. I was awestruck by the sight I had while waiting for the priest in front of the church. The evening is passed and there is light on the horizon but the darkness has started to spread in the land. People are going to the sea using small fishing boats. They have a lantern which will not shut off in the wind. Those lamps are called goose-necked lamps. We could see people going in a line to the sea. The light from the lantern created an impression of a big glazing strand, extended to the sea.
When the priest came, I enquired him, whether there was any thunder, heavy rain or any information from the fishermen, regarding unusual sounds from the sea. He said that, even though it didn’t rain, the entire sky was filled with thick dark clouds which were ready to pour at any time. The priest said that, though the fishermen hesitated to move into the sea initially, they believed that the clouds would move away with the wind. I remembered, C.B. Clouds, tailwind, runway! I bid farewell to the priest and started to Trivandrum. On the way, the words I should use in my report flowed into my mind.
Even though the Shankhumukham Police prepared an F.I.R, no further investigations happened. I was continuously asked to submit the report from the office of the civil aviation minister. As I told earlier, the wife of the co-pilot is the reason for that. I confirmed. They won’t return. I knew that it was a baseless stupid fortitude. But I was hundred per cent sure. There is a high pulling force for the widespread seawater. It will pull down anything that goes above or close to its surface. This was my conclusion. When the pilot saw the Kollam port, he mistook it for the destination. When he kept the flight down, to avoid the C.B clouds, he saw the rows of lights as they are seen on the runway. As the sight was from the clouds, he could not detect whether the light rows are moving or not. He realized that it is not the runway, but the lanterns from the boats of the fishermen, only when he adjusted the flaps and started gliding the flight to land. During the landing times, the engines will be on high power. If the flight could not land, due to unpredictable reasons, the flight has to immediately fly up again. But, he might not have got the time to fly up, due to the pulling force of the sea. The flight might have moved far away from the sight of the fishermen due to its speed. As it was nighttime, nothing would have worked for him, as the condition was not favourable to take off immediately. This was my conclusion. I described it with all causes and reasons in my report and sent it to the ministry. Sindhya called me and appreciated my report. I told them to disburse compensation to all three families. Believe me, two million rupees, of those times, were given to each family, as compensation. The minister was so pleased with my report. That was the reason. If a person goes missing, we have to wait for that person for seven years. That is the rule of the government; only then that they could move to further measures. The then A.C.P, Mr Pankajakshan Nair asked me “lad, can we trust your fictional report? What if all the three, step into the station, one fine morning? I said, “No sir, they won’t come. No need to wait for them, not even for seven days.
It is now twenty-eight years passed since that incident happened. Nobody returned yet. No one will return. I was so sure about that. It was the message that the lone cloud gave me from the hills in Kottayam.
The commander stood up from the chair with a sigh and searched for the cigar. The dark sky, outside the mirror, became clear and visible when the lights were shut down. As a coincidence, the commander told Tobias “come on” and walked out of the room. He climbed the stairs with heavy steps and reached near the doors, which is painted in red colour. It was written ‘Helipad Access’ on that door. He made the security staff, open the doors and quickly climbed the steps. Tobias and the crew felt difficulty moving as swiftly as the commander did. Suddenly they reached a circular plane and the stairs reached its end. A thick dark rain cloud was waiting there. He (the cloud) stayed there, covering the entire sky, as a romantic in eyes-piercing black colour. Thunders were meaningful. In the middle of the helipad, which is the shape of the letter, ‘H’, written in white colour, in that neck of the sky, where there are no reliance and dependence, the commander stayed as a naïve and waved his hands.
Tobias grabbed the camera in hurry and sponged all those moments. He captured in a lightening numbness, the image of a man standing 450 feet above as if he is standing in the pose of holding the entire clouds in his hands, like the Govardhana Mountains.
“Many people doubted then that it was me who named the operation to capture Siachen Glacier in Kashmir as ‘Operation Meghdooth’. There is indeed a reason for that. In a way, the Siachen war started way back in 1978. The operation became a success on 13th April 1984. We used to send messages written on papers through ropes to the soldiers along with food and letters in Cheeta helicopters. “We will be back in 10 minutes. Before that all of you must write the letters to your kith and kin and should put it in the box”, this was the message. When we came back after 10 minutes and pulled back the boxes, we could see some words written using the blood on the same paper on which we send the message to the soldiers. The words read like this. “Dear Sir, to inform our relatives that we are still alive, we need a pen and a few papers as well”. We were in tears after reading that. Between the thick clouds, the view of the soldiers wretchedly looking up to the sky is still live in my eyes. It is to be remembered that Siachen is the tallest warfront in the world. The temperature ranges from minus 40 degree to 70 degree. Even the tears will solidify as transparent glass pieces and stick on the eyes causing pain. All the soldiers tie themselves together using a rope and move through the ice blocks. If anyone of them fall under the ice layers, all of them have to halt to break the ice layers and take the person out of the ice and remove his body from the rope to continue moving. This is the nature of Siachen operation. The villain there is not the Pakistan force, rather the extremely cruel climate. The war is with the cruel climate. We used to crack jokes that the Pakistani soldiers who are about to die due to non supply of food and that too in the extreme chillness, must be fed first and make them lively and then shoot them down.”
“I recollected the lines from the poem of Kalidasa- “Thenardhithwam twayi vidhivashath doorabandhoorgathoham!”. Don’t ask me what is the relation between war and Yaksha’s estrangement. The vulnerability on the realization that our death will not be known to our relatives is much bigger than war and its atrocities. Somebody told that Commander is mere romantic may be because of the reason that he is the son of the Mr. Ilayath master, Professor of Sanskrit Literature. May be it is true. Only a romantic can feel the freezing chillness of death. Is it not?”
He stopped talking. From the tray, he took a cigar and took a deep puff after lighting it. When the thick white smoke filled the room like a small bunch of clouds, Tobias signaled to switch of the camera. It is a 40 floored building and in the room that lies in the 37th floor, a recording of a programme titled “History through Me” for the T.V channel Safari is going on. There is no room available above the 37th floor which is good for living and that is why wing commander Neelakandan Ilayath alias commander Neel stay satisfied with his room in the 37th floor. The 20feet tall glass - wall adjacent to the door to the balcony is the main attraction of this room. The stay provides a feel of a flight hovering around the sky as it does not get the signal to land. The light spread fully in the room during day time and during the night, the room provides a magical feel of a big canvas of the starlight sky. During thunderous rain and lighting in the nights, it is an enticing hobby for him to sit in the dark looking at the mirror. In the background the song of Kishor Kumar, “Bheegi Bheegi rathom mem, meedhi meedhi bathom mem, kaisa lagtha hai” will be heard repeatedly. Along with this, he will smoke the imported Cuban cigars and puff- out the cloud –like smoke. He irresolutely watches the ice cubes getting melted in the glass which has the ‘Monkey Shoulder’. He does this as if he has bet someone on how long could he wait without keeping the glass on his lips.
Aboobacker is with him for the past 40 years. He is his manager, friend, cook, doctor, nurse, driver, great teacher, idiot-student, lover, waste bin, ‘all in one’. Abu knows the habits, weaknesses and stubbornness of the 86 year old commander. He is like a Sufi Saint who has got no likes and dislikes. If the commander calls out “Boo”, loudly he would appear even amidst of any busy work. He has even stopped his bath half way and has run wiping the head with the towel, to the call of the commander. Even while doing the 5 times namas a day, Aboo will lend the ears to the call of the commander. If the commander is in extreme anger or in disappointment, he has got only one word to call out and it is nothing but, ‘Boo’. In that call the entire pride and orphanity is apparent. His wife passed away 20 years ago and they have no children. Abu knows that though he looks humongous, he is as innocent as a little sparrow.
“Aboo, if you take care of me well, then all my possessions will be your’s and my body will be for the medical college students. Commander used to say this so often that perhaps Abu must have felt the aversion to life much more than him. Hasn’t he been with me for many years bereft of personal tastes, likes and pains? He never longed for anything. He is the only one in his household who earned sufficiently to marry off his sisters, took care of the medical expenses of his parents and renovated the house. He has been taken out when he was 15 as if something is taken out of the waste pit. Whenever the commander reminded him about his marriage, he eluded it by saying many excuses. Now as he has decided to stay the same at the age of 56, then what is the necessity of a bank balance, apartment and car?
Abu served tea to everyone during intervals. Fried cashews were there as well. Tobias signalled to change the camera position. All these moves were made in fear of the commander. The last day when they came to shoot the promo of the interview, the commander messed up things completely. Tobias tried to convince the commander, that the promo that they are planning for the interview will be unique which no other T.V channel programme had before. As an initial image of the promo, the crew planned to shoot the collapse of the 17-18 floored building in the background of the commander. He is going to unveil the dramatic incidents of his professional life which are extended like an era, through which he is going to attack the political doyens, fearlessly. Everyone was sure about that shot considering the nature of the interview. But Abu said that Commander was upset right from that morning. He regularly looked at the twin buildings, Alpha Serin, in Nettoor using his monoculars. When he saw the video of the buildings being demolished on the TV, he sighed and sat on the chair with his hands kept on his head. He shouted without any reason to the crew who went there to shoot the promo. He locked himself in his room and walked bound across the room. Maybe that he recollected the memories of the siren during the Second World War, and he ordered everyone to kneel on the floor. When he realized that nobody is following his instructions, he woke to consciousness and took the double barrel gun hung on the wall and pointed it toward others in the room and threatened them. In the panic, the crew lost vision of the collapse of the towers, which is very much clear from the apartment of the commander. The mushroom- cloud which forms when the atom bombs are dropped down was seen in the places where the buildings were located. Everyone got terrified when Tobias and crew moved out dropping their plans to shoot the promo. Two members who were agitated with the incidents moved out of that project. All eyes of the cameraman were on the library, during the intervals. Most of them were thick and decaying ones.
The Commander said, “It’s all my father’s possessions. The plan was to contribute the entire book to R.L.V College, Thripunithura. But I told Abu that it should be given only after my death. I too have a flavour in Sanskrit, not as much as my father had though. Bu the ‘height’ of those books cannot be seen in any other books. After reading the eyes of the commander, the cameraman took a few close shots of those books. A few low-angle shots of the commander reading the books were also taken.
“We will continue the next day, if you are tired, Sir”, said Tobias.
“Who is tired? You or me?”
“Not that. There is no hurry to complete this. Even if it gets extended, there are no issues at all. Some people have spoken for half an hour to sixty episodes”.
“You can stop if you are tired. I will be here only”.
Tobias was in dilemma. He however decided to go for another take and signalled the make-up man to touch up. The commander grasped the character.
“The earth became more round when I quit the force and joined the civil aviation”.
The commander laughed heavily looking at the crew who are wonderstruck, listening to the statement of commander.
I mean, I remained in the sky for more hours. There was no simulation method for pilot training as they have now. There were rules for the mandatory direct flying hours. Only then that license will be issued. It is not an easy job like teaching driving, giving the complete control of the flight and flying with the students who have no idea about flying an aircraft. It will take many months to learn the functions of the thousands of switches in the cockpit. A mishandling of one switch would tumble the flight. Trainees would always use the wrong switches out of their anxiety. It was a highly stressful job. Luckily there happened no disastrous incidents.
Even then, I had a deep fascination for the clouds. You see, when we taxi out the airport, line up the runway, operate the throttle and become completely airborne, then our companions to the right and left will be the clouds of varied size and texture. If the co-pilot does not annoy you by describing the matters of the earth, we can freely wander in the sky like clouds with no limits and boundaries. See, I said the matters of the “earth”. While flying above the clouds, the silk mattress of Sulthan on which the Sun’s silver lights are spread can be seen. What a call that is! We feel like jumping out of flight from that height and dying. It was not the first time. I was on the flight for 22 years. Slowly it became inebriation for me. The sky during the night, the sky just before the sunrise, the eye-piercing bright sky at noon, yes, you can see everything clearly at night. You will turn blind on the flight at the mid-noon of the day. Moonless sky is more romantic than moonlight. Still, the clouds, clouds, clouds!
We have to teach the different types and nature of clouds to the trainees. “You have to avoid clouds while flying”, isn’t it? There is no other way for that. Now we have the technology and ultra-modern facilities plus machinery. We had to detect the nature and type of the cloud, recognize the extent of the cloud and either lift or keep it down or take left or right, merely through the naked- vision. We had to know the electric charge as well as the chemical ingredients of the clouds as well.
By the way, if you have the facilities to show the visuals, I shall show you a chart. It is used to identify the different clouds based on their shape and height. “Do you have such provisions, Tobias”?
Yes sir. It will be of great help to the viewers. A picture is equal to 1000 words, isn’t it sir?
“Exactly. I will take it out. Please pause for a while.”
The commander took the papers neatly kept inside the wall shelf. His eyes stuck in between a few photos in that pile. He stayed ruminant for a while and kept things back properly.
“Boo”
At the end of the call, Boo appeared instantly at lightning speed.
“The… Other one… Do you remember where it is”?
“Sir, which one?”
The commander put everything down without answering that. Abu showed a few other papers and files kept at different corners of the shelves, without knowing what exactly the commander is searching for. Abu signalled Tobias with his eyes that “see, this is his nature” and he turned aside then.
Commander lost his patience.
“It was here only. I will show all that to you before you complete the shooting. In that there are specific details mentioned regarding the AGL, Above Ground Level etc. those are the pictures that the pilots should learn by heart.
Haven’t you seen clouds staying still as sheep? Those are the ones on top of most heights. The other type resembles long hair that dissolves in infinity. They are the ones named ‘Cirro status’. It seems, somebody has woken up early in the morning and swept the sky- yard using a big broomstick. The marks resemble the marks caused out of the In Erk on the yard. The Latin word Cirro means, hair string. Those clouds are above 20000 feet high. Those seen are ice crystals.
From there onwards, till 6500 feet high, we could see the clouds named ‘alto stratus’ or ‘alto cumulus’. Cumulus means something like a hump. Technically, there is much to say. At the extreme low ‘cumulo nimbus’ or ‘C.B clouds’ are seen. Thick, dark clouds that cause heavy rainfall are seen. These are the real villains of the sky. It contains a high electric charge. Once caught in, then that’s the end. Clouds can be seen only till 15000 feet. Above that height, it is a meditative mood. Can you imagine timelessness? Such is the experience there. I have almost 18 hours of non-stop flying experience above the Atlantic. What to say? you will become nothing. Below the poison- blue filled canopy, there lies the foamed cloud- mattress as wide as an ocean. The horizon will attract us like a magnet. It will be difficult for us to realize that we are travelling at a speed of 1000 miles per hour. During cloudless times, we look down to ensure that the earth is there still in its position. That is enough! ..ha..
The commander tried to bring in back that situation in his memories.
Nobody dares to break that meditation.
Burning silence!
Everybody’s eyes were stuck on his eyes. The camera was still rolling.
Tobias decided not to remove these moments while editing. What is required there is not the height of the non-stop flying sparrows, but rather the height of the meditative eagles. Let the viewers also have a few sights without me. There, we have facilities to make things work and to make the system better. There was a wing of adventurous and daring young people.
He woke up with an apology. He drank some water and continued speaking.
I finished that term quickly and joined ATC- Air Traffic Control Centre. There we have the opportunity to make use of the employers, to work and make things better. There was a bunch of efficient young workers who were ready for any work at any time. I used to identify the lazy workers quickly. There was a Dr. Sethurama Iyyer. There was a medical checkup for the pilots before getting into the cockpit. The doctor must certify the pilots, are medically fit, before getting into the flight. Sethurama Iyyer never comes to the office. He works from his home. Pilots would make a call to him before getting on the flight. He will ask, “How are you?” they will answer, “Fine, sir”. That is it. The checkup is over and he will certify, sitting in his home.
I identified this. I asked the officer- in charge, his phone number. I called him and asked, Mr Sethurama Iyyer, don’t you have a room at ATC?
Sethurama Iyyer came in typical Trivandrum style after one hour.
I told him, Mr Iyyer, you are younger than me. Don’t play this game at Aviation. Tomorrow onwards, you have to be at the airport and check the pilots. I will inspect your registration at any time. Isn’t there a divine cross-belt put across your chest? Don’t you have to show honesty at least to that?
Mr Sethurama Iyyer, who chants the Gayathri Mantra, 108 times a day, bent to my foot. Hadn’t I removed my legs immediately, he would have touched my feet.
There are many people like this. “Chalta Hai”, is their attitude. Things will go on like this. This is an attitude initiated by someone, at some point for some reason. We follow it unaware of the reason that is all. But when I started identifying these attitudes, things started getting cleared. If we do our job right, there is no need to kneel before others, isn’t it? Whenever the civil aviation minister comes, I never used to go meet him. I would make a call to him and tell him, “I am sorry sir; I am busy with some work here”. The minister knows that I would do my job properly. That is it.
I was in many centres even after that. In between, there was an incident while I was working as Assistant Director, in Trivandrum. My position was next to DGCA Director General of Civil Aviation. It was a risky job but as satisfying as it was. It’s been a long time ever since it all got over. I do not know whether I could reveal all those incidents now, at this point. Investigation details are not supposed to be revealed. Yet I will tell it now as it is a nightmarish experience for me.
When Tobias felt that the Commander is taking a long time to continue, he looked at the cameraman. When the lights went off immediately, everyone looked in that sudden darkness to the place where the commander was sitting. When they saw the thick smog rising out from that position, Tobias immediately felt the burn in his mouth. He moved towards the balcony on the other side and took a cigarette from his pocket and lighted it. He thought he might have to edit the video if the narration goes like this, without any serious incidents. But there is no need for it. He was beginning to say something serious.
Abu, who was not seen for a long time, is now seen with a tray of cut fruits. He served it to them. When everyone returned fresh, the Commander took a book, where edges have already been damaged and showed it to everyone. Clouds are always an obsession for poets. Kalidasa has described its mysteries in many of his stories. It is the only friend to those who are alone due to various reasons. It is the same for the Emperor and the poor. The clouds see everything, know everything and console everyone.
When the commander started narrating the literature, Tobias switched on the lights and started recording. He is slowly coming into a good mood. An aeronaut, who has got great mastery in classics, is always a wonder. He sat majestically on his seat and continued his narration. Clouds were an obsession for Shelly, Wordsworth and Ruskin, like Kalidasa. There is a biting study titled ‘Meghaalokam’ (Cloud overview) by our Shankunni Nair.
The Safari channel crew gazed at each other. “Which Shankunni Nair?”
The commander took a book titled ‘Chathravum Chamaravum’ (Canopy and Punkah). He flipped the pages.
See, how he has quoted Goethe-
“The first acquaintance with such a work always makes an epoch in our life”
This is about Kalidasa’s Meghadooth.
To portray the mysteries of human life, Kalidasa employed different dimensions of the clouds. Purooravassu asks Urvashi as if asking an air hostess, to take him to the palace, pointing to the clouds with lightning and rainbow. Shankunni Nair points out this.
The commander closed the book and flipped the book up and down and said-
This is an extraordinary book. But people failed to rise to his level hence they didn’t consider this work.
Haven’t we been discussing the incidents that happened in ATC, Trivandrum while I was working there? the story of that air crash stole my sleep for a long period! A small aircraft was found missing during its flight from Kochi to Trivandrum. During the training period, there is a session titled ‘Cross Country’ for the trainees. They have to learn to fly short distances at average heights. The Trivandrum ATC got the information when the flight took off from Kochi airport. “Expected time of arrival is at 7:00 PM. Report to us at each interval”. I gave this command and I got engaged in other works.
The time has passed 8 P.M and then 9 P.M. there is no information about the aircraft. A pilot, co-pilot and a trainee are the only people inside the aircraft. All three were brilliant. It is a team, for which the room for error is too low. The wife of one among the team is the senior staff in the office of the cabinet secretary; a person who has got a direct connection with the minister. She called me from Delhi at 10.P.M telling me that she could not connect with her husband. He said her that he will reach Trivandrum at 7 P.M. I told her that I will enquire about it and hung up the phone. After that, there were a series of enquiries. Somehow the news leaked and the media also got to know about it. It was total pandemonium. There were calls from DGCA, Minister Sindhya, Police, and the Public- a total mess up. I haven’t slept that night.
There is a facility named VOR- Virtual Omni Range. It is a signalling system. It is installed in many areas. The small aircraft identify their positions by looking at these VORs. We have received the signal until Kollam. After that, it was found missing. We can assume that, there, the flight is almost above the sea shore. The height maybe 2000 to 2500 feet. No flight crash is reported anywhere near the sea shores. Then what happened? I thought about all the possibilities till dawn.
If there were any confusion or engine failure, then definitely the pilot would have contacted us. Nothing of that kind has happened. Hence it is sure that it is not a case of an accident, that happened while trying to land the craft, due to engine failure, or any other similar issues. If it is tail-wind, that is, the forceful wind blowing from behind the flight, the flight will lose its control and deviates from its actual course of direction. There is no chance of such an incident. Then what could have happened? I called many people and asked about the possibilities. I got no idea about the incident. Since there were VOR responses till Kollam, I decided to go there for further enquiry. I and my assistant Mr Ranveer, a Punjabi officer, started to Kollam. Some people exaggerated that they saw a big fireball in the sky and some said it was on the top of a hill. We went there in search of the flight. But there was no clue about the flight. We searched the nook and corner of the entire seashore. Nothing! It was then that a fellow police officer spoke about a lady, who lives in a village, near Anchal. She has got the talent to prophesy these kinds of things. He said that many sensational police cases got solved from the lady’s prophesies. I agreed and decided to go there.
When we reached there, we could see a long queue of almost 500 people, waiting to listen to her prophesies. When the people saw the police and central government vehicles, they allowed us to go to the front. That lady mumbled a few mantras and came out to the yard and forcefully spit three times. She said then that, there is a Siva temple, where there has no worship or offerings, on a hilltop in some remote village near Kottayam. There is a dirty pool to the west of the temple. The aircraft has fallen in that pool. We were wonderstruck to see how the miraculous powers of a lady work, in a period where there are no GPS or radar facilities! We offered gifts to the lady and received her blessings and started off to Kottayam. We went along with the district collector, to that village. All the descriptions are true. A lonely unoccupied hill is seen. There is no way to go up. We can see the temple standing in the middle of a big rock. We climbed the slippery rock- me, Ranveer and the UP cadre civil service officer. When we saw the big statue of Nandikeswara before reaching the temple, our heartbeat started pounding up. We called out for our eternal mother out of our anxiety. We could see the closed front gates of the temple. What a celestial gift she has, to have a clear vision of all these! We prayed to stand in front of the closed gates and put 100 rupees as offerings in the box, kept in front of the temple. We proceeded to the backside of the temple, in search of the pond.
We found the pond. There is no water in it. It’s a pit made out of big rocks. The only possibility of water storage in that pit is during the rainy season. We and the police searched every nook and corner of that hill. We didn’t get even a small piece of iron from there. It was a big shame. By this time, when the villagers saw the police and other officers climbing the hill, they also started coming up the hill. What to do? We immediately gave the orders to clear the place and got out of that place. One should see the angry face of the Collector. He must have felt like cutting me into pieces out of anger. We were disappointed. We came down and returned. That is it.
Commander sighed heavily and drank a lot of water, rubbed his chest out of disappointment and moved around the room. Tobias became confused. “What is the point that you make? Or, have you finished narrating? Is this blunder that you did that you have had to share with us?”
While we were returning from the hill, cursing all the gods that we know, I noticed a humongous lonely cloud appear in the sky. “Jaatham vamshe bhuvanavidithe pushkalavarthakaanam”. I suddenly remembered the lines from ‘Meghadooth’ you were born in the world-famous ‘Pushkalavarthaka’ dynasty. ‘Pushkalavarthakas’ are heavy rain clouds prepared to shower heavily and sink the entire world during flood times. They are the chieftains of the cloud community. Is he the one who is standing above me? He is the one who appeared on the first day of the Ashadha masa (Rainy season- perhaps the month of July) to bless the Yaksha, when he became lonely in the Ramagiri Ashram, after losing his beloved wife. He looks like a big elephant bent down to hit its trunks on the ground. He is the C.B. cloud in our parlance; the lonely cloud, jet black in colour! It was a wonder. They are never seen alone. These rain clouds always appear in groups. The sight of a lonely cloud as seen by Kalidasa is indeed a mysterious sign. I was sure about it.
These groups of clouds are a nightmare for the aeronauts. The C.B clouds are formed by the composition of many chemicals in the atmosphere. He is highly aggressive. An aircraft has broken into pieces in front of my eyes, once it got into these clouds, while I was in Agra. It’s a body with an extremely high electric charge. While I was sitting in the car, with my head down out of shame, a few images passed through my mind. We dropped the collector in his office and expressed our apologies to him a hundred times, for the inconvenience caused and we returned to Kollam. Ranveer who is clueless about things is with me. “We have already searched there completely”, he said. I told him, “There is a priest in one of the churches. We have to meet him”. Poor lad! He sat silently.
I felt that the lonely cloud is following us whole along the way.
We moved to Kollam port through Changanassery and Karunagappilly. There is a priest whom I knew in one of the churches. ‘The Church of the Purifying Mother’; that’s the name, I remember. I was awestruck by the sight I had while waiting for the priest in front of the church. The evening is passed and there is light on the horizon but the darkness has started to spread in the land. People are going to the sea using small fishing boats. They have a lantern which will not shut off in the wind. Those lamps are called goose-necked lamps. We could see people going in a line to the sea. The light from the lantern created an impression of a big glazing strand, extended to the sea.
When the priest came, I enquired him, whether there was any thunder, heavy rain or any information from the fishermen, regarding unusual sounds from the sea. He said that, even though it didn’t rain, the entire sky was filled with thick dark clouds which were ready to pour at any time. The priest said that, though the fishermen hesitated to move into the sea initially, they believed that the clouds would move away with the wind. I remembered, C.B. Clouds, tailwind, runway! I bid farewell to the priest and started to Trivandrum. On the way, the words I should use in my report flowed into my mind.
Even though the Shankhumukham Police prepared an F.I.R, no further investigations happened. I was continuously asked to submit the report from the office of the civil aviation minister. As I told earlier, the wife of the co-pilot is the reason for that. I confirmed. They won’t return. I knew that it was a baseless stupid fortitude. But I was hundred per cent sure. There is a high pulling force for the widespread seawater. It will pull down anything that goes above or close to its surface. This was my conclusion. When the pilot saw the Kollam port, he mistook it for the destination. When he kept the flight down, to avoid the C.B clouds, he saw the rows of lights as they are seen on the runway. As the sight was from the clouds, he could not detect whether the light rows are moving or not. He realized that it is not the runway, but the lanterns from the boats of the fishermen, only when he adjusted the flaps and started gliding the flight to land. During the landing times, the engines will be on high power. If the flight could not land, due to unpredictable reasons, the flight has to immediately fly up again. But, he might not have got the time to fly up, due to the pulling force of the sea. The flight might have moved far away from the sight of the fishermen due to its speed. As it was nighttime, nothing would have worked for him, as the condition was not favourable to take off immediately. This was my conclusion. I described it with all causes and reasons in my report and sent it to the ministry. Sindhya called me and appreciated my report. I told them to disburse compensation to all three families. Believe me, two million rupees, of those times, were given to each family, as compensation. The minister was so pleased with my report. That was the reason. If a person goes missing, we have to wait for that person for seven years. That is the rule of the government; only then that they could move to further measures. The then A.C.P, Mr Pankajakshan Nair asked me “lad, can we trust your fictional report? What if all the three, step into the station, one fine morning? I said, “No sir, they won’t come. No need to wait for them, not even for seven days.
It is now twenty-eight years passed since that incident happened. Nobody returned yet. No one will return. I was so sure about that. It was the message that the lone cloud gave me from the hills in Kottayam.
The commander stood up from the chair with a sigh and searched for the cigar. The dark sky, outside the mirror, became clear and visible when the lights were shut down. As a coincidence, the commander told Tobias “come on” and walked out of the room. He climbed the stairs with heavy steps and reached near the doors, which is painted in red colour. It was written ‘Helipad Access’ on that door. He made the security staff, open the doors and quickly climbed the steps. Tobias and the crew felt difficulty moving as swiftly as the commander did. Suddenly they reached a circular plane and the stairs reached its end. A thick dark rain cloud was waiting there. He (the cloud) stayed there, covering the entire sky, as a romantic in eyes-piercing black colour. Thunders were meaningful. In the middle of the helipad, which is the shape of the letter, ‘H’, written in white colour, in that neck of the sky, where there are no reliance and dependence, the commander stayed as a naïve and waved his hands.
Tobias grabbed the camera in hurry and sponged all those moments. He captured in a lightening numbness, the image of a man standing 450 feet above as if he is standing in the pose of holding the entire clouds in his hands, like the Govardhana Mountains.
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