The Hindu Business Line : The sky is the limit

A chance newspaper advertisement was all it took to change the fortunes of the 12 Jharkhand tribal students selected for the State-sponsored scholarship in commercial flying. Now the only way to go is up.

How does it feel to be 18 and manning the controls of an aircraft? "Exciting.. like a dream come true... scared yet frightening... like a bird flying free.

These are some of the reactions from the 12 enthusiastic Jharkhand students. Not so long ago, these robust teenagers were dutifully pursuing dreams of a career in the IAS or in the private sector, armed with an MBA degree. Till one day, when a random newspaper advertisement set them on an altogether different career course. The advertisement invited all tribal students from the newly-formed State of Jharkhand to appear for a selection test for a State-sponsored commercial flight training programme to be conducted at The Orient Flying School, Pondicherry and Ghar Aviation, Kanpur.

Out of a total of 300-350 applicants, 25 were selected, 13 sent to Ghar Aviation and 12 to the Orient Flying School, where Life caught up with them for a brief interactive.

So, what is it like to be hailed the jet jockeys of the future?

A flicker of shy smiles and then Kunwar Singh Bodra's succinct reply says it all, "Perfect. It's the ideal job if you want to see the world." A sentiment amply backed by the rest of his comrades. "It's very exciting," pipes in the front-benchers.

But it took more than a little bit of adjusting to make the mind-shift to flying, especially when being the helmsman of an aircraft was not priority No 1 on the career chart. By his own candid admission Kunwar says, "Not all of us wanted to be pilots."

For instance, he was preparing for the post of an IPS officer when the unexpected opportunity came calling. His classmate Adarsh Kandulna was selected for a course at the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), but since fashion fell short of one major requisite ("I wanted a profession with lots of adventure in it"), it was naturally ruled out. Fortunately for him, an opportunity for full-time adventure, in the form of the State scholarship rushed right up his alley. Ajit Alois Kachhap hoped to pursue an MBA degree when the unprecedented "opportunity of a lifetime" steered him onto an altogether different career course. "It was difficult at first. Now it's exciting and I'm comfortable with the training," he says.

Some like Pramanand Soren were preparing for a central government job when the advertisement caught their attention.

The course includes training for Commercial Pilot Licence with multi-engine rating, and will involve a total of 250 flying hours on single engine and 25 hours on a twin engine. And this particular endeavour by the State Government of Jharkhand was announced way back in 2000 when the state was formed, by the then Welfare Minister Arjun Munda. But due to a few hiccups, it failed to kick off. It was reinstated when Munda was elected Chief Minister of Jharkhand. And, now, the hope is that it will be an ongoing project.

While for the majority the course is merely a natural follow-up to meritorious test scores, for a few like Nitin Bhagat, it is very much "a dream come true. I would always watch planes flying over the fields and wished that someday I would be a pilot. But my parents couldn't afford the high cost (Rs 15 lakh approx) of the course, so this is indeed a good opportunity," says the Ranchi resident. Coming from a fairly large family (five brothers and one sister) and with his father working in Delhi as the sole breadwinner, the financial pinch is understandable.

The situation of Roshan, his classmate, is not very different. With his father working as a coal miner in Kirikuru, and his mother looking after the home and the children, the family could barely scrape together enough resources to put Roshan through higher education which could get him a decent job. The chance ad arrived at just the right time when a scholarship would ease the financial strain and lead Roshan to follow his heart, all the way to the hangar! "During my childhood in Orissa, I would watch planes as they flew overhead and I used to wonder... " his voice trails off wistfully. He needn't "wonder" anymore now, if anything he'll be doing more wandering!

As of now, the youngsters are practising their solo flights at the flying school's airbase. This is an exercise that the gamely 12 will most enthusiastically hold forth on in great detail. Imagine your first ever air experience being from the imposing confines of the cockpit. As it turned out, this was the case for a considerable few.

How did they find it?

"I was scared. It was my first time in an airplane," says Sanjay timorously, and the whole class erupts into laughter. But many share his sentiment. "It's especially scary when you plunge down at rapid speed and then soar up again for which you need to descend even further," says Kunwar. Adarsh found his first solo flight both "exciting and frightening". For a few like Pramanand "it was a moment when you get a new birth in the aviation line".

A few "seasoned" flyers preferred not to attach too much sentiment to it and saw the exercise as no more than a part of their course. Kundan Lal is one of them. "It was nice,' he shrugs, with that been-there-done-that expression. Well, he has in a way, having been a student of aeronautical engineering till the Jharkand scholarship happened. Mangu Gagrai, his classmate from Chakradharpur, is cool and matter-of-fact when quizzed on his first air experience. "I felt just the same as I would anywhere. I didn't think it was anything very great," he says against the ruckus of loud laughter from the rest. Well, considering that he was preparing to be a nuclear engineer when opportunity intervened, that's not surprising. "He's also the class's Physics guide," his friends tell you.

If flying is a first for many, so is being away from home. But not for Roshan who has spent most of his "childhood away from home, studying in Orissa and then in Tamil Nadu". Kunwar sounds older than his 18 years when he says seriously, "It's a part of training life."

But there are no worries on that count, really, not when an instructor from Jharkhand has been expressly brought in to make them feel comfortable and at home. Flying Instructor Captain Ashok Giri was formerly with Jamshedpur Aviation Limited, Jamshedpur, when he shifted base here. "I got an offer from the management here as they wanted somebody from the State to overcome language barriers. I am not a tribal, but I enjoy teaching these students, they are quick learners and many of them are flying solo for a good 10 minutes," he says.

The efforts to fight off homesickness doesn't stop with a native instructor alone and even a cook from Nepal has been employed to serve home made fare. "Initially we had food problems but now we are getting North Indian dishes especially made for us," says Pramanand. But if anything would beat all melancholic nostalgia, it would have to be instructor Sarita Sreenivasan's frequent gastronomic delights, which she rustles up for the students on her day off.

Well, what are their plans for the future? Will they work in domestic airlines or jet off on a global circuit?

Most of the students have decided not to be choosy and "will take up a job in whichever airline that offer us an opening, be it Air India or Indian Airlines".

So, it won't be long before our Jharkhand friends take on the likes of the formidable Boeing 747?

"Oh, no," they exclaim. "Boeings are a long way off, as we are still to get our multi-engine rating licences and before that there's our Commercial Pilot's License that we have to qualify for," explains Kunwar, and wastes no time in introducing his uninitiated interviewer to the finer details of flight training. Ashok Giri can't suppress a smile, as he watches on in amusement.

Pictures by Shaju John

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