A few years ago, as a rookie reporter, I covered a book-reading session of Vijaypat Singhania's "Angel In the Cockpit". The event at Mumbai's Taj Mahal hotel, if I remember rightly, had all the glittery ingredients -- celebrity audience, with names like the Kapoors of Bollywood among them, excerpts read by Shobha De, a smashing introduction of the author himself and so on.
While the book was about his passion for flying and the hours spent in air, the "angel" in the title was a reference to his granddaughter.
In one of the chapters, the old man describes a mid-air crisis when he stared at near-certain death. At that point he could only look at a photograph he had stuck inside his cockpit, and wait. The picture was of his granddaughter Ananya, then a baby. Once the crisis passed, Singhania came to believe that it was that "angel" who saved his life.
Reading through these line, at one point Shobha De paused. We in the audience could see that she had to give the overwhelmed grandfather a moment. He was wiping his tears, or perhaps hiding them.
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Reading the newspapers this morning, I realised times have changed. Along with her sisters, Singhania's "angel" Ananya, now 26, has taken her grandfather to court over property.
Shobha De's poignant pause was pointless after all.
While the book was about his passion for flying and the hours spent in air, the "angel" in the title was a reference to his granddaughter.
In one of the chapters, the old man describes a mid-air crisis when he stared at near-certain death. At that point he could only look at a photograph he had stuck inside his cockpit, and wait. The picture was of his granddaughter Ananya, then a baby. Once the crisis passed, Singhania came to believe that it was that "angel" who saved his life.
Reading through these line, at one point Shobha De paused. We in the audience could see that she had to give the overwhelmed grandfather a moment. He was wiping his tears, or perhaps hiding them.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Reading the newspapers this morning, I realised times have changed. Along with her sisters, Singhania's "angel" Ananya, now 26, has taken her grandfather to court over property.
Shobha De's poignant pause was pointless after all.
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