I wrote this article way back in 2002 for our Club's bulletin.

During the childhood and adolescence, everybody has an ambition. An ambition to be someone; a doctor, an engineer, a film actress or a model and some even want to be a bus driver or a conductor. But as they grow this ambition to become someone is either suppressed by their parents or it slowly wanes away due to numerous reasons. Well! The purpose of this story is not to discuss those reasons but I want to tell you about a wonderful experience not many of us get ever to experience in their entire lifetime.
Right since my childhood, I have always had a tremendous fascination for one of the greatest inventions mankind has ever made; The Flying Machine. Even today I take great interest in anything that involves combat aircrafts. It may be a magazine, a TV program or someone employed in Air Forces. In fact I always wanted to be a fighter pilot.

Highly glamorous as well as extremely dangerous profession isn’t it? Every time you go up in the air, cruising at staggering speeds of thousands of meters in a second and heights of several hundreds of thousands of feet, you are taking a great risk. But it ought to be a thrilling experience. Indeed danger gives relish to this thrilling experience. Even today hearing the drone of an aircraft overhead, my eyes wander in hope to be able to identify it.
Since my uncle is a high ranked officer (4 posts beneath the highest rank) in the Indian Air Force, I’ve had a great opportunity to visit the airfield a year back in June 2001.
My uncle was posted to Jodhpur airbase in Rajasthan. After finishing my TE exams in early June my cousin brother and I went to Jodhpur. In Rajasthan it is unbearably hot during summers.
Early morning at around 6:45 we drove to the air base. As the Jodhpur air base is strategically important from the view point of security of the North West region of our country, the security is always tight around the base. But as my uncle is in absolute command of all the engineering operations taking place on the airbase we virtually had entry anywhere and everywhere on the base.
After initial security check ups we drove straight on to the road leading to runway.
I was thrilled. For the first time in my life I was going to see it all in front of my eyes just a few meters apart. At an intersection of the road and the runway we had to stop because two MIGs were getting ready to take off. The skies were clear and a balmy breeze was flowing. The atmosphere was filled with an electrifying sensation. We were watching those MIGs in awe. Gradually the pilots accelerated. Holy crap! It was cacophonous. I had never heard such an extremely loud sound in my life. The air was vibrating and so my heart was palpitating. To be honest I was frightened to hear such a high intensity sound.
A few seconds later the pilots released the brakes and abruptly those flying machines zoomed off the runway. A few minutes later two more MIG 21s lined up side to side on the runway preparing to take off. The airmen finished last minute check ups signalling everything is OK. The pilots beckoned with their thumbs up, made a sharp salute and took off. I envied those pilots for that. One by one the planes were taking off and landing. Next we went into the hangers, the place where aircrafts kept, serviced and taken care of by engineers. We were received by a young junior engineer. I was impressed with his smart uniform, especially the eagle badged on his right chest. For the first time I got a closer look of a MIG 27. I learned that MIG 27 s are primarily used as ground attack fighters, to attack enemy targets located on ground. The place was truly an engineering workshop. All the equipment lying on the floor, oil sprawled everywhere and the men were busy in their work. We came out and spent some time again watching MIGs this time trying to figure out the signals exchanged between the pilots and the airmen.
Later we had a cup of tea in my uncle’s executive cabin and drove back home. While coming back I had only one word on my mind “Exhilarating”. It was simply amazing. The feeling of envy did no longer exist because back home I knew people would envy me for having experienced something not everyone gets to see right in front of their eyes.
I felt sad for one thing. I couldn’t take any snaps!