FLYING MAN

It was lunch time in office and I was sitting with a friend. Lost in thoughts, unaware of my surroundings, the words came out of my mouth- “Rohan is a great guy” . My colleague, puzzled at this sudden mention of a guy from nowhere, asked me,“Who Rohan?”

“He is a friend of mine. Rohan – The Flying Man”, I said with a faint smile on my face.

I had moved to Pune six months ago, after getting a job offer from one of the largest automobile giants of India. After some initial hiccups of adjusting in a new town, eventually I fell in love with Pune. I had rented an apartment in “Viman Nagar” which was a relatively new locality. My life in Pune was very simple- 9 hours of work, 1 hour of cooking, 8 hours of sleep, 1 hour of travel to work and remaining 5 hours for other chores and recreation. The most refreshing part of the day was my evening jog on the well maintained jogging track in the housing complex. Meeting and greeting the daily routiners felt great.

Nearly 3 months ago, one day, while jogging, I noticed a huge crowd around the A Block building. They were cheering and hooting, calling out the name “Rohan” again and again. At first I ignored the crowd thinking it’s none of my business. The moment I began to continue my jog, someone shouted “Yay! Rohan. Our Flying Man”. My feet came to a halt. My curiosity grew and I wondered if Rohan was some kind of superhero. Unable to control my eagerness, I headed towards the crowd. As I moved to the centre of the crowd, what I saw, left me in a state of shock.

A weak guy in his late twenties with a buzz cut was sitting on a wheelchair waving and smiling at everybody. Brushing aside my initial feeling of shock, I thought “Ok! People must be calling him a flying man just to encourage the poor guy & make him feel better. How foolish of me to think that he was a super hero”. As I turned back to continue my jog, I saw something in his eyes and smile, which left me with a strange feeling inside. At night, I lay in bed staring at the ceiling, recalling the happenings of the evening. My mind was racing, “There was something unusual about this guy Rohan, something that I don’t know.”

I was standing in my balcony the next morning, sipping coffee, when I saw Rohan talking to some people in the park. I was getting late for work so I decided I would go and meet him in the park in the evening. During the whole day at work, I was thinking about meeting Rohan and ending the mystery about the flying man. In the evening, I went for my jog 30 minutes before my usual time, with an anticipation of meeting Rohan. I spent nearly 3 hours in the park that evening but surprisingly, he didn't turn up that day.

Same thing happened for the next few days. Each evening, I used to look for Rohan in the park but there was no sign of him. After several failed attempts to meet Rohan, I finally decided to ask some of the neighbours about him. I caught hold of my friend Bobby, who had been staying in the society for the last 5 years and asked him, “Who is this Rohan guy, the one everybody was cheering the other day?”.

“Oh you mean Rohan Deshpande, the flying man! He is Wing Commander in Indian Air Force and is one of the best pilots of India.”

“Wing Commander?” I said to my surprise, unable to believe that he was talking about the same guy who I saw on the wheelchair that day. As curiosity got to the better of me, I asked Bobby,“Can you tell me more about him?".

“Rohan Deshpande was the brightest kid in his school & college. He loved planes, always wanted to fly, study about outer space and was a huge fan of NASA. His passion for planes and hard work got him an admission in IIT Mumbai – Aeronautical Engineering. During his 3^rd year of engineering, Indian Air Force came to IIT Mumbai for demonstrating themselves and encouraged students to join Air Force. Rohan was highly mesmerized and joined the Indian Air Force soon after his graduation. He was felicitated with “The best budding pilot" award after his training at Air Force. He was not only the best flyer but being an aeronautical engineer, he also had the knowledge about the minutest details of the plane he used to fly. He was admired by all his seniors and the early promotion as Wing Commander was his wedding gift from the Indian Air Force. Everyone in the Air Force & his family was extremely proud of him. But destiny had its own plans. In June 2013, a huge cloudburst happened which was centered in Uttarakhand and resulted in devastating floods and landslides. Due to torrential rains that lasted for several days, it had become the country's worst natural disaster since the 2004 Tsunami. Indian Air force started a rescue operation named “Raahat” for rescuing the pilgrims trapped in all the flood affected areas of Uttarakhand and the nearby regions. Rohan was in-charge of this operation. He was flying his single engine “Cheetah” helicopter and was supervising all the other 42 aircrafts and helicopters deployed there. While he was on the job, there was an unprecedented mechanical failure in his helicopter. Due to the adverse weather conditions, he lost control and the helicopter crashed. Rohan survived the crash but got a major injury in his spinal cord leaving him partially paralyzed in his lower body. He was treated in hospital for more than 4 months and now he is back to Pune – his hometown. Every member of the society was so happy to see Rohan and was cheering him on the day of his return.”

I was overwhelmed by Rohan’s story and realized that I had tears in my eyes. “Do you know Rohan? Can we meet him??” I asked Bobby. “Yeah sure man! He comes to park daily in the morning, you can meet him there”, he said. Luckily, it was Sunday the next day. I got up early and went to the park where I saw Rohan & Bobby chatting in a group. They were all sitting around Rohan and it looked like Rohan was telling them a story. As I reached near the group, Bobby got up and introduced me to Rohan and other people. To my surprise, Rohan already knew my name, what I did, from where I belonged and some other basic information. Amazed, I asked him “How do you know all that?” to which he replied “Indian Airforce dude! Drone Eyes! Keeping all others safe is our foremost responsibility and for that we should know a little about everybody”. His reply was unexpected but it felt good to hear all that. He continued his story as I joined the group of listeners. “I was in the rescue mission during Leh floods & during floods in Srinagar and many other such rescue missions. I have been involved in many deals of helicopter imports...”

Every now and then I used to try and catch up with Rohan in the mornings. He used to fondly tell the tales of his flying days with explicit details about the speciality of different helicopters and air crafts he flew. Nearly 4 months had passed and we had become thickest of friends. Even though he was on a wheelchair, he had much more energy than me. He never looked depressed or sad about his condition. He used to tell me about his dream of flying a space shuttle someday. While talking about his dreams, he often used to jump from his chair out of excitement and looked like he was going to take off.

His dreams seemed unrealistic and far-fetched considering his state but I was glad that he had such a positive spirit and was filled with hope against hope.

One day I came home early from office and decided to go out for a cup of coffee with Rohan. I called him on his mobile. No answer!

I called him 2-3 times again but there was no response. Worried, I went up to his place to check. His wife opened the door & told me that Rohan was busy and slammed the door shut.

I was taken aback by such rude behavior and thought that Rohan owes an explanation for this but when I met him the next morning, he talked as if nothing had happened the previous day. I ignored it too and chose to talk to him normally. The same thing happened in a few other instances and his wife used to give some lame excuses for his absence and ignorance.

Finally, I lost my patience and went up to his place on a Sunday afternoon to confront him. This time for a change, Rohan answered the doorbell. Contrasting to the anger on my face, he had a big smile on his face. He said excitedly, “Hey! What a surprise. I was about to call you to tell you something important.” Confused, I went inside.

“I am going to MARS! I have been selected for the MarsOne Mission” he said with a huge smile on his face. For a second, I was dumbstruck. “What? When? How”? I said. “Calm down bro! I know its bit surprising but I wanted to tell you after its confirmation” he said with so much amusement. “I was recommended by Indian Air Force to NASA after I pursued them for any job opportunity” he added. “But Rohan, what will you do there? You are totally dependent on your family!” I asked him rudely.

“Bro! You know me! I just want to fly. Land is not my thing. Every day I dream about flying but all my dreams shatter as soon I get up and see myself like this. So I decided to take the longest flight of my life." He further told me that MarsOne mission required volunteers to fly to Mars and live there forever. The whole aim of the mission was to understand and analyze the probability and conduciveness of life at Mars. "My training for Mars Mission will start next month and I am leaving for USA in 20 days”, Rohan said very satisfactorily. “I have been working on it really hard for the past one month and I finally got this opportunity” he added. “Oh! So that’s why you were ignoring me. I came to meet you so many times!” I said angrily. But seeing his twinkling eyes and grinning face, my anger disappeared.

“Every day I have video lessons of the introductory training; I have been acquainted to many of the fellow MARSers now. The next 10 days will be technical trainings. So I won’t be able to join you in the morning as I have to take video lessons late at night as per US timings” he told me one day. “I am trying hard to impress them so that they train me to fly the spaceship. Moreover, they have also told me that they will give me full medication in the next year of training. What more I can ask for?". Initially, I felt sad at the thought of losing my dear friend. I would miss the wonderful times spent with him .The thought of never being able to see him again brought tears in my eyes. But seeing his enthusiasm for the mission, I fully supported him in his endeavour.

The day of Rohan’s departure from India had come. We had organized a small farewell party for him the night before and I could not sleep the whole night thinking about Rohan and the enthusiasm he carries with him. Everybody from our society was talking about him. Everyone was proud of him. All of us had assembled downstairs to bid him goodbye. His official vehicle had arrived and with a heavy heart yet a smile on my face, I said to him, “Go champ! Make me proud. Keep in touch bro, Facetime! Keep watching us by your drone eyes!", I said jokingly.

One year later

It’s been one long year since Rohan left. I had no information about how he was. Every now and then, I used to read in the newspapers about the MarsOne mission.

Soon after he left, I got my promotion. I have been keeping really busy post my promotion. I met a girl named Priya through a common friend and have been seeing her for quite some time.

It was a Sunday morning, Priya had gone to her aunt’s place for the weekend. Bored, I opened my laptop and began surfing.  Suddenly, I got a ping. It said-
'Flying man has requested you for a video chat' . For a second, I couldn't believe my eyes. Hurriedly, I accepted the request. As the camera loaded, on the other side I saw none other than Rohan. He looked tired and old from the time I last saw him a year ago, but his eyes had the same gleam. Smiling he said, “See, I kept my promise to keep in touch through Facetime. This is your Flying Man reporting straight from Mars”. We chatted for an hour and Rohan continued with his tales from Mars and I kept listening. After talking to him, I kept pondering for a long time and was left with just one thought:

"The world needs dreamers and the world needs doers. But above all, the world needs dreamers who do."

#Flyingman