101 Squadron: All in the family

Lt Col AK Ahlawat

He was our hero, my friend’s brother Vijay — tall, handsome, a great sportsman. Ajay, the younger one, wanted to be a fighter pilot like him and fly as his wingman in the 101 Fighter Squadron.

In the summer of 1971, the squadron was converting from Hunters to Sukhoi-7s. Vijay qualified to fly the latest MiG-21, too, but his heart lay with the 101 Squadron. Sukhoi-7 was a slower and older aircraft compared to MiG-21, but he wanted to stay with his friends and the squadron.

That summer, Ajay had qualified for NDA’s 46th course and was in Delhi undergoing the medical examination. Vijay drove down to Delhi from Adampur in his car. They were staying in the defence officers’ flats at Dhaula Kuan. Their cousins had also come over and it was a family carnival time at home.

101 Squadron was a very close-knit unit. They had a senior officer, a Squadron Leader, who was married to a beautiful lady. They were blessed with two daughters but somehow implacable differences emerged between the couple. They separated and the lady left with her children.

Somewhere around this time, Ajay was at home and Vijay was out when the doorbell rang twice before he realised. When he got up and went to open the door, there stood a lady of exquisite beauty.

“Does Flight Lieutenant Vijay Wahi live here?” she asked. Ajay froze in a thrall, before he could murmur that Vijay had gone out, and whether she would like to come inside and wait for him.

“No, thank you,” she replied, “I have an autorickshaw waiting downstairs. I’d rather go.”

Ajay somehow concluded that she must be Vijay Bhai’s girlfriend, and as the elder brother entered, he started teasing him.

Vijay rebuked him immediately as he described her and a tight slap followed: “Stop being a clown, Ajay, and shut up. Do you even know who you are talking about? She is a brother officer’s wife.”

“I didn’t know that,” he said apologetically.

Contrition rose like a sap in his blood. He had read everything so wrongly. “She would have had two little girls waiting for her in that auto. She is a senior officer’s wife and they are separated. There are four of us Flight Lieutenants who pool our flying bounty every month and send her the money to support her,” he said.

In that cataclysmic year, 1971, the war came. On December 6, Vijay made the supreme sacrifice in the aerial battles over Chhamb. He was awarded the Vir Chakra. Ajay did not join NDA, becoming a doctor in the Army instead and pledging his life to saving the lives of fellow humans.

The sands of time blew over old sorrows.

In 1994, Ajay caught a hopping flight to Jorhat from Calcutta. On the seat next to him, a pretty young girl came and sat down.

“Beta, where are you travelling to?” he asked her.

“Uncle, I am going to Tezpur. My father is Air Officer Commanding there,” she said, as she gave his name with a tang of pride.

“Is he ex-101 Fighter Squadron?”

“Indeed he is. But uncle, how do you know that?”

“That’s a long-winding old tale better left alone, but tell me, is your mother with your father?” he asked her.

“Of course, uncle, where else would she be?”

Ajay could only smile, “Beta, do tell your mother that you had met Flight Lieutenant Vijay Wahi’s younger brother Ajay Wahi. Pay my sincerest regards.”

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