In letter to his alma mater, sole crash survivor had asked students of Chandimandir Army school never to lose hope

Vijay Mohan

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 10

Never lose hope, never think that you cannot be good at what you want to be. It will not come easy, it will take effort. It will require sacrifice of time and comfort. Find your calling, it could be art, music, graphic design. Literature, etc. Whatever you work towards, be dedicated, do your best.

This is the message Group Captain Varun Singh, the lone survivor of the Mi-17 helicopter crash that killed Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat and 12 others in Tamil Nadu on December 8 had for students of the Army Public School, Chandimandir, where he studied.

Gp Capt Varun was an alumnus of the school’s 2000 batch, from where he proceeded to the National Defence Academy, Kharakvasla, before joining the IAF as a fighter pilot. His father was an officer in the Army Air Defence.

Soon after he was decorated with the Shaurya Chakra for gallantry, he wrote a letter to the school’s principal on September 18, the contents of which he desired to be shared with students, especially the teens to inspire them as they near adulthood with its complexities of societal pressures, academic challenges and sometimes an uncertain and frightening future.

“I was mediocre and today I have reached difficult milestones in my career,” he wrote. "It is ok to be mediocre. Not everyone will excel at school and not everyone will be able to score in the 90s. If you do, it's an amazing achievement and must be applauded. However, if you don't, do not think that you are meant to be mediocre. You may be mediocre in school but it is by no means a measure of things to come in life," he said.

At NDA, he said, he did not excel either in studies or sports and lacked confidence as he thought he was meant to be mediocre. It was only after being commissioned and posted to a fighter squadron that he realised that he could do well if he put his heart and mind to it. "It was at this point that things started to turn around in my professional and personal life," he wrote.

Thereafter, he was selected to undergo the challenging Flying Instructors Course where he bagged two out of the five trophies. Subsequently, he volunteered for the prestigious and rigorous 11-month-long Experimental Test Pilot Course, where only seven out of 59 applicants made it through.

Selection to undergo the prestigious Staff College abroad and on return being posted to a newly raised Tejas aircraft squadron, even though he had crossed the seniority bracket, added to his credentials.

Last year, he was faced with a grave and critical failure in his aircraft. The standard operating procedures required him to eject and abandon the aircraft. However, he took a few calculated risks and managed to land the aircraft without any damage to either the aircraft or civilians, for which he received the Shaurya Chakra.

“I bring out the above not to blow my own trumpet or writing with a desire to seek a pat on the back. I write to share some thoughts about my life which I feel may help and inspire children who might feel that they are meant to be only mediocre in this hyper-competitive world,” he said while crediting the award to all those with whom he has been associated with over the years in school, NDA and thereafter the Air Force as he firmly believed that his actions that day were a result of the grooming and mentoring by teachers, instructors and peers over the years.

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