Never lose hope, crash survivor Group Captain Varun Singh wrote to students

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-17V5 helicopter crash, had sent to students of his alma mater Army Public School, Chandimandir, three months ago. He passed out from the school in 2000, and then proceeded to National Defence Academy, Khadakwasla, before joining the IAF as a fighter pilot. His father was an officer in the Army Air Defence. After he was decorated with Shaurya Chakra in August this year, he sent this letter to his school principal on September 18. He wanted its contents to be shared with students to inspire them to deal with 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 nineties. 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 the 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 he was 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.

He was selected to undergo the prestigious Staff College abroad and on return posted to a newly raised Tejas aircraft squadron.

Last year, he dealt with a grave and critical failure in his aircraft. The SOPs required him to eject and abandon the aircraft. However, he took a calculated risk and safely landed the aircraft, for which he received the Shaurya Chakra.

“I bring out the above not to blow my own trumpet. 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 in 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.