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12:05 AM
Bikram Vohra
JournalismPakistan.com
May 29, 2013
Feb 2, 1997, 8:00 pm Dubai. My daughters and I are watching Jeopardy. Mum is in Mumbai. There is a call from Arun Barman, the RD of Air India and we are chewing the fat. Talking aviation stuff. I put the phone down and my brother calls from Delhi to say my father has just passed away.
At 8.30 I call Arun and I tell him we have to get to Delhi. There is no flight and we have no clue how to buy three tickets. Don’t have the money on me. He says there is a flight to Mumbai in 20 minutes, get to the airport now, the tickets will be there, I’ll link you to a flight from there. Not just that but he makes sure my wife is escorted to Mumbai airport and Special Handling ensures we catch a connector to Delhi in 20 minutes from landing. We arrive at Delhi at 6:00 am before many of our relatives even know this has happened.
You can never stop being grateful for something like that because I learnt later he held the flight for 25 minutes. Oh, yes, it is important to say here that I was at that time cheerfully jobless, not running any newspaper and had no journalistic clout. He just did the decent thing.
Many months later Arun fought the good fight against his superiors, refusing to surrender on what today is a quaint word, his principles. As the fight escalated to confrontation I told him maybe we should find a via media and end it since he was fast tracked to be MD of that airline one day. He sneered (he did) and said, you suggest that, how many times have you walked out because you would not cave in. I will lose my job, even my perks and my pension but I will not compromise. And he did not. I even flew to Mumbai to bat for him but he would not budge.
He manned up, bases loaded and said, throw whatever you want at me, I will take it. He did.
Before he left Dubai we tried to start up an aviation business but it had a broken wing and was not meant to be.
Two months ago he flew in for a celebration of a common friend’s 65th birthday and it was wonderful to meet the man. And his wife who made the magic and stood by him when he was resolute and others thought he was cussed in not giving in and doing what mere mortals do…take the easy way out; so much simpler and comfortable.
Arun died last night. In Kolkata. We were not in touch but how do you ever forget a man who softened the harshness of your grief and thought nothing of it.
Godspeed, Arun, and wherever you are looking down on all your aviation buddies who are gutted, thank you again for what you did that horrible night. They don’t make guys like this anymore.
(The writer is a Senior Editorial Advisor of Khaleej Times and the paper’s former Editor. He has also been the Editor of Gulf News, Gulf Today, Emirates Today and Bahrain Tribune)
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