KOCHI: A cheeky low pass over a Kannur home, lifelong ties to a Malayali doctor - the Kerala connections of Marshal of the Indian Air Force Arjan Singh, who died on Saturday aged 98, were many.
It’s part of the IAF lore how Arjan Singh nearly got himself chucked out even before his career had taken off in earnest. The story, intriguingly, had something to do with Kerala. During World War II, Arjan Singh, a dashing young pilot then, took off from an air strip in Kannur and performed low passes over a house in the neighbourhood, reportedly to boost the morale of a junior colleague!
This bit of airborne daredevilry, which created an uproar in Air Force circles, got him almost court martialled in 1945. But fate decreed he survive all that and go on to become the hero of the 1965 Indo-Pak war, and later, the first Marshal of the Air Force, a rank equivalent to the Army’s Field Marshal.
‘’I’ve heard that story related in the Air Force,’’ remembers Air Marshal (Retd) P Madhusoodanan, former Director General, Medical Services (Air Force) and doctor to Arjan Singh and his wife Teji Singh.
Madhusoodanan is another of Arjan Singh’s Kerala connections. As the nation bids adieu to the senior, five-star officer - a Marshal does not retire - he remembers Singh as a charming person who was very brave and technically competent.
Madhusoodanan is now principal, Dr Somerwell Memorial CSI Medical College, Karakonam, and resident of Jawahar Nagar here. He had a long association with the couple, both of whom were under his medical care for several years. “He was a very bold Air Warrior; active till the end, giving interviews and attending functions of the armed forces. He used to helm a lot of welfare activities for poor airmen,’’ he says.
A graduate of the Armed Forces Medical College(AFMC), Madhusoodanan himself was commissioned into the Medical Corps as a Lieutenant in January 1971. A urologist and renal transplantation specialist, his professional association with Arjan Singh began in 2007-08. It continued at the R&R Hospital, New Delhi, even after Madhusoodanan became an Air Marshal and took over as Director General in 2008.
Arjan Singh - who led the Air Force in the 1965 war with Pakistan - last visited Kerala in 2013, when the Southern Air Command HQ at Akkulam, Thiruvananthapuram hosted him.