People

Man of Precision:
Kenya’s Star Fighter Pilot ... and Tabla Player -
Gurcharan Singh Chana

JOHN OMBUOR

Kisumu, Kenya

When the Sikh-Kenyan community gathered in Kisumu recently to celebrate 100 years of the existence of Guru Singh Sabha Gurdwara in the lakeside city, the man tending to the musical instruments in the shrine was Captain Gurcharan Singh Chana, a former airline pilot.

Many of his fans were not surprised, having seen him perform not only in gurdwaras across the country, but in the company of renowned Sikh-Indian ghazal singer, the late Jagjit Singh, popularly referred to as the “Ghazal King” whom from time to time he accompanied for shows overseas.

So close was Gurcharan to the Ghazal maestro who died in October 2011 in Mumbai, that when the government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh decided to release stamps bearing his image in his honour, Gurcharan was recognised with several complimentary copies for his album.

INDELIBLE ACHIEVEMENT

A born musician who started playing the tabla at the tender age of six, Gurcharan first interacted with the legendary Jagjit Singh while at the Kenya Air Force (KAF) where he rose to the level of Station Commander.

“I was mesmerised by his stage performance, prompting me to invite him to the Air Force base for a performance. He did not disappoint and from then, our friendship grew and grew. Not only did I join him on stage whenever he was invited to perform locally, I would accompany him to other parts of the world when my busy schedule allowed,” reminisces Captain Gurcharan Singh.

Like music, Gurcharan’s fascination with flying started early in life, to his father’s chagrin.

“His determination to see my music talent flourish was such that he took me to India to play under the watch of Gurus for eight months. He would not hear of my ambition to fly because he believed that flying was synonymous with death,” he says. “I got a job as a clerk with the National and Grindlays Bank (now Kenya Commercial Bank) after School Certificate and immediately started saving part of the Sh350 monthly salary to realise my dream of doing a flying course.

“My aim was to get a private pilot’s license,” he adds.

Gurcharan says he paid dearly for his decision to defy his father’s wish and remembers a time he had to run away from home to escape his father’s wrath, for trips to Wilson Airport. He continues: “My father poured his fury on me with a severe beating when I returned after rumours went round that my disappearance was to be announced on the Voice of Kenya radio. It was the most brutal and last beating from my father. As fate would have it, he did not live long after that.”

PRESIDENT JOMO KENYATTA

“With my father’s death came my freedom to go to Wilson Airport for interviews, after I submitted my application for training as a pilot. Royal Air Force instructors subjected me to flight checks after which I was recruited as a trainee officer cadet. I was later to proceed to England for further training at the Royal Air Force,” he says.

Gurcharan recalls with pride how he was commissioned on his return to Kenya, by President Jomo Kenyatta himself.

After two decades of a fulfilling career as a fighter pilot, squadron commander and station commander, during which he trained many Air Force pilots, Gurcharan retired from the Kenyan Air Force in 1985. He had retrained pilots after the August 1982 attempted coup d’état and had a brief stint at the Department of Defence as the officer in charge of logistics.

He talks fondly of his days in the Air Force where he left indelible spoors as the first Sikh squadron and station commander.

Pride surging all over his bearded face, Gurcharan recalls how he pulled off what very people have had the honour to do: lead the President in inspecting a guard of honour.

FLYING EXPERIENCE

“That fete followed in the wake of yet another indelible achievement when I became the first Sikh to be elevated to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Air Force,’’ says Gurcharan.

He moved to Kenya Airways to “broaden” his flying experience, working as a commercial pilot for 24 years before he walked out of the cockpit to “concentrate on tabla music”.

Now retired and into tabla, his pet hobby full time, Gurcharan boasts of having been to all kinds of cockpits, from meteoric jet fighters to the Fokkers and the Boeings. He was flying Boeing 737 at Kenya Airways by the time he hung up his ‘wings’ for good.

Captain Gurcharan Singh is nostalgic about flying, something he admittedly misses a lot after he reached the mandatory age barrier of 65 years, but what truly warms up his pride are the many destinations he flew to as a commercial pilot with KQ and the sweet memory of his days as squadron and later, station commander at KAF.

The veteran pilot that he is, Captain Gurcharan Singh says he was baffled by the mystery surrounding the disappearance of Malaysian flight MH370. “I never saw anything like it in all my 44 years as a pilot,” he says.

GREATEST ENEMY

“It baffles me that the plane has eluded the attention of the entire world for days,” he says, concern etched all over his brow. He pinpoints man-made problems as the most likely cause of the plane’s disappearance.

“Man-made problems can be anything from human error, terrorism to pilot suicide. But weather remains the greatest enemy to flying,” he says.

On how he managed to juggle his time between playing tabla and flying, a manifestly strange combination, he says casually: “Both require precision.”


[Courtesy: Standard Media. Edited for sikhchic.com]
April 12, 2014



 

read other articles in People