I had seen it before — this Sea Harrier fighter jet installed at the traffic island near Land’s End in Bandra, frozen in a posture that makes it look as if it has just leaped into the sky. Only the roar of its Rolls-Royce Pegasus turbojet engine was missing: that high-pitched whine melting into a deep, thunderous rumble. A sound I once heard from frighteningly close range — and have never forgotten.
I was a rookie journalist. On my first big assignment. At INS Hansa, the Indian Navy’s proud naval air station at Dabolim in Goa, where the Sea Harrier had just begun its service. The year was 1984. The jet had been commissioned barely a year earlier and was operating from the aircraft carrier INS Vikrant, which lay on the Arabian Sea like a silent sentinel beyond Goa’s palm-fringed golden coast.
The media was at the INS Hansa guest house. The airstrip ran through the base; military and civil aviation shared it in easy rhythm. The Sea Harrier flew sorties between domestic flights, rattling windows as it tore off the runway. A blue-and-white streak that dissolved into the sky. Coming in to land from the sea like some metallic seabird, skimming the waves, sunlight flashing on its fuselage, wings scraping the palm trees on Hansa Beach.
INS Hansa felt like Top Gun in Miramar. Fighter pilots in flight suits. Military jeeps and armoured vehicles moving with quiet authority. Everything except Tom Cruise. The highlight of that assignment was a thrilling demonstration of the Sea Harrier itself. The naval airman who took the jet up would become Admiral Arun Prakash, Chief of the Naval Staff, a Vir Chakra awardee for his bravery in the 1971 Indo-Pak war.
The Sea Harrier was a brawny fighter jet. Bristling with missiles. It hovered like a helicopter. Performed vertical take-offs and landings. And dominated the skies over the Indian Ocean for 33 years, fighting the Kargil war, before being decommissioned in 2016. One of those proud machines is at Bandra now. A quiet monument to a remarkable era. I came across it this morning. And in its stillness, I remembered the time when the Sea Harrier and I were just taking off in our careers…
About Mark Manuel
The above thoughts/content has been proudly copied from the wall of Sir Mark Manuel. Being interviewing almost every role model of this country and going stronger each day. Mark Manuel is a respected Mumbai editor, writer, and columnist.
With over three decades of journalism in leading publications. This includes the Free Press Journal, Times, Dainik Bhaskar, Mid-Day, and Afternoon. He is famous for his brilliant pen interviews. He himself is a TEDx speaker.
Further
His interviews have featured in several leading media houses. They include the Hindustan Times, Huffington Post, BBC, and Network 18. Almost every famous person has been interviewed by him in the country from Mother Teresa to Muhammad Ali. His first book is just out. It’s titled Moryaa Re! It is a crime thriller that is perhaps the country’s first police procedural. He began his career covering crime. And in a tribute to his experience and knowledge of this beat.
Several distinguished officers of the Mumbai Police and its Crime Branch collaborated with him to make this book possible. Amitabh Bachchan wrote the forward in a statement of friendship for Mark Manuel and admiration for his work.
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