Air Marshal (R) Harish Masand says I learnt more than flying from them: Vaps Nair

07 Oct 2024

I first met Vappale Ramchandran Nair, better known as “Vaps” to all in the Air Force, pretty early in my service career when I went for the Flying Instructors’ Course in FIS Tambaram in January 1974. At that time I had six years of service and under 500 hours of fighter flying under my belt. Vaps was a senior Flight Lieutenant, an A2 instructor on the staff of FIS and with a MiG– 21 background and thus over a 1000 hours on MiG–21s itself apart from the other fighters he had flown. So, he had that fighter pilot’s swagger and looked at most other junior fighter pilots with disdain. To add to the kind of looks I got from him was the fact that three of his blue–eyed boys, Anil Bhalla, NM “Goofy” Gupte and SBS Paul, were also on the same course with me and had been on MiG–21s from the beginning of their careers and Vaps had known them from Tezpur days. While they were all a year junior to me, because of being in MiGs, they all had around 800 hours on fighters and were also better known in Air Force circles where the MiG–21 boys were the elite high–level lot as compared to us from the low–flying strike pilots, like me from Hunters with a touch of the Su–7.

I had already been cautioned by Sqn Ldr Arjun Ranganadhan in my very first week in Tambaram, who had seen me earlier in Hasimara when he was in 17 Squadron and I in 37 Squadron, to pull my socks up or go home in disgrace since he also felt that these MiG boys had far more experience than me and were expected to do far better than me on the course. While Vaps was not my instructor during the course and I had no direct interaction with him except the odd time that he would take a lecture on supersonic aerodynamics or some such subject, I did see him around and even met his charming athlete of a wife, Durdana or “Dana” in socials, Madras Gym and the Officers’ Mess. Dana had been a national champ in basketball and obviously came from a very cultured family. Because of this, she was fun to talk to and one always learnt something from any interaction with her. In those occasions, while Vaps was polite and informal, he did give me the same disdainful look since I did not belong to “his club”, the MiG–21 one. At the same time, Vaps was very often in the Officers’ Mess, sometimes pretty late when generally a cook or a waiter faced his wrath for some slip–up or another and got the full treatment from him. Most of us were in the bachelors’ block in Tambaram which was just behind the Mess itself and close to the cookhouse/ pantry in the rear. Due to this, we frequently heard the commotion and I felt for the poor mess staff. To be honest, at that time, I personally felt that Vaps should have been eased out of the Air Force due to such acts of indiscipline, as I personally termed it, no matter how good a fighter pilot he may be. Little did I know then how wrong I was and how soon I was to change my opinion about Vaps because, later, seeing him at close quarters and being privy to his vast knowledge and decision making abilities, I strongly formed the opinion that Vaps would make a great leader and senior officer and should go up the ladder. But then, let me unfold this story progressively. Having parted amicably from Vaps and FIS in June 1974 after having done well there and perhaps a notch up in Vaps’s eyes, I next bumped into Vaps and Dana in Iraq in 1979.

We reached Al–Kut in July 1979 while Vaps and Dana had been there in Tikrit since late 1977. So, we did meet, though briefly in those six months, before Vaps left for India at the end of 1979. Kut was also enroute to Kuwait from Tikrit and Baghdad and it was quite common to see folks from there in Kut when they went shopping in Kuwait. Our paths again crossed in 1981 when I visited Halwara as a member of and inspector of DASI. Under Air Commodore “Mally” Wollen, we landed up in Halwara for the usual routine inspection in early October 1981. Vaps was then commanding 17 Squadron there while Sukrat “Scooter” Raj was commanding the sister squadron, 23 Sqn, at that time. Both Vaps and Scooter quite obviously had a wonderful and close relationship from their Tikrit days and I could not sense any rivalry or one–upmanship, as was generally to be seen in most bases with two squadrons operating similar types. Even the wives, Dana and “Sughi” Sughandha were close to each other and one could easily see that both squadrons were well–knit together in professional and social activities. I had met Scooter in November 1972 when we had received our Vir Chakras from the President in Rashtrapati Bhavan and then again in Iraq when we were in Al–Kut and Scooter and Vaps were in Tikrit. As inspectors, we had a code of conduct wherein we did not let our earlier relations or friendships affect our conduct or assessments during inspections. As it happened the very first day in Halwara, I got into a jam on this issue in a very strange manner.

That day, we had first conducted the written test for all pilots of both squadrons and I had then flown a 2 Vs 1 mission with Scooter’s 23 Squadron as the attacker. 23 Squadron had formulated some new tactics for the mission which were significantly different from what was standard in the Air Force by then. While there were objections from within the inspector community within DASI about letting squadrons try new tactics in DASI visits, I had argued that we should let the squadrons try out such tactics after making sure that there were no likely flight safety implications. Fortunately, my Joint Director, then Group Captain JP Singh, had agreed with me and let 23 Squadron try out their tactics against me. If I now recall correctly after all these years, because of these tactics, Vaps had also brought his pilots over to 23 Squadron for the debrief. With Vaps was my course mate and earlier room mate, Anil “Sinch” Sinha who was one of the flight commanders of 17 Squadron. The debrief lasted till a little late in the evening because of the new tactics and by the time we finished, it was dark. When we came out to get back, we found that the drivers were missing and there was none to take us back to the living area. We waited a while but the squadrons could not get hold of an air crew van driver. Sinch had earlier seen me drive all kinds of trucks and other vehicles from our Pilot Officers days and suggested that I drive the Matador air crew van and take them all home. I was already getting a little late to finish evaluating all the written test papers, grab a drink and a bite before getting into bed to be ready for the next day so I agreed. All the pilots squeezed into the aircrew van including the two commanders, Vaps and Scooter, and I drove them back dropping each one off at their residences. Last stop was Vaps’ house and he insisted I come in for a few minutes, at least to say hello to Dana. That led to a drink which I wouldn’t have got in the Mess because the bar was already closed by then.

Vaps had obviously very cleverly planned this because while we were having a drink, Scooter and Sughi and Sinch and Pushpa landed up to see me. I tried to quickly walk out after the usual greetings but was literally “ordered” by Vaps to sit down and have a quick bite after which he would drop me at the bachelors’ quarters in the Officers’ Mess. I now realise that I did not protest hard enough or remain firm in my resolve to leave and walk back to the Mess which was barely 2–300 yards away and stayed on, perhaps fascinated by the camaraderie on display and, later, a friendly argument on some issue between the two buddies, Vaps and Scooter. However, I did stick to just two drinks to be able to perform without any ill–effects the next day. With a few drinks under their belt, both Vaps and Scooter were loud and their voices carried over to the AOC, Air Commodore Upkar Singh’s house which was just a 100 yards away across the street. Finally, it was close to midnight when I finally walked home to my room and stayed up till about 2 am correcting all the papers before I got to sleep. The next morning, I got a solid dressing down by the Director, Air Commodore Mally Wollen and the JD, Group Captain JP Singh. It transpired that Air Commodore Upkar Singh had reported this late night party to the Director and while he took Vaps and Scooter to task, I was left to face the Director. Fortunately, and perhaps because I made no excuses and admitted my fault outright, the Director left me with a caution that this should never happen again and told me not to fly that day. This was a story that Vaps, Scooter and I shared many times in the years ahead as a lesson learnt with a big sigh of relief, fortunately, without long term adverse consequences for anyone.

Vaps and I were again together in Staff College, Wellington. When I reached there as a DS in October 1984, Vaps had already been there since early 1983 on staff. While we were teaching DS in 1985, Vaps and Dana paid Malini and me a bit of special attention and made sure we were in the sports and social circuit with them soon. It was during this tenure that I found out that both Vaps and Dana were good in sports; both played tennis regularly, went riding and I got included in the 4– ball of Vaps for golf on many an occasion. Needless to say, he excelled at all the sports and encouraged me in golf, a sport in which I was just a beginner. I also found out during the walks in golf as also other social occasions that his knowledge on the sporting events was simply amazing. As an example, he could rattle off at the drop of a hat who had won what in Rome Olympics of 1960. Vaps and Dana were also excellent hosts and we spent many pleasant evenings at their home. Their charm and his wit were invigorating, to say the least.

In those days, without internet, and access to encyclopedias difficult, I found Vaps a storehouse of information and regularly asked him questions and then just listened, soaking in all that knowledge. In addition, we had frequent bridge sessions in his house, particularly on Sundays when the weather prevented us from golf or any outdoor activity. I was also impressed by his professional knowledge in the DS meetings whenever we discussed the syllabus or teaching methodology for the students. Though he said little in these meetings, whatever he did say was right and, most importantly, he never compromised on his principles and say yes just because the boss wanted to hear it. Unfortunately, I spent most of the latter part of 1985 till mid–November in Madras representing the College for a court case that became quite well–known so I won’t dwell on that anymore so as not to embarrass anyone. In early 1986, Vaps was promoted to the rank of Group Captain and took over as the Head of Training Team (Air Wing) or HOTT (Air). While the title may elicit some mirth, it was totally inappropriate for Vaps since he was not used to letting out just hot air but always spoke in a measured manner backed by knowledge and wit. Vaps asked me to join him in the training team and I gladly accepted since I had some ideas about how to rework/ reset some of the exercises, reduce the donkey work and give the air wing students more time to interact with their counterparts in the Army and the Navy to learn more about the sister services as also have time to gain from “Chanakya”, the well– stocked library.

Working closely with Vaps on this mission, I was even more impressed with his grasp and decision making. Most times, when I went to him with an idea or suggestion, he would say, “do it”, before I even completed my first sentence or two. When I told him that he hadn’t fully heard me out, he would respond in detail with what I was proposing and thus put my doubts at rest by adding that he, as the boss, took decisions but the work was to be done by people like me. That is a lesson that remained with me through the rest of my career and helped me in delegating work while ensuring professional growth of my subordinates. It was also during this tenure that I found Vaps would support his subordinates even against the Chief Instructor’s ideas if the subordinates had professionally sound ideas and logic. And, he did this in a manner which did not offend anyone, particularly his seniors. That is when my initial assessment of Vaps changed 180 degrees and I realised how wrong I had been initially in forming an impression because of his somewhat wild ways. I now realised that Vaps was great senior officer material because of his decision making abilities backed by knowledge, wit and charm. Unfortunately, that was not to be and Vaps was snatched away from the Air Force and us pretty early in life.

In August 1986, Vaps and I were sent to TACDE in Jamnagar for a refam on the MiG–21 before proceeding to the Soviet Union for the MiG–29. Vaps and Group Captain Bharat Kumar were to do just the ground school on the aircraft to enable them to man the controlling cells in Command and Air HQ while I was nominated as the CO–Designate for 28 Squadron. We spent over 2 months in Lugovaya from 1 October 1986 before Vaps and Groupie Bharat headed back to India in mid– December after finishing the ground school. During these two months, I got to know Vaps even better since there was little to do after working hours and theory classes in Lugovaya except play Bridge, drink and walk around before and after meals together. By late October, it started snowing in Lugovaya and even our walks before and after dinner in the “stolovaya” stopped. That meant more Bridge and general talk. By the time I got back in March 1987 to Staff College to clear out and move to Poona, Vaps was already in SWAC in Jodhpur as Ops 1 looking after the MiG–29 induction and operationalisation so we spoke regularly on phone.

We also met every time I went over to Jodhpur either for a meeting/conference or on detachment with the aircraft for an exercise. The very first meeting was in June 1987 itself when AOC Poona, Air Cmde JP Singh, and I were in Jodhpur for a command paper exercise. JP Sir was made AOC Sindh (the Red Force Commander) and was required to present a plan to counter SWAC. Since I had just come from Staff College, JP Sir tasked me to make out our paper and presentation. When I showed an out–of–the–box draft to him which put SWAC in a lot of trouble, JP Sir said, “Harish, you will have me fired for sure” but went along with it because our job was to highlight the chinks in SWAC’s plans so that these could be taken care of and plugged. Vaps said almost the same thing for me that I was also doomed as the brain behind such an audacious plan when I discussed it with him before the presentation. Fortunately, the Chief, Air Chief Marshal DA Lafontaine and the C–in–C, Air Marshal Polly Mehra, took the whole presentation in the right spirit and JP Sir and I survived.

Thereafter, whenever I called Vaps for any issue regarding the squadron, like in Staff College, he would say “Go ahead and do it”. One of these issues was that in February 1988 itself, we were deployed in Jamnagar for an exercise and the AOC, Air Cmde Ben Brar, and others including TACDE guys and wives asked me to put up a low level display on the MiG–29 for their men’s families and them. I asked Vaps since I knew some others in Command were just waiting for me to do something like this without authorisation. Vaps gave me the go– ahead and even said to take his name if anyone asks who had authorised such displays. As a matter of fact, he told me not even to bother asking him the next time whenever I wanted to do such displays and take this as a blanket clearance since I was the nominated display pilot and had to keep in touch by regular practices. The same went for flying other squadron pilots in the trainer for the exercise missions since I felt that apart from engaging the others in dissimilar combat training sorties, it was also more beneficial if we took one of their pilots to see what we do and what an ASF like MiG–29 was capable of doing.

This, I felt, would prepare them better to face the enemy’s ASFs like the F–16s in the real deal. Sure enough, one time I was asked by another senior officer to explain how I was flying anyone I wanted in the trainer and just Vaps’s name was enough. I was in Jodhpur in mid–1988 for some meeting when we had a late night party at Vaps and Dana’s house. I then noticed that Vaps did not have any food. On asking, he said he had a stomach ache and didn’t feel like eating. Concerned about his health due to his lifestyle, I advised him to have this checked ASAP since it just didn’t sound right. Unfortunately, my worst fears came true and Vaps was soon in combat with cancer. Unfortunately also, he did not last too long after that and we lost a good professional. In sum, while Vaps was a human being with all the frailties and faults, like all of us do, he knew how to use his talents and abilities well, particularly for his subordinates. I admired Vaps for his general knowledge; he obviously devoured books and retained a lot of useful information which obviously helped him in his quick decision making. Vaps was also a very social person who got along well, particularly with his subordinates for whom he cared a lot. His humour and ready smile, though at times laconic, are still fresh in my mind. With seniority, I think Vaps also got over his quick temper, particularly against people he could not suffer. In all, Vaps was a good leader and I learnt a great deal about leadership from him. He was also great company socially and I am sure he is missed by most of his friends.

Photo above: The author of this series, Air Marshal (R) Harish Masand is 3rd from the left. Photo at the bottom : Air Marshal Harish Masand.