E-Paper
A heart-rending moment
IT WAS a poignant moment that left the eyes of even the most steel hearted filled with tears. It touched everybody present there, as three-and-a-half-year-old Shashwat immersed the ashes of his father, Squadron Leader Shailendra Singh, into the holy waters of Sangam? holding a small toy car in his hands and playfully splashing his legs in the waters. The 32-year-old Squadron Leader, who died in the first ever air crash of IAF's ace aerobatics team 'Surya Kirans' along with his colleague Wing Commander Dheeraj Bhatia near Bidar in Karnataka on March 18 .
IT WAS a poignant moment that left the eyes of even the most steel hearted filled with tears.
It touched everybody present there, as three-and-a-half-year-old Shashwat immersed the ashes of his father, Squadron Leader Shailendra Singh, into the holy waters of Sangam— holding a small toy car in his hands and playfully splashing his legs in the waters.
The 32-year-old Squadron Leader, who died in the first ever air crash of IAF's ace aerobatics team 'Surya Kirans' along with his colleague Wing Commander Dheeraj Bhatia near Bidar in Karnataka on March 18, had a close association with Allahabad. His wife Shweta Singh hails from the city and is a faculty member teaching the MBA (IT) course at the Indian Institute of Information Technology, Allahabad (IIIT-A).
Helped by his uncle Dhunwal Chandra and his mother, Shashwat performed the ritual, blissfully unaware of the gravity of the tragedy and not knowing that this time on May 30 his father will not be there with a handful of gifts to make his birthday a little more special.
As the chanting of mantras reverberated the shores of Sangam, Shweta stood grieving surrounded by relatives, and close at hand were the entire IIIT-A fraternity, teachers, employees and students, all of whose lives were touched though briefly by the brave young IAF pilot who "talked of the potential of IT in the field of aviation" animatedly and dreamt of making it to the elite band of IAF aviators whose aerobatics skills have impressed the world.
All present for the solemn ceremony knew that Squadron Leader Shailendra Singh had died only after fulfilling his dream and doing something he lived for— Soaring the blue skies.
Friends informed that a part of the ashes were immersed in a small river that flows in Bidar, another part has been immersed at Hardwar and a third immersed at Sangam this morning.
