On a wing and a bare

For anyone wanting to better the record for flying between India and England in a single engine light aircraft, and with power much less than your Maruti 800, this book is surely a must read.

Others may want to read it for the simple reason that it is written by Vijaypat Singhania, chairman emeritus of the Raymond Group, and it does bare some of the inner workings of the industrialist's mind.

In An Angel In The Cockpit: the True Story of a Death-defying Flight Across 5000 Miles of Land and Sea, Singhania has taken enough pains to describe how he, his business empire and his associates helped him in achieving the record beating flight of about 5,000 miles (8,000 kilometres) in 22 days.

Inspired by a picture of a CFM Shadow microlight aircraft in an aviation magazine, Singhania is quite forthright in explaining the real reason behind his flight.

The journey, which he completed in the company of pictures of an angel""his grand daughter Ananya""and three family deities, was aimed at circumventing the archaic aviation rules that India had at the time.

Till recently, domestic rules did not allow Indians to import aircraft. Singhania had to find a way around this restrictive circumstance to get himself his CFM Shadow, which weighs less than 150 kg and can carry just about 355 kg""for his collection of wings. This aircraft is so small that, in his own words, sitting in it "felt less like being in an aircraft than wearing one".

Singhania was sure that the euphoria around a record breaking attempt would be quite enough to draw equal attention of the world press and aviation authorities.

The challenge was to overfly the regulatory framework, and his experience as a businessman in India's closed economy proved quite enough to help him get what he wanted.

To the man's credit, he managed the support of the then Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Pakistan President General Zia-ul Haq in his endeavour. "If there are two strains to the Singhania character, on the one hand the urge to be a playboy and live life in the fast lane, on the other to build on the business foundations my grandfather had laid down," he writes, "I knew to which branch I belonged." This admission is the only other satisfactory reason for his attempt to break the record.

Beyond that, Singhania's descriptions give the reader a rare glimpse of an Indian business family's actual life behind the high hedges. Most of India's wealthy families stay away from the public glare, and the media tends not to intrude into people's private space for reasons of circumspection. He also sounds quite brave when he describes the events that led to his becoming chairman of Raymond.

This is quite a revelation of what happened behind closed doors. What goes on in business families by way of succession, even while a patriarch's dead body and soul await their final rituals, has always been a subject of polite fascination for business watchers.

Also of interest are a brief history of the Juggilalji and Kamalapatiji Group (better known as the JK Group) and his relationship with his parents and subsequently his stepmother""who would beat him thrice a day.

"Stepmothers do not have a great reputation in India, and like other children I hated mine. Shuttling every few weeks between Kanpur and Bombay or wherever else my father chose to take me. I felt like an orphan."

This book, by the way, is aimed at drumming up enthusiasm for another Singhania attempt to break a world record; by the end of 2005, don't be surprised to find him trying to fly himself over 65,000 feet in a hot air balloon.

Part travelogue, part political landscape log, this book succeeds chiefly at making one wonder about the idiocies of the system and the idiosyncracies of the man. He has logged 5,000 hours of flying, but is afraid of flying over water (it's the sharks, he explains impishly). Otherwise, flying is a fearless passion. How else would he find himself on a nudist beach in Iraklion, encounter Greek beauties in Milos, or even engage in tough talk with Pathans in Gwadar? AN ANGEL IN THE COCKPIT
THE TRUE STORY OF A DEATH-DEFYING FLIGHT ACROSS 5000 MILES OF LAND AND SEA

Vijaypat Singhania
Roli Books
Price: Rs 395; Pages: 288