Write up by Ash
Sameer advent to NDA and later on Bravo Sqn was routed through Fox – in fact many of the 55 have in their DNA that unique Fox chromosome that twirls and curls within them, giving them that soft gentleman’s touch, either at their entry/transit/passing-out point. Thus, it was in those initial days, there came in to our midst, a bit awkward, gangly guy, his face beaming innocence and carrying the distinctness of a Konkani Chittapawan Brahmin. His entry described him as a flyboy but he had the natural attributes of a dolphin. No wonder the NDA Passing Out Parade Journal, captured his completeness, scratchily, “Miss Bravo for six terms running. Good at swimming. Spent more time at home than at the Academy.”
Sanjeev Sehri reminiscences that Sameer was a very sweet and nice guy. “Though, if he remembered correctly, even though he had a Services background, he wasn’t the ‘smart’-type; was more of a monk. His parents were probably in Pune and quite often they would come on Sundays and bring yummy ladoos with them. He was such a sweet soul that he used to offer the sweets to all of us and needless to say they were polished off in no time.”
Pratap Nair recollects that “Sameer was the most innocent NDA guy he ever saw. Sameer was like a lotus shining bright amongst us smart alec’s & crooks. He had a rough time in initially adjusting to the rigours of NDA’s first term but he persevered & succeeded. The best/great part was that he never lost his innocence. A great friend & simple human being, he will be always missed by us. RIP”
A random google search reveals that amongst the 27 IAF air accidents that occurred in 1987, on 02 September, 15883 F(P) Flight Lieutenant Sameer Kalyan Kurane commissioned on 14th December 1979 while on a flight on Kiran HJT-16 along with Sqn Leader Dhiraj Kumar Purkayastha had an air accident. Both did not survive, it is with that hollowness within, that ladies and gentlemen of the course, we remember Sameer this morning on his birthday.
With an eye to his life as a pilot, French writer, poet, aristocrat, journalist and pioneering aviator, Saint-Exupéry considers with unsentimental sweetness the common experience of losing fellow pilots to accident or war. In a passage that radiates universal insight into the loss of a friend, whatever the circumstance, he writes:
“Bit by bit… it comes over us that we shall never again hear the laughter of our friend, that this one garden is forever locked against us. And at that moment begins our true mourning, which, though it may not be rending, is yet a little bitter. For nothing, in truth, can replace that companion. Old friends cannot be created out of hand. Nothing can match the treasure of common memories, of trials endured together, of quarrels and reconciliations and generous emotions. It is idle, having planted an acorn in the morning, to expect that afternoon to sit in the shade of the oak.”
So, life goes on. For years we plant the seed, we feel ourselves rich; and then come other years when time does its work and our plantation is made sparse and thin. One by one, our comrades slip away, deprive us of their shade.
Penned with inputs from Sanjeev Sekhri and Pratap Nair.
🙏 May his soul rest in peace 🙏
We had joined Fox together and went to Echo in our third term. I returned to Fox thereafter but Echo claimed ownership on him. He did brilliantly there and was the CSM of the Sqn while passing out.
