DUTY

DUTY, the social force that binds you to the courses of action demanded by that force.
Usage: "we must instill a sense of duty in our children".


This was my father's weapon of choice when he told me that the last 2 years of my life spent working towards a career as an Airline Pilot were so that I could "have my fun for a year or two but eventually get into business".


I've always known that I would become a Pilot. I have been obsessed with flying since I was 5 years old. 90% of my time outdoors was spent gazing into the wild blue spotting Airplanes wondering how high they were flying, how fast they were going and what the view was like from the cockpit. The fact that my mother did marketing for the aviation magazine "Flight International" and got free copies of the mags only fed my obsession.

Fast forward 14 years and there I was, fresh out of A-Levels( which I hated) and behind the controls of a Cessna 152. I mean sure it was no Concorde but it flew. From the minute the wheels left the ground I was hooked. I've never done any hard drugs before but I recognized addiction. Flying an aircraft all by yourself (after learning to overcome the airsickness) is one of the most beautiful experiences very few people get to experience.

Another 2 years fly by(no pun intended) and there I was, 2 stripes on each shoulder and a smile on my face, knocking off my ATPL exams and looking for a job. Everything seemed to be going according to the plan I had formed when I was 12, Until...


It's December the 14th and I am home for some of the Australian summer.(That's right people, television is a lie! December means winter for only the northern hemisphere while the southern hemisphere hits temperatures of up to 45 degress celcius! Santa on this side of the world is a strange man board shorts, thongs and a singlet who's sleigh is really a cart towed by kangaroos). I'm sitting with my dad after coming home and out of nowhere he goes, in Hindi, " What are you going to do as A pilot? There's not much money for a lot of years of your life..." I go on to tell him that it's been my dream for ages, which he already knows. That's when the word pops up. Duty." It is your DUTY to work for and maybe one day take over the company." He goes on to tell me the story about how Mukesh Ambani got called on by his father IN THE MIDDLE OF HIS MBA COURSE to come back and take charge of the family business. Mukesh Ambani went on to make about 10 times more than his then 2 billion.

Some things my father said in his drunken stupor really hit me though. The first being, " Son, as a Pilot, all you'll do is fly people around, and lose years of your life in the air(some people have total flying times of around 25000 hours, equivalent to about 3 years spent in the air, away from their families and friends) but work for and manage businesses and you employ people, and feed their families. You help economies grow and what you leave behind becomes your legacy." Now the reason this hit me is because about a year and a half ago, I had deecided that I somehow wanted to help Asia. I wanted to help it grow and make it a better place. I wanted to help bring out it's full potential and help as many people as possible because, god knows that the world we live in needs all the help it can get and if you have the ability to make a difference no matter how small, you shouldn't hold back. And the reason I want to help Asia in particular is simply because I am Asian.

The second thing my father said that really hit me was, " Don't you ever think you were meant for something bigger? Why build a hut when you're capable of a Taj Mahal?"(Yes, I know, he is extremely Indian, It's because of people like him that the word is an adjective as much as it is a nationality) Now this really got me thinking... I'm the kind of person who always pushes to see how far he can take something.(which, needless to say, has gotten me into heaps of shit but also won me quite a few things). Just like with life, in rock climbing when you encounter this one hold out of arm's reach and there's no other way to get to it but to leap? At that moment we have 2 choices. A, not leap, stay where we are, get fatigued and eventually fall off, Or B, leap and maybe accomplish something.

After typing all this out, I realize something. Not all weapons were designed for destruction. It also appears that I have come to a decision.

I can always fly recreationally, it's more fun than pushing buttons and monitoring systems in big jets. Looks likeI'm going to university!