Click to play videoMumbai: It’s Mother’s day on Sunday. A special day for the most special woman in our lives.
But for many moms, it’s a sad day because the ones who could wish them Happy Mom’s day aren’t around.
This story hauntingly reminds of a recent blockbuster.
A story acclaimed for the sheer inspiration it drew, a tale of how a fighter pilot's mother turned her grief into a cause to build a memorial for her son.
Her exemplary determination to bring safety to the skies for all fighter pilots.
He was born to fly and he was doomed to be buried under those very wings, that’s the tragic story of 27-yr-old Flight Lieutenant Abhijit Gadgil.
Gadgil died in a MIG-21 crash near Rajasthan in 2001.
And his story is one, which has now several reels of film dedicated to him.
But Six years on, his mother is gradually coming terms with his ill-fated death.
"I thought that a pilot doesn't belong to a family, he belongs to the nation," says Abhijit’s mother Kavita Gadgil.
"But if they're getting killed by their own weapon, then we should wake up."
But the nightmare of the crash refuses to leave Kavita. With a horrific stain of a Defence inquiry blaming her martyred son, for a pilot-error crash, she launched on a single-minded crusade.
"Every year in September I go to the crash site. I take an oath to carry on I tell Abhijit I will carry this forward," says Kavita.
A one-woman movement, it was a campaign to improve safety standards in MIG aircrafts, with 150 MIG crashes in the last decade.
The Gadgils gave it a platform in 2002, the Abhijit Air Safety Foundation was set up as a memorial for Abhijit and other pilots who've been casualties of the infamous
And to give the cause a larger canvas, the Gadgils are busy giving shape to an aviation training academy Jeet Aerospace Institute in Pune's Khadakvasla area that will have advanced aeromodelling facilities.
"This memorial is an inspiration for all those who want to fly and achieve victory," says Kavita Gadgil.
After a 5-year-long battle with the system tackling hurdles has become second nature for the mother crusader.
But Kavita Gadgil remains optimistic. Her optimism is reflected in the three words her son often told her I dare, I dream, I fly.
A sentiment that Abhijit’s mother wants to carry forward as she begins a new chapter in her life.
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