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"I came and saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift; nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, not yet riches to men of understanding, not yet favour to men of skill but time and chance happeneth to them all." — Old Testament

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

Whenever a person's life and deeds are written down by self, as autobiography or by others as biography, there is a danger of such a book becoming suspect and even dubious, first in the eyes of those who know him from close quarters for a very long time and by his wife, who is separated, if that's the case. Children often remain neutral.

If the person is a celebrity of great renown or a President or a King, even his butler or the driver becomes his biographer — spilling salacious beans to sensationalise even a minor incident of hugging a maid or kissing a young thing in a dark corner. Well, at the end of it all, it is all about money, Honey!

Never has truth about books, specially autobiography and biography, written more eloquently than by John Kenneth Galbraith, former American Ambassador to India, when he wrote that "Books can be broken broadly into two classes: those written to please the reader and those written for the greater pleasure of the writer. Subject to numerous and distinguished exceptions, the second class is rightly suspect and especially if the writer himself appears in the story."

I have just finished reading the autobiography of Capt. G. R. Gopinath, "the father of Indian low - cost airline" as no less a person than the former President of India, Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, has patronizingly said in his foreword to the book "Simply Fly." Sadly, the “father” has abandoned his dream child "the low cost airline" and today, we have neither Capt. Gopinath as a benign father enabling the middle - class Indian to fly, nor Vijay Mallya of Kingfisher Airlines who bought Capt. Gopinath's Air Deccan, pursuing that dream or the ideal.

Having sold the Air Deccan apprehending severe competition and perhaps because of a premonition that the share price of that fledgling airline might crash, in hindsight a wise decision, he became a billionaire himself and also made millionaires of his friends – in - arms who trusted him in the early days. Fortuitously, he also decided to write his autobiography, a privilege and the prerogative of only a few lucky, fortunate individuals. That's how we have his autobiography “Simply Fly - A Deccan Odyssey”.

Having read this book from cover to cover, without cheating myself, every word of it, I guess the banal remark about writers of books by John Kenneth Galbraith does not apply to this writer Capt. Gopinath where he himself appears in the book, naturally, as it is an autobiography. This book seems to have been written neither to "please" the reader nor for the "greater pleasure" of the writer himself, nor to become immortal vicariously through the book, if the bookworms show mercy!

Then what is so special about this book? A lot. As a whole, put together, this book is a collection of vital life lessons, especially beneficial to all the potential enterprising entrepreneurs anxious to launch himself or herself onto a career in life with requisite qualification or without. There is no other book that I have read which is so true to life and with incidents that those who have come from Capt. Gopinath's background could identify as experiences they themselves have undergone in similar ways. And clearly I myself fall into this category being the son of a village primary school teacher with three siblings. The trials and tribulations of a life beginning from an Ashram, to school, to college and the struggle to find a suitable slot to begin an income - generating career, beset with many personal limitations, could be an odyssey in life like that of Capt. Gopinath's. Only Capt. Gopinath, a brilliant student who could get into Sainik School, Bijapur and then to National Defense Academy (NDA), Pune, which was my weekend destination carrying chicken, fish or mutton to be washed down with rum at my friend's quarters there for nearly four years in the early '70s] with the courage of conviction to quit Army after the Bangladesh war, could launch himself as a free bird and succeed like he did in his Deccan odyssey.

Many with his kind of academic brilliance, have failed to make a grade in life for sheer lack of courage that Capt. Gopinath displayed in the face of poverty and adversary that seemed to stonewall his march towards success. But he overcame these hurdles by sheer dint of determination to achieve what he had set out to achieve. However, luck also seemed to be on his side, which is not so with many endowed with qualities Capt. Gopinath possessed.

For example, while in his Kannada medium village school which he had joined late right away to V standard, one day to his luck as I mentioned above, his Head Master spoke to the students about a competitive admission exam for a preparatory school for those aspiring to join Defense Forces known as Sainik School and asked those who wished to take the exam to raise their hands. Among the few, Capt. Gopinath was one though he did not know what the heck the exam was all about. The Head Master helped him fill the application form.

At the examination hall, he opened the question paper and "went totally blank." The questions were in English and he knew only Kannada, not a word of English. Now, look at his luck. Who would ever get a Head Master like he got. When he told his predicament and failure at the examination as he knew no English, the Head Master, may his name be recorded here too, B. S. Nanjundaiah, wrote a strong letter to the Ministry of Defense in Delhi challenging the examination and suggesting that the exam, as it was an all-India one, be conducted in regional languages. Not just that. He also told the authorities that it was stupid to equate capability and intelligence with knowledge of English. Narrating this incident, Capt. Gopinath writes about the one important lesson he learnt: One has to be pro - active and steer the course to make things happen. I agree.

And things started happening for the lucky boy Gorur Ramaswamy Iyengar Gopinath (G. R. Gopinath). A few weeks later, the Defense Ministry wrote him saying that it had decided to conduct fresh examination in Kannada. What a luck for Gopinath. A turning point in his life. Rest is legend — a living legend!

It is not clear in the book what exactly made Capt. Gopinath to say goodbye to army except that it was while riding in his Java motor-cycle on the road to see north India that he decided to leave the army. It was not clear in his mind what he would do thereafter either, except that he would not go for a government job. In fact, when he left the army he was at a loose end with barely Rs. 6,350 from PF and gratuity in his pocket.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

to be continued....