Hello

As a retired IAF officer and fighter pilot-turned-author my fascination for space and the Universe steered me towards sci-fi, a genre that has captivated me for the last 45 years; the last few years have given me the time to concentrate on my ambition and decades-old passion for writing. While in the IAF I wrote exclusively on technical and professional subjects, the last few years have given me the opportunity to turn my attention to fiction, specifically sci-fi.

My Story

Join me, Dev Ganesh, on a voyage of discovery exploring the vast cosmos and the wonders that lie within.

Before I retired from the Air Force I frequently found myself posted to remote areas of the country far from metros and hubs of civilisation.

It didn’t help that I was a fighter pilot, as fighter bases are, for various reasons, located in the less populated areas of the country close to the international borders.

While most of my colleagues missed the cities, I was perfectly happy and spent countless evenings under clear starry skies unpolluted by thick layers of smog, a sad hallmark of any city or large town, armed with my trusty 4.5 inch reflector telescope, a torchlight wrapped in red cellophane and pencil and paper.

With these simple tools I explored the universe and saw wonders like sunlit mountain peaks on the moon sticking up through the darkness just short of the line dividing night and day, catching the early morning sun before it lit the ground below, still in darkness; the Great Red Spot on Jupiter’s surface, a monstrous anti-cyclone a thousand kilometers wide; four of Jupiter’s largest moons; the rings of Saturn and the nebula of Orion.

I felt the awe of looking at faraway fairylands like the Andromeda galaxy so distant that it would take light almost two million years to reach us but was still visible on the clearest of nights to the naked eye as an oval fuzzy patch, testimony to the vast expanses of empty space that the Universe was largely made of. At such moments would come the amazing realisation that one was, in effect, in a time machine as one would be looking at it as it appeared almost two million years ago! That even if there were a cataclysmic explosion in the Andromeda galaxy at this very moment, it would be almost two million years before the image reached us!

Back on terra firma the outdoors,

particularly the thickly forested areas of

Arunachal Pradesh nurtured by fast

streams where I was posted were another

love of my life. Many an hour I’ve

spent motorbiking through jungle tracks

and across shallow streams to get to my

favorite fishing spots, often fifty or more

kilometers from our Air Force Station at

Tezpur, Assam; pursuit of my favorite game

fish, the mighty Mahseer took me through

the most beautiful and awe inspiring forests

I had ever seen or would see. I recollect the

hours spent angling the Bareilly river near Tezpur in Arunachal Pradesh, the ice-cold water from the mountains holding our freshly caught fish as well as chilling the bottles of beer we had brought along.

I remember the cold chilly feeling running up my spine when, while walking through a forested part of the jungle, I needed to return to my motor-cycle for some reason, telling my friend to go ahead and that I would catch up in a few minutes.

I turned back and had walked only a few yards along the winding when I saw the pug marks of a large cat; I wasn’t experienced enough to differentiate the pug-marks of a tiger from a leopard, but I knew that tigers were scarce in this area so I was probably looking at the pug-marks of a large leopard.

Looking closer at the pug-marks on the soft mud (it had showered the previous night) I noticed that the pug-marks ended abruptly at a certain point in the middle of the path… the paw-prints were comparatively deeper where the pug-marks ended, as if the animal had sprung off the path into the surrounding bushes… and looking closer, a cold feeling of dread set my nerves tingling as saw drops of water seeping into the pug-marks, indicating that they were made very, very recently, probably less than a minute ago. Getting up slowly and glancing to both sides I shouted to my friend to start walking back towards me making as much noise as possible, and gave him a quick SITREP (situation report).

Thankfully nothing untoward happened thereafter and we resumed our walk briskly, conversing loudly without appearing to hurry to avoid appearing as scared prey (and thus irresistible to a stalking leopard). I had, of course, abandoned all plans to return to the parked motorbike to retrieve a forgotten bottle opener, which, under the changed circumstances, suddenly didn’t appear as important as it had just a few minutes ago!

But the main love of my life was, undeniably, fighter flying. I make a distinction from other types of flying as there is a world of difference between flying a fighter or for that matter, any single-seat aircraft and a heavy transport aircraft or an airliner or helicopter. Flying a fighter was one of the most exhilarating experiences I’ve ever had. The closest thing in comparison to flying a fighter is, in my book, flying an open cockpit biplane or even a micro-light aircraft. There is something about flying a fighter

that cannot be compared to any other experience in life; there something about being alone in the sky that makes that moment yours and yours alone, even when flying in a formation of other fighters. The exhilaration of flying mock combat missions, or thundering at tree-top height above a winding valley bottom with the mountainside flashing by in a blur on either side defies description. The life of a fighter pilot is a kaleidoscope of periods of tranquility interspersed by moments of bliss in a serene sky interrupted by moments of sheer terror!

There are so many experiences to sample and so little time to do it in.

My hours are spent at my work-bench engaged in constructing scale aircraft or authentic functioning railway dioramas, trying to express myself at the piano or guitar, spending hours at my keyboard or playing with words to express my feelings and emotions triggered by the wonders of this world!

Contact

I'm always looking forward to hearing about new and exciting opportunities. Let's connect.