It's a shame no major film has been made about Biju Patnaik. He lived a life that sounds almost fictional:
In 1938, he flew his entire wedding procession by aircraft to Rawalpindi for his marriage to Gyanwati Sethi (who became the first Indian woman to hold a commercial pilot’s license, and the couple later flew daring missions together.)
While serving in the Royal Indian Air Force (including as head of Air Transport Command), he secretly ferried freedom fighters like Jayaprakash Narayan, Ram Manohar Lohia, and Aruna Asaf Ali to their hideouts. He also airdropped 'Quit India' leaflets to Indian troops while evacuating British families.
The British once jailed him for transporting nationalist leaders and distributing anti-British literature but also honored him for bravery in evacuating civilians from Japanese-occupied Burma.
During WWII, he flew daring missions delivering arms and supplies to Soviet forces in Stalingrad, and over the treacherous 'Hump' route to China in
support of Chinese Nationalist forces against the Japanese.
In July 1947, he and his wife flew a Dakota into Indonesia, landed on an improvised airstrip while evading Dutch anti-aircraft fire, rescued Prime Minister Sutan Sjahrir, refuelled using abandoned Japanese fuel, and flew him safely to India via Singapore.
A couple of months later, during the Pakistani invasion of Kashmir, he airlifted one of the first Indian troops into Srinagar.
The same year he founded Kalinga Airlines, one of India's earliest private airlines.
As Odisha CM post-1962 India-China war, he secretly visited CIA headquarters at Langley to forge a covert India-US partnership against China, which led to the Aviation Research Centre (ARC) at Charbatia, which supported U-2 recon missions over Tibet.
He was also a legendary administrator and statesman, laying much of the foundation of Odisha's industrial empire (mines, ports, heavy industries etc).
When he passed away, Indonesia observed 7 days of state mourning. Russia observed 1 day. He remains the only person in Indian history whose body was draped in the national flags of 3 nations - India, Indonesia, and Russia.
Few public figures have left such a footprint.
His extraordinary life needs to be brought to the big screen.
The man who built Guwahati's first double-storeyed cement house was a timber merchant who exported Gharial skins to Australia and Canada from Guwahati, later became a successful tea planter, flew his own plane and even gifted the first animal to the Assam State Zoo. 1/9
Modern India's 'most consequential Assamese', Tapan Deka, IPS, retires today as longest-serving Director of Intelligence Bureau, after two extensions. A lifetime in shadows. Normal mortals will never know what you have done for India as its "Super Spy." Take a bow, Tapan Da..
India 'RW' is the first RW ever in history to promote soy maxxing among kids...Right wing circles in the west literally consider it sign of low testosterone and weakness among men, 'soyboy' 'soyjack' is a meme and it is mostly fed to pigs
Yesterday indians are making fun of UK that they changed 7 PM in 10 years,
Brother you can't even change a CM who is corrupt and destroying the state, there's level, we are at bottom of bottom, imagine althe audacity to tell others
Forget CM you can't even terminate a government officer
Any normal ordinary citizen who venerates the mla, mps, CMs, PMs, ias, ips etc and treats them with reverence is an obstacle to India's progress.
India is hostage to the greed and corruption of few approx 20000 of these power holders.
They deserve nothing but utmost contempt from ordinary indians.
They should be trolled and held accountable with extreme prejudice.
And a long term plan that any gain made by them by looting the nation shall be taken back even after 30-40-50 years.. no matter what..keep a record.
Sanjay Gandhi during a rally in Uttar Pradesh. Telling how someone can become a minister or hold a post in Congress.
2 nasbandi, plant 1 tree, bring 1 to literacy, and help in cleaning your village.
The dictator we never had. He was the missing link in our absolute democracy.
@PewDiePie6022 Might is right. At some point in time, pisslam had might and they did what popat brohammand told them to do. Now might is with us. Notwithstanding the fact that Kashmir itself is named after Rishi Kashyap
@PewDiePie6022 As long as it doesn't smell like pisslamic terrorists, it's fine. Slowly we're gonna eradicate pisslam and pedophile popat brohammand followers from the valley
Modi is an overrated and overhyped international buffoon we all know that.
But forget Modi, there is not a single politician in @BJP4India who would have the courage to do so if he/she was PM.
Imagine taking charge of a nation left bankrupt by colonialism, bleeding from Partition, buried under mass poverty, then building dams, IITs, AIIMS, ISRO & PSUs, only to be compared to a leader who counts medals and gifting Melody as nation-building