AFVOA Newsletter of Year 2021

Section 7 – Panorama CV 2 No. 01 / 2021 Page 100 of 123 2 Price for Conscience Wg Cdr Arun Kaul Genre: Reflections o say that Kulwant was popular would be an understatement.It was the early 80s. Amitabh Bachchan was the rage. But,at the Air Force Academy, our Sergeant Kulwant was more popular. A tall, handsome, big-built sardar, his geniality was endearing ashe reached out to all. A universal brother to all girls, a universaluncle to all children, a universal friend to one and all, a model airman, and above all a fine human being. Most Air Force Stations, for security reasons and to provide large airspace for aircrafts to fly, are situated at a distance from towns and cities. The Air Force Academy at Dundigal too was around 40 kilometers from Hyderabad. Each Air Force Station runs a bus to the city at a certain frequency.The bus is its lifeline, children ride on it to school, so do collegefolks, housewives go out for provisions, families visit the town for an outing and visitors reach the Academy without too mucheffort. In the early 80s when the units weren’t as self-sufficient as theyare today, this bus was an integral part of everyone’s daily life and Sergeant Kulwant who would drive the bus twice a day to town and back was the Pied Piper. If the Academy had an election constituency, Kulwant would win hands down, the opponent losing the deposit. He was that popular. The popularity was not just of convenience but of goodness, of touching the human hearts, of extending himself to help others in times of distress and need without a thought to himself. I was the Deputy Chief Administrative Officer and Security Officer of the Academy and running of the Air Force Bus came under my purview. Every alternate day, Sergeant Kulwant came in to deposit the cash receipts, brief me on the business the bus was doing and fill me in with all the happenings at the Academy. I looked forward to his coming. Through these conversations, I was able to monitor the peoples’ pulse and understand the ups and downs of peoples’ lives on the campus, necessary to my work as a Security Officer. It wasn’t gossip he was interested in, he had true concern,empathy and an involvement which I initially thought was a littlemisplaced. I hadn’t until then seen anyone like him who gladlyembraced others’ problems and put himself out on a limb to help. T