On Sunday 03 Jun 2012 9:19:10 am John Sundman wrote: > I remember, very vaguely, the news of that encounter
The reason I chose to narrate that particular encounter was that a cousin of mine (now no more) was one of the pilots. I have mentioned his name in the narrative because his plane brushed a sand dune and continued to fly after that. I will post a photo of that squashed tailpipe on the Silk Facebook page. He told me the story in first person after the war, but there is a very Indian side-tale attached to that. I cannot say whether the dates mentioned are true but my aunt (pilot-cousin's mother) and her sister (my late mother) certainly believed it. Some time in the middle of that intense, short war (16 days) my aunt and mother consulted an astrologer to find out how the war would go for my cousin. The astrologer is supposed to have said that my cousin had faced great danger to his life around the 4th to the 6th of December 1971 but that he would live. That was exactly the time when this encounter had taken place, but we did not know. I know for a fact that astrologers are great psychologists who can read faces and moods, and many are inveterate con men as well - so while I did not believe this, both my mother and aunt had faith. That was only strengthened when my cousin reappeared after the war and related this tale. shiv
