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Age is just a number, this fact has once again been proved to the world by Arvinder Bahal, the first Sikh to travel to space. While at the age of 80, people usually choose rest and a dull routine, on the contrary, Arvinder Bahl has done such a scary and courageous feat in the heights of the sky, that even the youth will lose their sweat while doing it. Arvinder Bahl has surprised the world by doing ‘wing walking’ (walking on the wings of a flying aeroplane) at the age of 80. They are breaking the conservative thinking of the society which sees old age as limited by compulsions and limitations.
Left NDA, worked in tea garden… but passion to fly never diminished
Arvinder Bahal, originally from Jalandhar, Punjab and now an American citizen, has excitement in his veins. He was a promising student of the 28th course of the National Defense Academy (NDA), but at the age of just 17, he had to leave the academy on medical grounds due to hearing loss in his right ear. He did not let this great disappointment become his weakness. After leaving NDA, he worked as a manager in the tea gardens of Darjeeling. After this, in the year 1975, he went to America and made Boston city his new home and built a very successful business there.
Learned to fly helicopter during Corona period: childhood passion made pilot
No matter how many ups and downs came in Arvinder’s life, his childhood passion of flying never left him. During his college and NCC cadet days, he had acquired a glider pilot’s license in Agra. After shifting to America, he also took a private pilot’s license there. Bahal, a man of indomitable courage, did not stop here, when the whole world was confined to homes and came to a standstill during the Covid-19 pandemic, he fulfilled another dream from his bucket list and got a helicopter pilot’s license in his name. “Flying has always been my first love,” he says.
How did you come up with the idea of flying on a plane? History created amidst panic attack
The story of this new and dangerous adventure of wing walking is also very interesting. During an international conference of travelers in Uzbekistan, he was telling stories of his skydiving and polar expeditions to a British woman. Only then did he realize that he had not yet done ‘wing walking’ in his life. The woman found a place for it in Kent, Britain and invited him there. However, due to fear at the last moment, the British woman had a panic attack and retreated, but the steps of this 80 year old Sikh brave man did not waver. Arvinder Bahl braved strong winds by being tied to the wings of a vintage plane flying at a height of about 600 feet in the sky of Kent and performed amazing stunts.
‘A person without fear is not a human being’… got the most beautiful compliment from his grandson
Being a traditional turban-wearing Sikh, he had tied his turban securely with a special rubber band to withstand the pressure of wind speed of more than 150 km in the sky. Reminiscing about old memories, Bahl says, “When I spread my hands in the air and touched the clouds, the little child inside me woke up. I too feel scared, but fear is the real part of adventure. When I am scared, that is when I feel most alive and can conquer that fear.”
Arvinder Bahl has traveled to almost every country in the world till now and has preserved his memories in a coffee-table book named ‘Tireless Traveller’. Currently work is going on his next book ‘My Planet, My Playground’. When asked about her next bucket list, she laughed and said, “One life is too short to have all these adventures. I am ready to face whatever adventure life throws at me.”
