Cavalier India Defence Training Academy

The story involves an Indian Air Force Pilot, Americans, Russians and a mystery woman Flying Officer Mervyn Pinto seated in a fighter plane at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada I was on summer vacation at my grandparent’s house in Pune when I first watched ‘Top Gun’. I remember being glued to the television, transfixed by Maverick fearlessly manoeuvring his plane through the sky while ‘Danger Zone’ blasted in the background. My grandmother was sitting by, sipping tea when she laughed and said, “Oh, I remember when your grandfather was Top Gun.” For a second, I thought I heard wrong. Did she just say my grandfather was Top Gun? “Yes, of course,” she said nonchalantly as she glared at Tom Cruise on screen with narrow eyes as if to say, “My husband did it better.”  To my grandfather’s irritation (“It was no big deal,” he grumbled), his old flying logbooks were pulled out and we sat around the dining table pouring over pictures from his days as a fighter pilot with the Indian Air Force....