Air Mshl Yeshwant Rao Rane (V)
Valmiki Faleiro
An announcement for friends in the US before we proceed with today’s story:
pre-orders for Goa, 1961 have been opened in the US by Barnes & Noble. Those interested may like to see: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/goa-1961-valmiki-faleiro/1143667519 (may have to be copy/pasted to the browser).
The info came courtesy Dr. (a double Ph.D actually) Carmo Paixao Pereira of Guirdolim-Goa/US, a chemical engineer who worked a lifetime with American oil majors.
Info of Amazon-US was provided by Dr. Julia Figueiredo, Loutulim-Goa/US, who is HOD at a top Ivy League university. She was a teacher at age eighteen at Loyola High School, Margao-Goa, about two months after I was chucked out from that school and boarding for an act of grave misdemeanour!
From today, we shall see a bit more of the five veterans who commented on Goa, 1961, before moving to book excerpts on a daily basis until launch date.
Air Marshal Yeshwant Rao Rane, PVSM, AVSM, VSM, ADC (V)
This versatile fighter pilot of the Indian Air Force (he has flown 4600 hours in practically the entire array of fighter aircraft in the IAF inventory – not a mean achievement for a fighter pilot anywhere in the world) was educated at elite institutions like Sherwood in Nainital and La Martinere in Lucknow.
Nothing lesser could be expected for the son of the illustrious Major General Krishna Rao Rane who held King’s Commission number 0007 – among the earliest Indian officers to be admitted into the executive ranks of the fighting arms of the British-time Indian Army.
The distinguished family has its origins in Sanquelim, Goa, but is part of the Gwalior royalty and is settled there. Surprised? Ever wondered how the family temple (visible from the main road) in the foreyard of the ancestral manor at Sanquelim has a gold-plated dome?
Let’s turn back a few pages, to the time when a Scindia maharaja had only daughters. To cut the long story short, the maharaja married a Rane damsel from Sanquelim. Her first child was male. A worthy successor to the throne was born! (And of course, the Sanquelim temple dome got its majestic gold plating!)
After a remarkable flying career of 41 years, Air Mshl Rane retired as the Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Southern Air Command (which was founded, incidentally, by another Goan, Air Mshl Terence ["Hindustan Warner"] de Sa of Sangolda, its first AOC-in-C). Air Mshl Rane visits Goa regularly. He was here earlier this year. And yes, he regards Goa, 1961 in glowing terms!
Can’t resist the temptation of mentioning his relative (from the same Sanquelim house), Major Jaisinghrao Satrojirao Rane – the man wrongly accused of almost igniting an Indo-Pak war at Chhad Bet in the Rann of Kutch much before the actual hostilities in 1965.
Maj. Rane was a bantamweight boxing champion. As a Young Officer, he was at the Officers Training School, Madras, when a higher ranked British officer said to him, “You bloody Indians don’t have manners!” The boxing champ gave the Brit an instantaneous demo of that statement … flooring him with a single punch in the face. Discharged, he went to Gwalior and promptly joined the Madhya Bharat State Force (which was later integrated into the Indian Army).
Maj Rane was husband of Goa’s first elected woman MP (Lok Sabha), Sanyogita Rane of the royalty of Tiroda, Sawantwadi. Their eldest son, Second Lt Jayendra Rane, Vr.C, rushed to rescue his trapped men during the 1971 war in East Pakistan. He fell to enemy fire received on the chest and sides – but not his back.