Sunday, 23 November 2025
Sunday, 23 November 2025
Kangra fell into a stunned silence on Sunday as Wing Commander Namansh Syal, the Indian Air Force pilot who died in the Tejas crash at the Dubai Air Show, was given a hero’s farewell in his native Patiyalkar village.
His wife, an IAF officer herself, stood in uniform, sobbing yet resolute, managing a trembling salute even as their six-year-old daughter clung to her in fear and confusion.
Moments later, as the flames rose, locals whispered the name they had known him by for years: Nammu.
The mortal remains of the 30-something pilot returned to India in full military honours.
After being received at the Sulur Air Force Base in Tamil Nadu, his body was flown to Gaggal airport and carried onward in an Army truck draped with flowers.
A long convoy of military and civilian vehicles followed the procession, winding through mountain roads lined with hundreds of residents who came out to pay their respects.
Patriotic chants rolled through the valley — “Jab tak suraj chaand rahega, Nammu tera naam rahega” — as men, women and children waited for one last glimpse of the officer they considered a local legend.
Syal was admired not just as a decorated aviator but also as an exceptional athlete, remembered for running uphill trails long before sunrise and for the unyielding discipline that shaped his career.
His father, Jagan Nath Syal, stood composed yet shattered. “Namansh’s death is a big loss to the country and to me,” he said quietly.
He recalled how his son was one of only four aerobatic pilots in India, a distinction earned through relentless training. “His trainers considered him their best student,” he added, pride breaking through his grief.
Namansh and his wife had first met during their posting in Pathankot, their shared love for the uniform gradually growing into a lifelong partnership. They married in 2014, and the couple was known among colleagues as grounded, warm and deeply committed to the service.
Sunday’s funeral brought together a wide spectrum of the Himachal leadership: Sports Minister Anil Goma, Tourism Development Corporation chairman R. S. Bali, BJP leader and former Assembly Speaker Vipin Parmar, senior Air Force and Army officers, and district officials.
But it was the ordinary villagers who formed the thickest ring around the pyre — people who had watched “Nammu” grow up, excel, leave, and return draped in the tricolour.
In the fading light, as the last rites concluded, the chants rose once more across the hills.
A young daughter clutched her mother’s hand. A village mourned its hero. And a nation saluted an aviator who, in life and in death, remained faithful to the sky.
