The Professionals

 

Air Warriors have been professionals - combat crew at the top of the list with all the support elements closely on their heels. We have seen exemplary senior officers, young officers as well as airmen at all levels, who performed beyond rank or recognition. We have of course also had those among us who needed nudges to get on the right track – life presents different shades and experiences as lessons!

This text is inspired by Subroto Bagchi’s book, “The Professional”, first published by Penguin’' in 2009. I was immensely impressed by Bagchi’s examples of true professionals as well as those who lacked direction. “What is appreciated gets repeated.” So, I believed that a good read of this book would instill pride in those who were on the right path while nudging those who compromised when not watched. During my visits to BRDs/ EDs, therefore, I used to present a copy of the book to every commander, for the lessons to go down to all.

To be an officer is synonymous with being a professional with all the character attributes well beyond just the training and qualifications. Air Mshl SG Inamdar’s ‘Towards Fewer Faux Pas and Gaffes’ compiled long ago, and Air Cmde Hrushikesh Page’s ‘Conversations’ written recently, deal with the subject of what it is to be an officer. Both are worthy of assimilation by not only the military men but also by corporate leaders.

An internet search for the meaning of the word professional shows, (1) A person who works in a job that needs a high level of training or education, and (2) A person who plays or teaches a sport, etc. for money.

The second interpretation has lost its relevance.  The first half of the 20^th century was the amateur era of sports. Participation in sports was not a job out of which one made a living. Even more recently before the social media boom through internet and mobile phones, anyone who was in a salaried job not for sport and yet participated at the national/ international level in sport, was not called a pro. Milkha Singh was a fauji first and a sportsperson next.

Sportspersons were the first to break the barrier. Then came the doctors working for private hospitals. And today, a generally believed definition of a professional is, “one who is highly trained and educated to perform the job in one’s chosen profession.”

Subroto Bagchi goes well beyond that accepted definition to include many character attributes before acknowledging anyone as a professional.

He writes, “We live amid scores of qualified engineers, doctors, nurses, architects, lawyers, journalists, sportspersons and accountants, who believe that being a professional is merely a means of earning a livelihood, just another way to get ahead in life, to seek and create further material comfort and eventually enjoy retirement. For such people, a professional is someone who gets an educational qualification to land a job, then a coveted assignment or posting, followed by a bunch of accelerated increments and promotions.”

Bagchi says that a professional is something more than that. He mentions three fundamental qualities that make someone a true professional. These are, “ability to work unsupervised, the ability to certify completion of a job or task, and the ability to behave with integrity at all times.”

Exemplary professionalism was recently displayed by the nurses in a childcare room during the Myanmar earthquake on 28^th of March 2025. They chose to take care of children and not run for their own lives. They didn't just save lives. They showed us how to live !

It gives me immense pride in recalling a few examples of professionals who have distinguished themselves from the ordinary.

Military or Civil, one doesn’t have to be in active service to be a professional. I see a huge number of veterans possessed with passion to go beyond oneself. Col AK Moghe has formed a group called Defnece Veterans Volunteers Group, Hyderabad to serve veterans in every conceivable matter. Members of DVVGH and many more veterans take turns to help doing patients’ registration at the ECHS polyclinic. Some of them are also there in the morning rush hours to facilitate and guide patients.  

Colonel Rajiv Sisaudia stands tall among volunteers. He has set up infrastructure for a full-fledged “Helpline” Facility at the Polyclinic. During his visiting hours to the polyclinic, he has no time to look up while, with a smile, he extends help to every ECHS beneficiary irrespective of rank or background. He has most deservedly been recently felicitated by the Army Commander with an award for his selfless service. Hats off to Col Sisaudia!

My course mate Gp Capt BJS Bhatti was an officer, full of life. It came to us as a rude shock when he was detected with Nephritis early in life. There being no cure and kidney transplants not being very common, it seemed to be end of the road. However, he faced adversities bravely for three more decades and earned great reputation for being an exemplary officer. His determined approach was strengthened by another great professional named Dr. Mani, who performed the transplant on him with the kidney donated by Bhatti’s father. Besides being a highly qualified and experienced surgeon, Mani owned Bhatti’s problem as his own. In those times with lack of communication facilities, the first thing Dr. Mani did after successful surgery, was to give Bhatti his personal phone number to assure him of free consultation for life from wherever Bhatti was posted in IAF. And Dr. Mani stayed behind Bhatti till his last day.

A similar experience came to me when I suffered from an attack of acute spondylitis recently. I feared that I would never be able to live a normal life. Out of town from my home ECHS was an adverse situation. A friend connected me to the Command Hospital Pune, where Brig S Shashivadhanan, the HOD Neuro came out as a lifeline to me. The first thing he did was to turn back the case sheet and write his personal mobile number to assure me about him always being by my side. Few do that – not surprisingly, some curtly decline to make themselves available on phone. While his desktop was set up for viewing my MRI, the Brigadier also saw many OR patients giving them full attention. In comparison, there are those who take false pride in being extremely busy with what they call ‘disposing off’ many OPD cases for the day. No wonder that over the next one year of my bad time, I made special trips out of Hyderabad to Pune only to consult Brig Shashivadhanan, a professional par excellence, who had time to do more despite being extremely busy.

We have a huge lot of armed forces veterans in Secunderabad. Almost all are members of RSI (RSAOMI), which is now a crowded place. As one enters the outer office of the secretary, one is delighted to see the billing clerk and receptionist duo of Mr. Giri and Ms Maheshwari. Never given to an obliging ‘काम के बोझ का मारा’ look, both attend to members’ requests most happily while owning complete responsibility on behalf of the management. Instead of making online payments, therefore, I often make a visit to the RSI office, just to meet these happy professionals.

Naga Rani is an employee of my home Secunderabad ECHS Polyclinic. In the last few years since having shifted here from Delhi, I have seen this lady in several exceptional ‘avatars’ within the polyclinic premises.

-              I recall the first look of her with a bucket and broom in the avatar of a safai karmachari. Nag Rani’s Day began well before the first patient arrived at the doors of the polyclinic.

-              During the Covid-19 period, the registration terminal was moved out of the room to an open area. The patients would line up well before the opening time of 8 AM. The terminal would often misbehave testing the patience of those in the queue that swelled with every passing minute. Having reported for work ahead of everyone else, here was Naga Rani keeping her broom and bucket aside to now fiddle with connections to make them work. I was surprised to see that she knew a fair bit about the LAN and the desktop application.

-              The registration process in the polyclinic is supported by many volunteer veteran officers. It is a common site to see Naga Rani filling in for a volunteer who gets late for an unavoidable reason. She can’t see early arriving patients wait for registration.

-              Naga Rani’s most recent avatar bowled me over completely. The doctor advised us to get an annual ECG - the facility was now available within the polyclinic. Lo and behold, I reported to the ECG room to find Naga Rani like a trained nursing assistant carrying out ECGs. When my ECG was done, I rushed out of the room on hearing my name called by the doctor. Well, Naga Rani did not handover my ECG print to my wife because she hadn’t been able to record my BP. I was not quite serious about it because I was monitoring my Bp regularly. But she made me come back, checked my BP to make a record on the ECG print before handing it over. No compromises – she doesn’t need someone else to certify completion of her job.

Naga Rani is a tremendous allrounder not because she is hugely talented. She can do so much, perfectly and with ease, because she has the will to do it.

Subroto Bagchi writes about Mahadeva, who took upon himself to bury the city’s unclaimed corpses in Bengaluru. He calls Mahadeva the “professional of professionals.”

Most of us veterans may remember a cricketer by the name Robin Singh who played for India during 1989 to 2001. A reputed commentator and critic had once said, “Give me six Robin Singh’s in any team, and I would have a world beater side”. That, when far more talented and celebrated players were in the Indian team, was an acknowledgement of Robin Singh’s selfless commitment and integrity ahead of everyone else. He was clearly “the professional of professionals” in that fabulous Indian team.

Each one in my above examples is a professional, who qualifies on the fundamental traits – ‘no supervision required’, ‘ability to certify completion of one’s own work,’ and ‘unquestioned integrity’. However, like Mahadeva and Robin Singh, Naga Rani stands out as the “professional of professionals” in our small world.

Hats off to all those who make this world a wonderful place ! 🫡

Air Mshl PV Athawale