IN NOVEMBER 2024, a seaplane landed in the backwaters near my home and took off for the hills the next day and it landed in Mattupetty Dam. It was a De Havilland brought in to test the possibility of giving tourists a faster route from the coast to the hills. It was announced as the state’s first seaplane. That statement is both right and wrong.
It could be the state’s first civilian seaplane, but certainly not the first one. Greybeards in Kochi tell me that the Royal Air Force used to operate Supermarine Stranraers and Catalina Flying Boats out of these same waters during World War II. The RAF’s famous 240 Squadron called at RAF Station Cochin from “July 1942 through to July 1945” says the Royal Navy Research Archive.
What brought me to old planes is Special Correspondent Rahul Devulapalli’s Untold Story on Warangal’s Mamnoor airport, which was built by the Nizam and bombed by the Indian Air Force’s Hawker Tempests in 1948. Now the Telangana government wants to revive Mamnoor and gift the state its second civilian airport, after Shamshabad.
The cover story is a brilliantly written article by Chief of Bureau (Delhi) Namrata Biji Ahuja on how the extradition of Tahawwur Rana could tie loose ends linked to 26/11 and lead to the uncovering of valuable intelligence on other attacks that were planned, including one on the National Defence College in Delhi.
Namrata skilfully narrates how the doctor used multiple layers of subterfuge to airgap himself from the terrorist activities he was powering. Everything from running a business to philanthropy to invoking Mahatma Gandhi. I remember the total surprise, sorrow and anger that 26/11 evoked. And through this cover story one realises the spread of the network that made the terrorist attack happen. What did India do to Rana that would want him to invest so much time and resources against our country? Nothing at all, as far as I can gather.
With West Asia on the boil, we also look at Lebanon, where the funeral of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has powered a fresh wave of anger against Israel. But not all of Lebanon is pro-Hezbollah and with the Assad regime out of Damascus, the resistance group will have to rethink its strategies.
In Indian politics, Senior Assistant Editor Pratul Sharma looks at Delhi and what Chief Minister Rekha Gupta’s cabinet bodes for upcoming state elections, for the citizens of the national capital and the opposition. From Madhya Pradesh, Correspondent Badar Bashir reports on how state Congress chief Jitendra Patwari has been able to move the limelight away from old warhorses Kamal Nath and Digvijaya Singh.
Anyway, let me sweeten your mood with Laxmi’s story shot by Photographer Kritajna Naik K. She was abducted from her family and forced to beg near Mulund railway station. She got off the streets when she was around 18. Though she is 30 years old now, that does not stop her from slyly opening the latch of her room, slipping out and raiding the larder for snacks when everyone is asleep.
Did I tell you that she is an elephant?