Fascinated by jets in his childhood, Farhan Majeed is now Kashmir's youngest commercial pilot

Srinagar: As he used to observe the jets stationed at the nearby air force station hover over his village, Farhan Majeed would inquisitively ask his grandfather where the planes were heading. His grandfather would jokingly tell him that they would land at their rooftop. The joke seems to have turned into a prayer that has been responded as 20-year-old Farhan has become the youngest person in Kashmir to obtain a commercial pilot’s license.

Farhan’s is a typical Bollywood story of that humble village boy making it big with his dedication and support of his family.

Hailing from Awantipora area of south Kashmir’s Pulwama district, Farhan recently obtained a commercial pilot’s license from the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) Government of India, the youngest from Kashmir to achieve the feat, he told Greater Kashmir.

Farhan’s date of birth is September 11, 2000 as mentioned in official documents.

The youth from south Kashmir started training as a commercial pilot at the Uttarakhand-based ‘Global Konnect Aviation Services’ in 2018 right after passing his class 12 board examination, he said.

But the following two years of training at the academy were not a cake walk for the youth as he had to self study throughout in absence of a guide or his family even as the latter supported him both financially as well as emotionally, he acknowledged.

Farhan’s father is a mathematics lecturer while his mother teaches at the local Mantaqui Higher Secondary School where he has done all his schooling.

Over the inspiration behind his decision to train as a commercial pilot, Farhan told Greater Kashmir that he used to observe the jets at the local Air Force Station in Malangpora during his childhood days from the nearby fields and developed a taste to fly the planes.

The credit for the career choice also goes, in part, to the youth’s grandfather, he says. “My grandfather tells me I used to pester him often as a child as to where the jets at the nearby air base were heading to which he would tell me that they would land on my rooftop. See, it seems so,” Farhan recalls with a giggle.

‘Captain Majid’, as his friends fondly call him, gives the credit for his success to his family for their support during the training as he eagerly waits to fly his first commercial flight.