Wing Commander Satish Bhatia (retd) passed away on Wednesday after a prolonged illness. He was 81.
Commissioned in IAF in December 1964, Wing Commander Bhatia was an AN-12 transport pilot and had flown the last sortie of the aircraft on June 30, 1993 when it was phased out from service.
During the course of his career he served in HQs Training Command Communications Flight, in 11 Squadron in Lucknow and 25 Squadron in Chandigarh among many varied appointments in his more than 30 year long career.
Wing Commander Bhatia took active part in the 1965 and 1971 wars flying operational sorties and was also part of the air effort in Sri Lanka with Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF).
satish Bhatia meeting the then Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri. (Special arrangement)
After his retirement from the Indian Air Force, Wing Commander Bhatia had been associated with the UT Sports Department.
Dinesh Khanna, 1966 Commonwealth Games bronze medallist and the only Indian men’s badminton player to win an Asian Championship title, remembered his first meeting with Wing Commander (retd) and former national champion Satish Bhatia. It was in 1958 during the junior nationals that Khanna and Bhatia faced each other and since then it had been a long association between the two. On Wednesday, as Khanna heard the news of the demise of Bhatia in Chandigarh, the former national champion remembered his friend fondly.
“It was during the Guwahati Nationals in 1958 that we faced each other in the semi-finals. It was his first junior nationals and I was playing in my third junior nationals. While I won the semi-finals, we forged a life-long friendship. He was a very jovial person and always respected his opponents,” said Khanna while speaking with The Indian Express from Delhi.
Born in Quetta in pre-Independence India, Bhatia along with his family had relocated to Dehradun. Counted among India’s top-ranked junior shuttlers, Bhatia played on the national circuit in the 1960s and was a member of the Indian U-20 team which won the International Challenge in Malaysia in 1962. After his joining in the Indian Air Force in 1964, Bhatia became the national champion with a win over Khanna in the nationals in 1968 and was also part of the Indian teams in Thomas Cup in 1966 and 1969 apart from featuring in Indian teams for Asian Games, Commonwealth Games and Asian Championships.
Satish Bhatia after becoming the national champion in 1968. (Special arrangement)
“He had a famous style of serve which was called spinning serve. A lot of International players including Thai players were deceived by this kind of serve and he always played attacking badminton,” said Khanna.
During his career, Bhatia had given stiff competition to eight-time All England champion and world champion Rudy Hartano twice. He took Hartano to three games twice in his career. “He balanced his Indian Air Force career along with his playing career with ease. Rudy Hartano was world’s top player at that time and Satish Bhatia matched him for three games before suffering narrow loss twice,” said former Indian chief coach Sanjiv Sachdeva.
After his playing career, he remained in the sport coaching youngsters and joined the UT sports department as a coach after his retirement from the Indian Air Force. “He was eager to groom young talent in the city and maintain the track of their careers. It’s a huge loss for Chandigarh badminton,” said Indian coach Surinder Mahajan. Bhatia is survived by his wife Madhu Bhatia , a son, a daughter and his grandchildren. His cremation will be held at Sector 25 Electric Crematorium at 11am on March 14. Bhatia’s son Group Captain Navin Bhatia while speaking with The Indian Express, remembered his father as a dedicated Indian Air Force officer and a guiding force. “My father loved Indian Air Force and badminton. He had the passion for both right from his younger days. He had more than 6,000 hours of flying experience and would share his stories with us. He also cherished his national championship trophy with fondness and whenever a youngster would visit us, he showed him that apart from his Indian Air Force awards,” said Group Captain Navin Bhatia.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
First uploaded on: 14-03-2024 at 11:42 IST
2024-03-14 06:12:09
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