Dalip Singh Majitha | |
|---|---|
 | |
| In office 1940–1947 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 27 July 1920 |
| Died | 15 April 2024 |
| Military service | |
| Battles/wars | World War II |
Dalip Singh Majithia (27 July 1920 - 15 April 2024) was an Indian Air Force pilot. He primarily served during the Second World War. At the time of his death on 15 April 2024, he was the oldest living pilot of the Indian Air Force at the age of 103.
Dalip Singh Majithia was born on 27 July 1930 in Shimla, now in Himachal Pradesh, India, the youngest son of Kirpal Singh (1891–1944) and his wife Raminder Kaur (1894–1936). [1] [2] His grandfather was Sundar Singh Majithia, making him first cousin once removed of the artist Amrita Sher-Gil. [1] In childhood, he was affectionately referred to as "Dipi", or collectively with his brother as "the boys". [3] In the 1920s, both Singh and Sher-Gil grew up in the family home, Majithia House. [4] [5]
Majithia studied at Khalsa College in Amritsar, and later at Lahore, where he completed his Bachelor of Arts degree. [6]
Majithia learned the basics of flying at the Karachi Flying Club on a Gypsy Moth aircraft. In 1940, he joined the IAF volunteer reserve in 1940 during the Second World War. On 1 August 1940, he joined the 4th Pilot's Course at the Initial Training School (ITA) at Walton Cantonment in Lahore, where after three months, he won the best pilot trophy. To continue his advanced training, he was posted to the No.1 Flying Training School in Ambala. [2]
In March 1943, he joined the Number 6 Squadron under the command of 'Baba' Mehar Singh in the rank of flying officer. In January 1944, he was posted in Kohat as the Flight Commander of Number 3 Squadron and flew Hurricane aircraft. Later, he was posted in Burma (now Myanmar) as the Flight Commander of No. 4 Squadron. A long bout of illness kept him out of active flying for sometime. After that, he served at the Air Headquarters. Later he served as the IAF's Liaison Officer to the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Melbourne, Australia. [7]
On 18 March 1947, he retired from the Indian Air Force. After that, he flew as a private pilot. In 1949, he made history by being the first to land a plane in the Kathmandu valley. He conducted the landing of an aircraft in Kathmandu, Nepal on an unprepared piece of land. That site is now the site of the Nepal's international airport. [8] Through his career, he had more than 1,100 flying hours to his name, including on aircraft like Hurricanes and Spitfires. By his fellow pilots, he was affectionately called 'Maji'. [9] He flew for the last time in January 1979.
After retirement from the Air Force, he settled at his family's estate in Sardarnagar, near Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh. He also ran a successful business venture. [10] In March 2021, 100 year old Dalip Singh and his 99 year old wife Joan Sanders Majithia received their first doses of a COVID-19 vaccine at Sunrise Hospital in Gurugram, along with their 72-year-old daughter Kiran Sandhu and three other family friends in their 70s. [11]
On 18 February 1947 Dalip Singh married Joan Sanders at his family's estate in Gorakhpur, whom he had met during his service in Melbourne, Australia. She was in the Women's Royal Australian Naval Service as a code breaker during the war, working in the Fleet Radio Unit, Melbourne. The couple had two daughters, named Kiran and Mira. [12]
Ervin Baktay was an author noted for popularizing Indian culture in Hungary.
Sardar Bahadur Sir Sundar Singh Majithia was a Punjabi landowner and politician.
Three Girls, also known as Group of Young Girls, is a painting by Hungarian-Indian artist Amrita Sher-Gil. It was painted in 1935 shortly after Sher-Gil returned to India from Europe in 1934. The painting won the Gold Medal at the annual exhibition of the Bombay Art Society in 1937. The painting was part of a batch sent to Nawab Salar Jang of Hyderabad who later rejected them all.
The Little Girl in Blue is an oil painting on canvas created in India by Hungarian-born Indian artist Amrita Sher-Gil in 1934. Under India's Antiquities and Art Treasures Act (1972), the work is a national art treasure and must stay in the country. In 2018, it was auctioned by Sotheby's, Mumbai, fetching US$2.67 million.
Umrao Singh Sher-Gil Majithia (1870–1954) was an Indian aristocrat, scholar of Sanskrit and philosophy, and photographer. He was known as one of the pioneers of photography in India, leaving behind over 3,000 prints, including the hundreds of family portraits and over 80 self portraits staged in a mise-en-scène style.
The untitled self portrait by Hungarian-born Indian artist Amrita Sher-Gil (1913–1941), is an oil on canvas painting completed in 1931 in Paris, and gifted to her friend Boris Taslitzky. It was created in the same year that she produced portraits of Yusuf Ali Khan, who she was engaged to, and Viktor Egan, her cousin who she later married. In 2015 it was sold for £1.7 million at auction in London.
Professional Model is an oil on canvas painting by Amrita Sher-Gil. It was created in 1933 in Paris and depicts a nude consumptive. Its vernissage took place in February 1933, the same year that her painting Young Girls earned her the title of associate member of the Paris Salon.
A self-portrait by Amrita Sher-Gil in 1930 shows her as a "vivacious and jovial" character. In it, her hair falls freely and she is wearing a dress that reveals her shoulders. She appears leaning forward towards the viewer, and looks seductive. It has been likened to Renoir's portrait of the Actress Jeanne Samary (1877), and Raja Ravi Varma's late 19th century painting, Lady Holding a Fruit. It is one of her 19 self-portraits created in Europe.
Sleep, also called Indu's Nude or Nude of Indira, is an oil on canvas painting by Amrita Sher-Gil, completed in 1933. It depicts a view from above of Sher-Gil's younger sister Indira, naked and lying on a white sheet at a diagonal, and with one raised arm. Just beneath her is a shawl depicting a dragon, whose body appears to flow in parallel with the flow of her hair and body curves.
Reclining Nude is an oil on canvas painting by Amrita Sher-Gil, completed in 1933 in Budapest. It depicts Sher-Gil's cousin Viola, sister of her husband Victor Egan.
Young Man with Apples, also called Boris with Apples, is an oil painting on canvas created in 1932 by Hungarian-born Indian artist Amrita Sher-Gil, when she was living in Paris.
The Hungarian-born Indian artist Amrita Sher-Gil, exhibited 33 of her paintings at her One-man Show in the ballroom at Faletti's Hotel in Lahore, British India, held from 21 to 27 November 1937. Four paintings were sold in total; The Little Girl in Blue (1934), The Story (1937), Pink Self-portrait, and the The Vina Player (1937).
Hill Women is an oil on canvas painting by Hungarian-Indian artist Amrita Sher-Gil, completed after she painted Hill Men in the winter of 1935 at Simla. Depicting a girl among three young women, it was influenced by the poor surrounding Sher-Gil's home in Simla, India.
The Vina Player (1937) is an oil on canvas painting by Hungarian-Indian artist Amrita Sher-Gil. It was number five of her 33 paintings displayed at her solo exhibition in the ballroom at Faletti's Hotel in Lahore, British India, held from 21 to 27 November 1937. Sher-Gil's mother's favourite, it was initially not for sale, but then acquired by the Lahore Museum, through the encouragement of art critic Charles Fabri and the then museum's curator K. N. Sitaram.
The Village Scene is an oil on canvas painting depicting Indian village life, completed in 1938 by Hungarian-Indian artist Amrita Sher-Gil.
Brahmacharis is an oil on canvas painting by Hungarian-Indian artist Amrita Sher-Gil, completed in May 1937 at Shimla, India. It is one of her large compositions and one of her South Indian trilogy, along with Bride's Toilet and South Indian Villagers Going to Market. In 1937 it was displayed at her Lahore exhibition for a price of ₹1,500.
Child Wife, also known as Child Bride (1936) is an oil on canvas painting by Hungarian-Indian artist Amrita Sher-Gil. In a letter to her friend, dated July 1937, she told her that "it's too influenced by Gauguin. I am now getting away from his influence".
The Last Unfinished Painting, originally titled On the Roof, is Amrita Sher-Gil's last oil on canvas painting, created from the window of her apartment in Lahore, before her death in December 1941. Her intention was to paint what she could see from her terrace: the milkmen's buffalos that lived near her house. A detailed account of the painting is given in Vivan Sundaram's last unwritten letter, which he dated 1 December 1941. In it is described a mysterious black object that appears in the bottom right corner, though it was erased in a restoration after 1944.
South Indian Villagers going to Market is an oil on canvas painting by Hungarian-Indian artist Amrita Sher-Gil. It was painted at Sher-Gil's home, The Holme, Shimla, India, around October- November 1937, along with the two smaller compositions The Story Teller and Siesta. It is one of her large compositions and one of her South Indian trilogy, along with Bride's Toilet and Brahmacharis. In 1937 it was displayed at her Lahore exhibition for a price of ₹1,500.
Woman on Charpoy is an oil on canvas painting depicting an Indian woman in red, lying on a charpoy with one leg bent. It was completed in 1940 by Hungarian-Indian artist Amrita Sher-Gil.