Lunch with BS: Shakti Lumba shares his journey as pilot, operations expert

'If the DGCA is autonomous and not just a statutory body, we will become a mature aviation country. And it needs to be headed by a technical expert, not a babu', says Lumba

As he fetches his hearing aid before we sit down to chat, Shakti Lumba mimics the sound of plane engines to explain that 40 years of life inside the cockpit have left him hard of hearing.

Lumba, a pilot who has donned the hats of airline executive as well as union leader, has recently penned his memoirs, The Old Bold Pilot, to present to the lay reader a peek into Indian aviation through his personal journey. I am at his house in Mangar village of Faridabad, Haryana, barely an hour away from Delhi, at his insistence to host lunch.

His book is