We love and miss you Masila Thatha.

Sincerely,
Vijay 

Wing Commnader Sundaram was the head of the Aero Bio Engineering Unit, a unit of the Defence Research and Development branch of the Defence Ministry. During this tenure he collaborated with several civilian organizations including Indian Space and Research Organization, HAL, NAL, LRDE etc. He is seen in this photograph with Vivek Sinha who was a director in DRDO. The unit was involved with developement of helmets, masks, and clothing for air force flight crew. 

Command Hospital in Bangalore is the largest Indian Air Force Hospital. Air Marshal Sundaram was a commandant of the hospital in the 80s for over two years before being promoted as Air Marshal and moving to New Delhi as the Director General of Medical Services. 

However, he spent even more time as a patient during the last 5 years of his life. The commandant, officers, nursing officers and other staff have treated him with tremendous respect and compassion. AVM Anil Behl has been exceptional during the last few months of his life. Group Captains Pujahari and Sridhar were  great when they performed their respective surgeries. Many other officers and staff were also involved and we are truly grateful to all of them for the excellent care.

In May 2010, during the Hospital Anniversary Celebrations, former Commandants were felicitated. A road from the canteen to the nursing school was named after him. I am so glad this was done when he was alive.

Over the last few years during my annual visit to Banglaore, a visit to CHAF was a routine. I have been to radiology, surgery, pathology lab, oncology, ICU, and Officer's ward during these visits.

There is a lot to write but I must stop now. Will be back later!

These emblems of the then hostoric flight of an Indian pilot on a Soviet Spacecraft are the wall of my home office in Indianapolis. Dad made several trips to Moscow during that time. Multiple candidates were interviewed and medically examined for fitness to fly into space. Dad accompanied the final 8 to Moscow before the cosmonaut Rakesh Sharma and the backup, Ravish Malhotra were chosen. They spent several months in Star City for training. He was at the Baikonur facility in Kazhakstan when the flight landed. The space module floated to the earth at the end of a parachute. Dad was on Indian National television where he was interviewed after the landing. We have several Russian items at home that he would bring back with him on his several trips. I also would use a Zenit SLR camera that he had brought from Russia. Russian made gadgets were crude but worked!

Dad was also invloved with the initial work on selecting an astronaut to fly on a US shuttle flight. He was on a US trip during the initial planning stages of this mission when the first shuttle crash occured and all international collaborations including the Indo-US flight was cancelled.

At the Institute of Aerospace Medicine, Air Marshal Sundaram held several positions during his career. As a trainee he  was awarded a medal for being ranked the first in the primary course in aviation medicine.

He was officer in charge of acceleration physiology where the human centrifuge was installed. As a young boy I remember being impressed by the huge room with a cockpit at the end of a large arm that could rotate at varying speeds to create G forces within the cockpit. I even took a ride in the centrifuge during one of the IAM open house days where families were allowed. The subject in the cockpit could communicate with the control center. It was very exciting. I was of course subjected to very low g forces- but it was a lot of fun.

He was also president of of the medical board where pilots and cadets were examined for fitness to fly. There were several pilots whose career depended upon this board. They would contact Dad periodically to discuss their situation.

Finally he was a commandant as a Group Captain and an Air Commodore. I was by then in medical school and do not have memories of this period apart from the trip to transport chief minister MGR to the USA.

I was a urology senior resident (registrar) in Northern England when Dad attended the International Aerospace Medicine Conference in Paris. I drove from to Paris for the first time in my second hand Ford Sierra- my first car. I crossed the English Channel by ferry. I then drove to meet Dad from Calais to Paris where he was staying in a hotel. I was lost in Paris and did not know a word of French. Thanks to a map and good luck I found the hotel. He attended one of the meetings in his ceremonial uniform- that is another picture I must find.

We then moved to a friend's apartment in Paris for a night before a short road trip. I locked my car mistakenly with the keys inside. I left Dad in a garden of one of the Paris monuments and travelled by the subway to get a spare key from the house that we were staying in. We visted the usual Paris sights before driving north.

We visited Antwerp, the Hague, Rotterdam, Brussels and Amsterdam. We then drove back to Calais to take the ferry back to England. We were lost in the roads of Central London, but it was past midnight and the traffic was not bad. Dad visited my hospital apartment in Northern England before heading back to India. It was a memorable trip with a lot of pictures.