Curry king with a penchant for the islands​

The name of captain Pushp Vaid, who is originally from India, will now be familiar to some in the island, after an appearance at Stornoway Golf Club in September which was, by all accounts, a fantastic night, culminating in raising £4,000 for charity.

Captain Vaid, who by any barometer has lived an extraordinary life (surviving the 1986 helicopter crash being just one chapter in an eventful story) attended the golf club to host a special curry night - he is also an incredible chef - when he shared some of his life’s experiences, while all the while sharing some hot curry insights.

At 85 his charisma and energy belies his years, which he puts this down to yoga, meditation, golf - but most of all… plenty of curry.

His visit to Lewis came about through a friendship with the television producer and media consultant Pat Macleod

They met when Pat’s production company made a documentary about the oil industry in Aberdeen and both discovered their shared appreciation of golf and curry. Pat has now relocated back home to Lewis from Aberdeen and organised Captain Vaid’s golf club curry night.

“I was telling her that I want to come and see the island, and while there to do an Indian evening,” said captain Vaid. With Pat agreeing to do the organising, it was all systems go and “she pulled in quite a few other fundraising events with my Indian evenings and that's how we were able to raise £4,000 plus.”

With some spare time available between preparing the charity banquet at the golf club, Captain Vaid took the opportunity to discover Lewis and Harris and the visit left a lasting impression on him.

“The whole trip was wonderful,” he said. “I was so pleased to see a lot of wonderful shops, all well stocked, and a lot of tourists, and it looked like a prosperous little island.

“I’ve already told Pat that I'm coming back again next year with my family. We’ll get a big house, and we can all have a family holiday there.”

As part of the Indian evening at the golf club, the captain shared some of his life experiences, including recalling that incredible moment when he survived the North Sea helicopter crash, which after an official investigation was found to be the result of a technical problem. It was also the catalyst for widespread safety improvements in the industry.

“About 3.5 nautical miles from the runway, we started hearing a whining noise which seemed to be getting louder. The noise did not sound dangerous. By now, we were only two minutes from landing, flying about 300 feet above the sea, and our speed was reducing below 100 knots.

“I informed the control tower at Sumburgh that ‘Foxtrot Charlie’ was on finals and we were cleared to land. After informing us that the passengers were all ready for landing, our cabin attendant had opened the cabin door and closed it behind him. I don’t think he had a chance to sit down and strap himself.

“A fraction of a second after he closed the door, at 11.32 to be exact, we heard a very loud bang. Suddenly the helicopter pitched up and was pointing vertically up and I could see the sky ahead of me. I had no time to give a May Day call. We were falling backwards towards the North Sea.”

He continued: “When we hit the water, the rear end of the helicopter took all the impact. The rest of the passengers and our cabin attendant died on impact. No-one drowned.

“The cockpit, with me still in it, seemed to keep going down and down and down in the water. It must have gone down at least 30 feet below the surface, before it stopped moving. I could see the sunlight and I knew which way I had to swim. However, when I left the seat and started to move I discovered that I was going the wrong way. It was getting darker.

“I turned around and headed towards the sunlight. I passed through the emergency window, which had blown away on impact and swam towards the surface.”

Captain Vaid, along with the other sole survivor, the young trainee Eric, was winched to safety by the coastguard helicopter. It may be 40 years down the line but the tragic events are clearly still indelibly etched on his consciousness

“I feel very sorry for my passengers,” he said. “I was in charge. For nearly a year, I used to feel very guilty that I was alive when all those poor people had died. But I got used to it and it was pure luck. There was absolutely zero reason for us to survive.”

Following the crash, he was grounded for six months and riddled with survivor’s guilt. So he searched for something to occupy his mind and that was when he started his own “Curry Club”

“It was to keep myself occupied,” he said. “I was sending recipes and spices to anybody who wrote to me. Suddenly, one of the local papers took it up and wrote an article. Then international papers and national papers picked up the story. Suddenly, I had 500 members. I was amazed. I had members from all over the world.”

After his period of convalescence Captain Vaid returned to flying, but would then spend his days off visiting schools sharing his recipes and healthy eating mantra.

“The problem these days is there's so much food available,” he said. “People are just munching all the time and most of the time they're eating junk food, and junk food is poison. They put in lovely sugar and stuff like that, make it nice and sweet and tasty. But once it goes in the stomach, the body says: What the hell is this?

“The first thing you have to look at is, what am I eating. Let me change what I'm eating. Fifty of your food should be raw, like salads and fruits and stuff like that.

“That's what I do. At least 50% to 60% of my food is fresh. It takes only 10 minutes to cook. Far better than getting processed food and ready meals from the shops, because you don't know when it was cooked, you don't know what is put in it. They make it so tasty but they put so many preservatives in it, they are literally poison”

As part of the 40th anniversary memorial of the Chinook disaster, Captain Vaid took part in a documentary for German television about survivors of major accidents. And it’s not the only media interest in his remarkable life story, with his earlier years being just as eventful.

Before becoming a curry connoisseur and famous helicopter crash survivor, the captain was a decorated war hero, fighting for his native India in the 1971 war of Bangladeshi independence.

During that short but bloody conflict, Captain Vaid flew sorties 24/7 under heavy enemy fire to keep the outnumbered Indian and Bengali Troops in the fight against the Pakistani Army. He was awarded the Vir Chakra, one of India’s highest military honours for bravery.

“The Pakistanis were firing at us,” he said, “hundreds of bullets were coming towards us. But we just kept going, because we had to deliver to these people.

“I landed, I dropped everybody and in less than a minute I was airborne again heading back home. I told the flight engineer, go and have a look in the cabin, how many bullet holes? He came back after two minutes with a big grin. We didn't get a single hit. I was just flabbergasted.

“The Pakistanis couldn't see us, they could only hear us. And they were just firing at the noise. So I rang up my base, and I said: ‘Come on, guys, these people don't know how to shoot!’ So the other helicopters started getting airborne.

“Five of us flew the whole night, the next morning and the whole next day. We delivered about 800 soldiers, their equipment and whatever they needed.

“After about a week, 7,000 Pakistani soldiers surrendered to 800 of our soldiers. Somebody asked me: why were you not scared? I said, there was no time to be scared because the job had to be done. We just got on with it.”

Even at 85, captain Vaid’s journey from war hero to charity culinary fund-raiser continues unabated. And with that he has one more enduring desire; that his health holds up long enough to see his story come alive on the Bollywood screen.

“They invited me to Mumbai and I gave them a presentation. They have done all the scripting, all the scenes are ready, everything is ready, but they haven’t started filming. So I said: You guys are taking so long, I might not be around. I'm already 85. You better hurry up!”

And when and if that day ever comes they’ll no doubt be some celebrating at the bar of a certain hostelry in the castle grounds, delighted at their new-found connection with the glamour of Bollywood, and all created through the love of a good curry and a round of golf.