Mumbai: To the world, Sept 30 was the day a terror attack was thwarted. To Captain Smit Machchhar’s parents, it was the night their only child lay wounded and alone in a military hospital in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, deep lacerations across his body, tubes running in and out of him.While the world was already beginning to call him a hero, his parents in Mumbai were still living inside the uncertainty of those first terrible hours. They had no clear word on his condition. No assurance that their son would survive. They were trying to find a flight to him, but airline schedules offered little mercy. There was nothing left to do but pray.It was only around 10am on Thursday that they managed to board a flight. Even then, they were flying only as far as Dubai, still hundreds of miles from where their son lay.“I was on the plane in Mumbai when Prime Minister Narendra Modi called; he told me not to worry and asked me what I wanted. He said, ‘Before the day ends, I will make you speak to him’,” Smit’s father, Upendra Machchhar, told TOI in an exclusive interview from Dubai.By the time the family landed in Dubai, another development had already begun to unfold. Indian Embassy had contacted Smit’s wife, Sonal, and informed her that Capt Machchhar had been airlifted on Dubai Sheikh’s private aircraft to be taken to the military hospital in Abu Dhabi.The family set off for Abu Dhabi, a journey of about two hours. There was relief now, but it was not yet peace. They knew he was alive. They did not know how badly he had been hurt.It was only after Upendra finally saw his son in the hospital that some of the fear began to loosen its grip.“After yesterday’s visit to the hospital, I am now at some comfort level and believe that everything is going to be fine. Smit also tells me, ‘Give me some time and I’m going to be all good’,” said the father.For the Machchhar family, the days since the attack have blurred into one long stretch of fear, faith and waiting. Their son has become, almost overnight, an international symbol of courage. But for them, beneath the headlines and the praise, he remains what he has always been: their only child.“The cuts are deep, and he is in terrible pain. But when leaders of nations speak to him, he gathers himself and responds with remarkable calm,” Upendra told TOI. “As his family, we know what lies behind that calm. The stress is immense. But the God who saved him will also decide the course of his life ahead. Right now, we are 100% positive that God will do what is best for him.”The hospital has told the family that recovery will not be quick. “The head of the hospital said he needs at least another eight days. After that, they will review his discharge date. The wounds and cuts are very deep. They want him to be completely fine before they send him home. But the treatment has been fantastic.”Yet for Upendra, there is another question that refuses to leave him. It is not how his son endured the injuries. It is what made him open the cockpit door at all after being stabbed.“What happened shocked us. But it’s his bhaav (his intrinsic nature) to place others before him that made him do what he did,” the father said. “If we have a family event and if he has to go to mentor another pilot or go to conduct a pilot test, he will prioritise that and ask the family to push the function by an hour or so.”Upendra believes that instinct, to put someone else first, was there long before Smit ever became a pilot.Flying was not the family plan.Smit was initially expected to join the family business. His grandfather had established a textile printing factory, and Upendra and his brother eventually took over its running together. Smit studied at SASMIRA, as did his cousin. After completing his course, he pursued management studies and then began spending time at the factory alongside his father.But it was the arithmetic of the business that unsettled him.“He told me, ‘We shell out more every day than what we earn.’ I told him, this is how this business works; it has been like this for generations. But he wanted to change a few things,” Upendra said.Then, one morning, Smit came to his father with an entirely different request. “He asked me for permission for something he wanted to do. He said, ‘I have a dream I want to chase’.” The dream was to fly.“I told him, are you getting carried away? Every penny is hard-earned. I told him that if he promised not to waste the money, I would let him go.”Upendra has one son. His brother had one son too. As it turned out, Smit’s cousin also wanted to become a pilot. The two families sat the boys down and told them what they were committing to. “It was a huge expense. We told them not to waste the money.”They didn’t.Smit went to New Zealand for his training and completed it in 10 months. Then came another call from his mentor: if the family could put in another Rs 26 lakh, Smit could obtain a type-rating on a Boeing 737. He went to London and trained on Boeing aircraft. Soon after, he joined SpiceJet.“It has been 11-12 years now,” his father said.In 2022, Smit received an interview call from flydubai. He got the job and eventually moved to Dubai with Sonal.The couple wanted his parents closer too. For the past four years, Upendra and his wife have divided their lives between Mumbai and Dubai, spending roughly six months in each city.He was due to return to Dubai on Oct 25 anyway.Instead, he found himself flying there much sooner, summoned by the worst phone call of his life.For one night, Sonal was alone with the uncertainty of what had happened to her husband, Upendra said. When she later told his parents what she had gone through, the weight of it became unbearable.“We started crying a lot,” Upendra said.The early hours were the hardest because there was so little certainty. There was no clear picture of what had happened, no way of knowing what the next few hours would bring.And yet, somewhere in those hours, the family made a decision. They would not keep returning to the attack. “We decided not to speak of the incident.”For now, they want to look beyond Sept 30. Towards the day Smit walks out of the hospital. Towards the day the wounds have healed. Towards the day the pilot who has spent years learning the discipline of the skies can return home.
