First Quote Added
April 10, 2026
Latest Quote Added
"...Australia like New Zealand is still very much 'a man's country"
"I find it hard to believe that I do not have to go on somewhere else... but there doesn't seem anywhere else to go, unless to the Antarctic. But one thing I do know: when I travel for a while after this I am going by train or road transport. I have had enough of the air for the time being."
"How bitter-sweet it all was, I reflected — flying about the world, visiting these great cities, meeting many people, making many friends, then having to fly off again."
"the intoxicating drug of speed, and freedom to roam the earth."
"If I go down in the sea...no one must fly out to look for me."
"But England to Naples in a day is no mean feat for any man, let alone a girl without any previous long-distance experience."
"...my only company the roar of the engine as I winged low over the ocean like a solitary bird... I might have been the only person in the world."
"There have been times when the loneliness has been so intense that I have longed for the sound of a human voice or the sight of a ship, or even a tiny native village, to dispel the feeling of complete isolation that one feels when flying alone over the sparsely inhabited tracts that comprise such a great area of the earth's surface."
"...would not even consider it until I had attained my ambition, for I was determined to try again."
"I was able to fly from England to New Zealand in the fastest time in the history of the world...I think I can say this is the very greatest moment of my life."
"I have experienced the cool, rarefied atmosphere of the Olympic heights where the famous dwell in lonely solitude."
"Ted, if you love me, lend me the lower wings from your Moth."
"...I had served my apprenticeship and was now a cool, ruthless, potential record-breaker."
Young though he was, his radiant energy produced such an impression of absolute reliability that Hedgewar made him the first sarkaryavah, or general secretary, of the RSS.
- Gopal Mukund Huddar
Largely because of the influence of communists in London, Huddar's conversion into an enthusiastic supporter of the fight against fascism was quick and smooth. The ease with which he crossed from one worldview to another betrays the fact that he had not properly understood the world he had grown in.
Huddar would have been 101 now had he been alive. But then centenaries are not celebrated only to register how old so and so would have been and when. They are usually celebrated to explore how much poorer our lives are without them. Maharashtrian public life is poorer without him. It is poorer for not having made the effort to recall an extraordinary life.
I regret I was not there to listen to Balaji Huddar's speech [...] No matter how many times you listen to him, his speeches are so delightful that you feel like listening to them again and again.
By the time he came out of Franco's prison, Huddar had relinquished many of his old ideas. He displayed a worldview completely different from that of the RSS, even though he continued to remain deferential to Hedgewar and maintained a personal relationship with him.