IAF Pilot's Story Of Struggle And Success Inspires The Internet

"Maa would wrap a cloth on our bellies to suppress our hunger pangs," the IAF officer recalled.

Many of us have dreamt of serving the country by joining the armed forces. However, for some, the path to this service is often filled with societal and systemic complications. Narrating one such story of trial, tribulations, and triumph, is a fighter pilot who goes by the name Aston Wun on social media. Speaking to Humans Of Bombay, the Indian Air Force officer said that he had realised early on that "being poor was a crime". In a series of Instagram posts, he is quoted as saying, “While growing up, I could count the number of days my sisters and I ate a full meal." "Maa would wrap a cloth on our bellies to suppress our hunger pangs," he recalled. "To get one daughter married, Papa would have to sell off a chunk of his land. As time passed, Maa started pawning her jewellery.” “I'd tell myself, ‘I was born in this village but I will not die here.' I wanted to get away from home somehow. Little did I know that in the years to come, the whole country would become my home,” he said.