Aft er oo LAID TO REST
Regd. No. MH/MR/South-160/2012-14 RNI Regn. No. 43675/1985 MUMBAI MONDAY, JULY 1, 2013 32 PAGES `3 Website: www.afternoondc.in
DESPATCH & COURIER AMIDST GUNS, ROSES AND TEARS A HERO IS
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Five days after Wing Commander Darryl Castelino lost his life in a chopper crash in Uttarakhand, he was laid to rest in the presence of over a thousand people in Mumbai, Yesterday
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By Claudelle Monis
t was a stormy day when Wing Commander Darryl Castelino lost his life saving pilgrims from flood ravaged Utaarakhand. However, clear sunny skies beckoned him as he was laid to rest in a solemn ceremony, last afternoon. An army truck covered in garlands and seating his grieving wife and children, served as his chariot, while a guard of honour consisting of his colleagues from the Air Force and the Naval Band, escorted his cortege to St. Anthony’s Church, Vakola. The simple wooden coffin covered in black and wrapped with the Tricolour, was carried to an almost bare alter, but in a church packed to capacity with people spilling far out into the courtyard. In a solemn service attended by over a thousand people, the Wing Commander’s life and achievements as a son, husband, father and colleague, were celebrated by Bishop Percival Fernandes, who had a hard time speaking of the braveheart without a tremble in his voice and tears running down his face. He spoke of Castelino as a generous man who would go to any
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extent to help people, even to the extent of giving up his life. While he acknowledged that the young Wing Commander had lost his life too soon, he offered a word of comfort to the family by telling them that death was not the end, but just a change. The admiration and love for Castelino was apparent in the misty eyes of the congregation, right through the service, particularly when the touching funeral hymn ‘Into your Hands’, was sung by the choir. But the actual pain on their faces was evident when his sister and wife went up to the alter to share
their grief and gratitude with Castelino’s colleagues and friends. While he was described by his sister as a loving and generous man, his wife tearfully spoke of him as a wonderful husband, who made her his queen, and their children Angeline and Ethan, his princess and prince. When it was time to take Castelino to his final resting place, his guard of honour had increased from his Air Force colleagues to members of the congregation, some of whom bid him farewell from outside the church. The hero’s burial was attended by
A ‘11 Gun’ Salute was a Fitting Tribute for Braveheart Castelino
the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Prithviraj Chauhan, Air Vice Marshall Khosla (Retd), and more than 200 Air Force officers in addition to friends, relatives and well-wishers. While Defence Personnel are known for their straight faces even at the funeral of a colleague, the pain on their faces of losing Castelino was obvious, as they carried him to his grave and bid him farewell for the last time, with a 11 gun salute and the traditional bugle playing.
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