![\"Machchhar,](\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/thumb\/msid-134651135,imgsize-1485819,width-400,height-225,resizemode-75\/the-heroic-exploits-of-an-intrepid-pilot-named-captain-smit-machchhar-have-led-to-curiosity-about-his-surname.jpg\" "\\"The")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nAHMEDABAD\/MUMBAI: When Captain Smit Machchhar\u2019s name did the rounds as the commander who helped avert disaster on a flydubai flight, the applause came with a side of curiosity. Machchhar? As in a mosquito, in Hindi? A creature that has clocked more flying hours than any airline pilot, with no licence, no type rating and never once a boarding pass?Machchhar belongs to a small menagerie of zoological and entomological surnames found among Gujarati communities including Nagar Brahmins, Brahmkshatriya and Lohanas, sociologists point outThe list includes Ghoda (horse), Mankad (bed bug), Mankodi (large ant, such as a carpenter ant), Popat (parakeet), Vinchhi (scorpion), Shiyal (jackal), Tetar (pheasant\/partridge) and Hathi (elephant), among others.In the Nagar community, one branch of the family tree can buzz while another trumpets. The surname of Captain Manoj Hathi, former director (operations) at Air India, means elephant in Hindi.\u201cThe joke wrote itself. I was type-rated on the Boeing 747, colleagues couldn\u2019t resist the joke about Captain Hathi flying the jumbo jet,\u201d said Captain Hathi. \u201cBack then, at Air India, we also had a Captain Wagh and an inflight supervisor named Homi Ghoda, a Parsi.\u201d\u201cIn the West, my surname doesn\u2019t attract much attention. In fact, it\u2019s one of the Indian surnames that is easy to pronounce. In UK, people associated my name with Colonel Hathi, a character in Rudyard Kipling\u2019s \u2018The Jungle Book\u2019, so they found it easy to remember,\u201d he said. \u201cIn India, some people would ask, \u2018How come your surname is elephant when you are so thin?\u2019 Now that I\u2019ve put on weight, they say I\u2019ve become true to the name,\u201d he added.Abhilash Ghoda, a Gujarati filmmaker from the Nagar community in Junagadh, said the surname draws attention outside the state. \u201cWe wear it with pride. I don\u2019t think many of us know the surname\u2019s etymology, but our family has carried it with elan for generations,\u201d he says.Machchhar is associated with the Brahmkshatriya community in Gujarat, especially in districts such as Surendranagar, said Raju Dubal, secretary of the community association in Wadhwan.Bharti Vinchhi, a resident of Ahmedabad and a member of the Brahmkshatriya community, said such surnames are in a minority. \u201cWe were told by our forefathers that our ancestors were experts in treating insect bites, including those of scorpions. Thus, the insect was associated with the community,\u201d she said. \u201cApart from animals and insects, we also have surnames such as Bhoot (ghost) and Jogi (ascetic).\u201dGaurang Jani, an Ahmedabad-based sociologist, said the only authoritative work on Gujarati surnames was by Vinodini Neelkanth, a Gujarati author and US-trained sociologist. \u201cHer 1942 book, \u2018Gujarati Atako no Itihas (History of Gujarati Surnames)\u2019, still remains an important scholarly work on the subject. She explains the surnames as a possible totem \u2014 groups revere a specific animal or identify with the positive traits of an animal and thus get identified with it,\u201d he said.\u201cThe concentration of such surnames in the Saurashtra region is to do with the large presence of close-knit communities instead of larger association with castes,\u201d Jani added.<\/div>\n The heroic exploits of an intrepid pilot named Captain Smit Machchhar have led to curiosity about his surname AHMEDABAD\/MUMBAI: When Captain Smit Machchhar\u2019s name did the rounds as the commander who helped avert disaster on a flydubai flight, the applause came with a side of curiosity. Machchhar? As in a mosquito, in Hindi? A creature […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31833,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-31"],"magazineBlocksPostFeaturedMedia":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/the-heroic-exploits-of-an-intrepid-pilot-named-captain-smit-machchhar-have-led-to-curiosity-about-hi-150x150.avif","medium":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/the-heroic-exploits-of-an-intrepid-pilot-named-captain-smit-machchhar-have-led-to-curiosity-about-hi-300x169.avif","medium_large":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/the-heroic-exploits-of-an-intrepid-pilot-named-captain-smit-machchhar-have-led-to-curiosity-about-hi.avif","large":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/the-heroic-exploits-of-an-intrepid-pilot-named-captain-smit-machchhar-have-led-to-curiosity-about-hi.avif","1536x1536":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/the-heroic-exploits-of-an-intrepid-pilot-named-captain-smit-machchhar-have-led-to-curiosity-about-hi.avif","2048x2048":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/the-heroic-exploits-of-an-intrepid-pilot-named-captain-smit-machchhar-have-led-to-curiosity-about-hi.avif","blogsy-small":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/the-heroic-exploits-of-an-intrepid-pilot-named-captain-smit-machchhar-have-led-to-curiosity-about-hi.avif","blogsy-small-tall":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/the-heroic-exploits-of-an-intrepid-pilot-named-captain-smit-machchhar-have-led-to-curiosity-about-hi.avif","blogsy-small-square":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/the-heroic-exploits-of-an-intrepid-pilot-named-captain-smit-machchhar-have-led-to-curiosity-about-hi.avif","blogsy-small-masonry":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/the-heroic-exploits-of-an-intrepid-pilot-named-captain-smit-machchhar-have-led-to-curiosity-about-hi.avif","blogsy-medium":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/the-heroic-exploits-of-an-intrepid-pilot-named-captain-smit-machchhar-have-led-to-curiosity-about-hi.avif","blogsy-medium-masonry":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/the-heroic-exploits-of-an-intrepid-pilot-named-captain-smit-machchhar-have-led-to-curiosity-about-hi.avif","blogsy-large":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/the-heroic-exploits-of-an-intrepid-pilot-named-captain-smit-machchhar-have-led-to-curiosity-about-hi.avif","blogsy-wide":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/the-heroic-exploits-of-an-intrepid-pilot-named-captain-smit-machchhar-have-led-to-curiosity-about-hi.avif"},"magazineBlocksPostAuthor":{"name":"admin","avatar":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8709732a479614e7a8aa24d3eb1b239f30dc6d90c61464ed495001e7a469d856?s=96&d=mm&r=g"},"magazineBlocksPostCommentsNumber":"0","magazineBlocksPostExcerpt":"The heroic exploits of an intrepid pilot named Captain Smit Machchhar have led to curiosity about his surname AHMEDABAD\/MUMBAI: When Captain Smit Machchhar\u2019s name did the rounds as the commander who helped avert disaster on a flydubai flight, the applause came with a side of curiosity. Machchhar? As in a mosquito, in Hindi? 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