The Prince and the Rose - the story of a heroic bond

Sometime in 1931, at a political gathering in Buenos Aires, a dashing 31-year-old Frenchman got introduced to a beautiful and feisty 30-year-old Salvadoran woman.

- SATISH KUMAR SHARMA

Smitten by her charm, the man who was a flyer working for Aeroposta Argentina offered her a joyride in his plane. She agreed and they flew over the city enjoying the night view. It was the beginning of a heroic bond that transcended the limits of time and space and survived their circumstances, personalities, infidelities and multiple separations.

The man, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, was already a legend. Born in an aristocratic French family, which had fallen on bad times after his father's early death, Saint-Exupery joined army as soldier after two unsuccessful attempts to enter Navy. But he learnt to fly privately. So he was taken in the Air Force. At 21, he met with the first of his five nonfatal air crashes. So, bowing to his family's concern about his safety, he left the Air Force and did odd jobs.

Five years later, he returned to flying and pioneered international Air Mail. He flew postal flights to Africa and also negotiated the release of pilots of crashed planes that were captured by Saharan tribes, a work that earned him his first Legion d’honneur. By 1931, he had also been a journalist and had published three books.