ON THE TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE KARGIL WAR, REVISIT ITS FREEZING BATTLEFIELD THROUGH THE STORIES OF ITS BRAVEST SOLDIERS
Why does a group of stranded paratroopers call for Bofors’ fire upon its own position?
Why is an old man in Palampur fighting for justice for his dead soldier son?
What makes a martyr’s father visit a young Kashmiri girl every year?
Kargil takes you into the treacherous mountains where some of the Indian Army’s bloodiest battles were fought. Interviewing war survivors and martyrs’ families, Rachna Bisht Rawat tells stories of extraordinary human courage, of not just men in uniform but also those who loved them the most. With its gritty stories of incomparable bravery, Kargil is a tribute to the 527 young braves who gave up their lives for us—and the many who too were ready to do it.
‘A must-read for every Indian citizen’ MAJ. GEN. IAN CARDOZO, AVSM, SM (RETD)
‘A moving insight into the psyche and raw courage of Indian soldiers. Rachna’s account will undoubtedly swell any Indian’s heart with pride’
REHAN FAZAL, BBC
‘In a world where these young men could have been anything, they chose the way of the warrior and the old-fashioned, rare ideals that go with it. This is something that stays with you long after the last bullet has been fired and the last page has been turned’ DEEPA ALEXANDER, THE HINDU
Rachna Bisht Rawat is mom to a wise seventeen- year-old, walk partner to a crazy golden retriever and gypsy wife to a happy-go-lucky Army officer whose work takes the family to some of the most remote corners of India. It is in these cantonments, where time slows down, that she gets time to read, listen to music or sit with a cup of tea and her MacBook to write stories about the Army which, she says, is the only world she knows. A 2005 Harry Brittain fellow, her first story, ‘Munni Mousi’, was declared the winner of the 2008–09 Commonwealth Short Story Competition. Kargil is her fourth book after The Brave, 1965 and Shoot. Dive. Fly., all published by Penguin Random House India.
