Despatches from Kargil

Author: Srinjoy Chowdhury

Publisher: Penguin Books

Number of pages: 227

Suggested by: Nrupal

Where did I find it: Borrowed from Nrupal

Read when: August-September ‘07

The book:

The book is a first person account of a journalist’s experience in Kargil-Drass during the war.

The chapters take you through one town at a time along the highway describing the war in respectable detail; the geography and the tactics, the ammunition and the weapons, the enemy attack and the Indian revenge, life on the cold mountains and the mood in the base camp, the damage and the victories, the sorrow (read: guilt) of losing a friend and the celebrations of capturing a peak.

He manages to get inside a soldier’s mind and capture what he felt during the initial phases of the war when enemy splinters were falling all around him, and what he felt when it was his turn to fire. He also, quiet commendably, captures what everyone in the war-zone felt about the war; the soldiers, the lieutenants and the majors, the high rank officers, the villagers and of course, fellow journalists. And how can you forget the ones from New Delhi making obligatory visits?

The Indian Navy and The Indian Air Force would sure give the author a thumbs-up for not forgetting its contribution during the war.

But, in trying to capture so many things in so few pages, he keeps going back and forth and you end up losing the chronology of the war. If you ask me to describe the war in the order in which the peaks were reclaimed, I would lose it after the first three. Then again, what he loses in maintaining the flow he makes up by brilliantly capturing the moments of glory: moments of fanatic gallantry, of absolutely illogical valor. His narrative of our army’s show of courage under fire, of heroism driven by passion, is hair-raisingly poignant. This, in itself, makes the book worth a read.

The author, appreciatively, does not limit himself to explaining the heroics. He reveals the negligence and intelligence failure before the war and the bureaucracy and the politics during and after the war. He does this astutely, without being judgmental, and allows the readers to come to their own conclusions.

The best pages of the book are the last few: A beautiful post-war account. The hugs, the exhilaration, the home coming, the celebrations and, the tears, the field hospital, the memorial service, the nightmares. And between all this the struggle to find and remove the landmines on reclaimed territory planted by the departing enemy.

Recommendation: It’s a good read; gives good insights in to the war. But, probably will not satiate your quest to know everything there is to know about the war and you find yourself looking for another book that will. Will try and get my hands on ‘From Surprise to Victory’ by Gen VP Malik. Heard good reviews…

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