Kargil

In 1999, India fought a high-altitude war against Pakistani intruders in the mountains around Kargil. This book approaches that conflict through the people who lived it rather than through strategy maps and official summaries. Rachna Bisht Rawat interviewed survivors of the fighting and the families of those who died, and she builds the account from what they told her.

The stories are told in small, human details. A fighter pilot, Raghu Nambiar, is handpicked for the bombing of Tiger Hill. Manoj Pandey keeps a twenty-one-year-old wooden flute, bought for two rupees, in his black army trunk. Vikram Batra has a private moment with his wife Dimple, in which he calls them man and wife. A group of stranded paratroopers make the desperate call to bring Bofors fire down on their own position. Far from the front, an old man in Palampur keeps fighting for justice for his soldier son, who did not come home.

The book looks beyond the uniform to the parents, wives and families who loved these soldiers and carried the loss afterwards. It is a tribute to the 527 young men who gave their lives in the conflict, and to the many others who were ready to do the same.