From Behind the Bunkers

HarperCollins

Pages: 282

Rs 299

This book will leave you wondering where to slot it on your bookshelf: under fiction or non-fiction? It is undoubtedly a roman a clef. There really is a place called Warwan in Kashmir and while it was not the setting for the siege in the title,it could easily have been. The scenes of battle between the army and the terrorists from Pakistan are so authentic you can almost smell the cordite along with the fear and the stress that combatants along the Line of Control experience every day on patrol. The author,a retired general,is a veteran who was involved in counter-insurgency operations in Kashmir and every scene in this action-packed novel is based on his experiences. What makes his novel distinctive,however,is the quality of writing. It is rare to find a military man who can write with passion and creativity not just on war and counter-insurgency but on human frailties and follies,love and rejection,lust and longing and,above all,on the tragedy that is Kashmir so much bloodshed and angst amid such beauty.

Theres even a metaphorical character to highlight that paradox: Ayesha,the beautiful widow who is raped by a foreign terrorist and whose relationship with an army major forms the literary fulcrum of this compelling story. Till now,Kashmir as a backdrop for novels Curfewed Night,et al has been restricted to those written by Kashmiris and viewed through that particular prism. This is based on the view from behind the bunkers and fortified posts of the army units posted along the LoC. The author,thankfully,avoids the Bollywood-type formula of portraying frontline soldiers as supermen. They come with human flaws and feelings. The stress of a 24215;7 conflict situation can brutalise anyone,as it nearly does the hero of this novel,Major Dushyant Dusty Bharadwaj of the Rashtriya Rifles,and some of his fellow soldiers. In most action-filled novels,Ayesha would be the token love interest,a romantic interlude in the storyline. Except here,she is as central to the plot as Dusty is,their lives intertwined through tragedy,betrayal,rejection and violence.

The author uses that relationship to paint a larger picture of the Kashmir issue and the many layers that make up its contemporary Catch-22: the military-civilian interface,the equally complicated one between the villagers and the jihadis,the winning-hearts-and-minds approach versus jackboots,and,above all,the trust deficit and the distorted images created by past military strategies and mistakes. He tends to digress at times into personal views and strategic vision but what he does so effectively is to bring alive the pain and predicament of the villagers located in remote mountains and valleys,trapped between jihadis and security forces. The author is also perceptive enough to unravel the complex strands that exist in Kashmiri society,where the pressure to give in to the demands of the terrorists with men and money to fuel their war of terror is set against the struggle of a society desperate to bridge the gap between the past and the future. Much like this novel which tries to bridge the divide between fact and fiction. At its heart,this is a story about the tragedy of Kashmir and how it is easy to win a battle but lose the war.