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I have just finished reading Maj Gen GD Bakshi's novel, Siege of Warwan.(harper Collins).
I read those 284 pages cover to cover in one day.
It was gripping and I now understood what one means by a book being 'unputdownable'!
I have feeling the book, though a novel and fictionalised, is based on some real operation in the Kishtwar area, because he commanded a brigade in Counter-Terrorist operations in the very rugged mountains of Kishtwar and was awarded the Sena Medal for his distinguished services.
He subsequently commanded the reputed Romeo Force during intensive Counter-Terrorist operations in the Rajouri-Punch Districts of J&K in the wake of Op Sarp Vinash and succeeded in pacifying the area.
Hence, he has a good idea of such operations and how things operate.
He had commanded his battalion in Dalunang, Kargil and had taken over the area from my battalion. It was an active combat zone and he got the VSM there.
This is possibly the first military fiction book that I read which was very realistic in its narrative and minor details of how plans are made at the Brigade Level, unit level, and how actions are planned and executed has been so lucidly told in a smooth narration, with the jarring military emotion less manner.
He has been fair to all those who are involved and has also very frankly brought out the sadness and sorrow of the common Kashmiri caught between the Military and the Terrorists.
The description and details of the various Terrorist organisation working in Kashmir is astounding and ever so true!
The narrative is like any John Clancy novel, if not better.
Anyone who wants to know how the Army operates and also what is going on in the CI grid would find this novel very enlightening!
I can hardly believe that a military man can write such a novel like a seasoned story teller who grips the reader right from the start and who is so authentic with the facts.
I read those 284 pages cover to cover in one day.
It was gripping and I now understood what one means by a book being 'unputdownable'!
I have feeling the book, though a novel and fictionalised, is based on some real operation in the Kishtwar area, because he commanded a brigade in Counter-Terrorist operations in the very rugged mountains of Kishtwar and was awarded the Sena Medal for his distinguished services.
He subsequently commanded the reputed Romeo Force during intensive Counter-Terrorist operations in the Rajouri-Punch Districts of J&K in the wake of Op Sarp Vinash and succeeded in pacifying the area.
Hence, he has a good idea of such operations and how things operate.
He had commanded his battalion in Dalunang, Kargil and had taken over the area from my battalion. It was an active combat zone and he got the VSM there.
This is possibly the first military fiction book that I read which was very realistic in its narrative and minor details of how plans are made at the Brigade Level, unit level, and how actions are planned and executed has been so lucidly told in a smooth narration, with the jarring military emotion less manner.
He has been fair to all those who are involved and has also very frankly brought out the sadness and sorrow of the common Kashmiri caught between the Military and the Terrorists.
The description and details of the various Terrorist organisation working in Kashmir is astounding and ever so true!
The narrative is like any John Clancy novel, if not better.
Anyone who wants to know how the Army operates and also what is going on in the CI grid would find this novel very enlightening!
I can hardly believe that a military man can write such a novel like a seasoned story teller who grips the reader right from the start and who is so authentic with the facts.