For the first time ever, I attended a book launch yesterday, because the hero of the book is Dilip Parulkar who is an acquaintance and a close friend of a very dear friend.
That Dilip was and is a remarkable man was obvious from the number of ex armed forces officers assembled for the occasion and became more obvious when some of them shared some other information about him from their own recollections of the 1965 and 1971 wars.
My friend, a Retired Artillery Officer had come down from Delhi specially to attend the function and just could not stop talking about Dilip. The two of them were school mates before they met again at the National Defense Academy and with such strong bonds formed during boyhood, there was quite a bit of hero worship.
I was among the very few civilians at the function but thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere and camaraderie and to get back to driving in heavy traffic was a hard come down.
Here is an article from the author of the book Faith Johnston that will give you some idea about the book. It was a pleasure to meet her too at the launch beside two other officers who had escaped from the Pakistani prison in 1972. Incidentally, yesterday was the 42 anniversary of the day of escape.
Comments are closed.