Lt General H.S. Panag has discipline like any military man. He exerts this discipline over his words, too, unlike military men who are wont to hyperbolic accounts. The adjective is his least favoured tool, so it is no surprise that he writes in the prologue that when he joined Twitter in 2009, he found it a medium suited to the “cryptic style of military
writing”.
Yet, Panag is able to grip the reader with his words. The book is a compilation of articles he has written for various publications in recent years. The topics range from his views on the Indian Army to the ideals he holds high and of the reminisces of military and cantonment life, which civilians read so enviously about.
His arguments are forceful, but never offensive. So his comments, be it about retired officers debating on news channels or the merits of Hemant Karkare, Ashok Kamte and Vijay Salaskar getting the Ashoka Chakra, are without sting. In these polarised times, Panag may be that rare writer who criticises Jawaharlal Nehru’s handling of the 1962 China war in one article, and critiques Narendra Modi’s experiments in Kashmir in others.
Panag is a natural storyteller and his reminisces are evocative, amusing and, sometimes, emotional. His stories move across cantonments and field stations. There is the ghost of Bungalow No 1 in Mathura Cantonment’s Mall Road, whom he first met as an eight-year-old, the mismatched boots of his academy life and the tragic love story of a soldier and a Kashmiri girl. This book has something for every kind of reader.
The Indian Army: Reminiscences, Reforms & Romance
By H.S. Panag
Published by
Westland Books
Price Rs599, pages 272
