It ends in a place we all know well — Kargil — awash with yellow roses and barren hills that smell of cordite; a warzone beamed home to us on satellite television at the turn of the last century.
Mistress of Honour , Bhaavna Arora’s second book, captures 15 years in the life of Deepak Potnis, a captain in the Indian Army, his half-British, half-Sikh wife, Pansy, their beautiful daughter Rihana, and her beau Advik, who grows up to be a fighter pilot in the Indian Air Force. The book, described by Shobhaa De as an unusual love story about loyalty and trust, in which bullets and hearts dance together, begins with Operation Bluestar where the gallant Capt. Potnis rescues Pansy from near-death during the storming of the Golden Temple.
The book is boundless in its plot, inspired by real-life stories, and moves with breathless momentum from the lush jungles of the Wanni in Sri Lanka to Northeast India where the mood, like the weather, is an oppressive black nimbus. It slows down in the almond-lined avenues of Badami Bagh Cantonment, Srinagar, exults in the triumphs of training day at NDA, Khadakvasala, and races to its tragic climax in the unforgiving snow-clad peaks of the Line of Control.
Says author Arora, a corporate trainer, a doctorate from Pittsford University, U.S., and an Army brat, in a telephone conversation, “My father was part of Operation Bluestar. But my first real experience of war came when I spent holidays at Badami Bagh Cantonment. It was the summer of Kargil and I often saw body bags and wounded soldiers at the Base Hospital, Srinagar. It is an image that has stayed with me. I knew that at some time in my life I wanted to tell this story. I wanted Indians not only to be aware of these lives, these sacrifices, but also acknowledge and appreciate the men and the women who stood silently by them.”
“I grew up reading Shobhaa De,” says Arora. “Her books were a constant even in far-flung cantonment libraries and what I loved most about her writing was that she didn’t shy away from speaking her mind. So when Penguin accepted the script and Shobhaa De agreed to endorse the book, I was naturally thrilled. This one is very different from my first book, which was on sex and marriage. But I did not want to be slotted as a writer of a particular genre.”
Arora, who took nine months to research for the book and spoke to nearly 160 serving and retired officers, says, “It takes effort to sell patriotism. Some of the stories, you may recognise. They are based on the heroes of our times. The character I loved the most was Shamsher Singh — he symbolises the quintessential officer and gentleman, a buddy you can depend on.”
Mistress of Honour has very little military jargon, although at the heart of it is a soldier’s tale. On how Rihana came to again be the heroine’s name in her second book, Arora says, “I have an affinity for that name. I would’ve loved to be called that. It’s the kind of name a strong, fearless girl would have.”
Rihana’s life would have been any girl’s dream. She grows up to be bold, popular, smart and wooed by the handsome Advik to whom she knows she will only be a mistress for his affection, his first true love being his nation. “That’s the idea behind the title for the book,” says Arora.
A book that can be read in one go, the end arrives unexpectedly in a hail of machine-gun and mortar fire. A story that captures the human essence of war, it is also a daughter’s tribute to all the men who’ve ‘raised our flag’.
