Shoot, Dive, Fly: Stories of Grit and Adventure from the Indian Army

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This book introduces teens to the armed forces and tells them about the perils-the rigours and challenges-and perks the thrill and adventure-of a career in uniform. Flying helicopters, detonating bombs, ballroom dancing, skinning and eating snakes in times of dire need-there's nothing our officers can't do!

Read these twenty-one nail-biting stories that give you a peek into a career in the armed forces. Hear from some amazing men and women about what the Army has taught them and decide if the olive-green uniform is what you want to wear too.

Rachna Bisht Rawat is the author of six books published by Penguin Random House India, including the bestsellers The Brave and Kargil. She lives in Gurugram with Hukum, the bright-eyed, bushy-tailed golden retriever; an eclectic collection of books and music; and Manoj Rawat, the man in olive green who met her when he was a gentleman cadet at the Indian Military Academy and offered to be her comrade for life. Occasionally, they are visited by Saransh the Wise, who has moved out to explore the world on his own.

It gives me great pleasure to write the foreword for Shoot Dive. Fly. The Indian Army is one of the most respectable and exciting careers our country offers young people and it surprises me that the Army faces a shortage of officers year after year. This is probably because most of us do not know what an amazing variety of jobs it offers. Perhaps this is also because Army officers are not permitted to talk to the media and so we never get to hear about the amazing things they do. I compliment the Army on giving Rachna Bisht Rawat access to young serving officers to share with us the experiences of the fascinating jobs they do. This book will help bust the false belief that an Army officer is a man with a gun who lives on the borders of the country, cut off from the rest of civilization, waiting for a war to begin, which might sound like a boring job to a lot of teenagers. They do that, of course, and we are very proud of them for it, but that's not the whole truth. Army officers do a lot of other things too that most teens want from a career. The Army has engineers, doctors, helicopter pilots, drone fliers, cyber warriors, Olympians, Everest summiteers, skydivers, sailors, marathon runners, shooters-and yes, even cricketers and a host of other professionals that we often don't get to hear about. These are men and women who are all trained for combat but they work in their particular fields with all the support of the Indian Army to reach the top. You, too, can choose one of these opportunities and get paid to be trained and excel in your dream job. Not many, if any, industries or institutions give you this freedom. And how do I know all this? Because I happen to be an officer in the Indian Territorial Army too.

I am sure you will enjoy reading the real-life stories of young officers who went beyond the ordinary to reach great heights. This book includes the story of Colonel Ivan J. Crasto, SC, who climbed down a rope from a hovering helicopter to rescue all ten tourists trapped on board a trolley hanging from a snapped wire. It also tells of Colonel Rajesh Unnikrishnan who climbed down forty feet into a dark, gaping borewell to rescue a small child who had fallen in. In these pages, you will meet Colonel Sameer Singh Bisht, SM, whose gun jammed in an encounter with Kashmiri terrorists but he managed to keep his nerve and emerge victorious. You will read of young mountaineer Major Deepika Rathore, who has climbed the mighty Mount Everest twice and of fellow my paratrooper Major Sandesh Kadam, who jumped out of a plane at 8,500 feet to find that both his main and emergency parachutes would not open.

As I write to you from a shaded corner of my lawn, lounging on my red beanbag, my book finally finished, spring has sprung upon Delhi Cantonment. The birds are chirping, bright pink bougainvillea blossoms are sprouting and Huzoor, our huge two-year-old Golden Retriever, is lying on his back, trying to get an upside down view of the world. Michael Jaikisan, our resident dancing peacock with the long, shimmering tail, is perched on the gate, watching Huzoor's lack of dignity with undisguised disgust.

Believe it or not, this beautiful oasis exists in the middle of dusty, polluted Delhi, where at this very moment, the roads are jammed with screeching, honking, poison- spewing vehicles. A quiet, peaceful, tree-lined residence is just one of the perks that the Army gives you. The others are plush gymnasiums, Olympic-sized swimming pools, squash and tennis courts, swanky schools that don't demand donations, state-of-the-art hospitals, plush Messes, open-air cinema halls and the most precious of all- friends for life.

I have spent all of my forty-seven years (I'm afraid I'm ancient!) in various Army cantonments across the country. My dad was in the Army (so is my husband!) and believe me, it is a beautiful world unparalleled by anything I see outside. It always surprises me that more kids don't look at the Army as a viable career. 'It's probably because they don't know much about it,' I used to tell myself. And so, when Penguin Random House decided to do a book about the Indian Army, and editor Sohini Mitra offered the job to me, I was happy to write it.

This book is meant to introduce you to the whole universe that the Army actually is, which is often one that people outside don't really know exists. Did you know that the Army is a career that lets you do things like skydiving, rally driving, mountaineering, flying a helicopter to work while you are on the job? You get paid to do things you'd like to pay for-and often even those chances never arise.

This book will tell you what Army officers actually do through the stories from the lives of twenty-one Army officers. You might just discover that they are living out some of your favourite fantasies. They weren't difficult to find; the fact is that every Army officer has an interesting story to tell, but since they are not supposed to talk about their work and missions, we never get to hear about these adventures. This is the first time Indian soldiers have shared what they do because the Indian Army came forward and generously gave us permission to interview young officers-something they have never done for a book before.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages