န Little Man From The East : Preface

န PREFACE

The last hundred years in our country's history have indeed been momentous. This has been a century where the human spirit has suffered, endured, excelled and exulted through events that have shaped the modern consciousness and crafted our nation as we see today. The legacy of the past century is a precious one that we bequeath to our next generation. Though in many ways it is a legacy that also contains within seeds of future tragedies if the lessons are not understood in their proper context.
I have been privileged to witness first hand many of the events "it shaped modern India. By virtue of the time and place of my birth and as well as the choice of my profession of a soldier engineer, I have myself lived and worked through remarkable times indeed. Mine was the time of war and peace, of pain and anguish, of hope and glory, of servitude and freedom, of statesmen who strode the centre stage and great men who lived and died as he-roes. In my own way, I have played my part faithfully in the great drama of modern India, just as many other countless citizens over generations. In some ways, therefore, my story is also the story of our country's progress in the century that has just passed and beyond.
Without being extravagant, I feel my story linked with relevant events and viewed transparently will inspire the younger generations who may not be that privileged to experience the kind of past we went through. This is bound to make them realize that hardship, single-minded dedication and love of our country will surely empower you to realize your dream. For, every person must have a dream, however difficult the realization may appear to be. In fact, I did make attempts to focus my experience of a lifetime and of a period the like of which may never reappear again for our children and grandchildren.
It is important that this story is recorded, in as many variations and perspectives as possible. It is important not just from the view of chronicling the past, but also because it is critical to leave as authentic a record as possible for our coming generations. The lessons of history need to be learnt and learnt well - lest our progeny are condemned to repeat it - and therein lie the true value of books such as this. My own passage through time is by itself a narrative in the recording of subaltern reality of many tumultuous decades. And the value of personal observations on the seminal events of the past in the fact that these record perspectives which may run contrary to many established "official" accounts and court histories. We owe it to our children to give them as complete and accurate an account as possible of the process in shaping the nation that we leave behind and this book, I suppose, will contribute to this effort in its own way.
I have enjoyed writing this book immensely. I have enjoyed it not just because it reflects a time that I have lived through myself, but also because it acquired a lively piquancy of its own that has challenged many of my own views and perspectives. It has also forced me to re-examine the past in a fresh light by re-visiting history selectively. This is the quality, I believe, which should probably be the single most important contribution of the book.