BAAZ

By the best-selling author of 'The Zoya Factor'.. ‘Why do they call you Baaz?’‘It means falcon,’ he replies solemnly. ‘Or bird of prey. Because I swoop down on the enemy planes just like a Baaz would.’Then he grins. The grey eyes sparkle.‘It’s also short for bastard.’. 1971. The USSR-backed India-Mukti Bahini alliance is on the brink of war against the America-aided Pakistani forces. As the Cold War threatens to turn red hot, handsome, laughing Ishaan Faujdaar, a farm boy from Chakkahera, Haryana, is elated to be in the IAF, flying the Gnat, a tiny fighter plane nicknamed ‘Sabre Slayer’ for the devastation it has wrecked in the ranks of Pakistan’s F-86 Sabre Squadrons. . Flanked by his buddies Raks, a MiG-21 Fighter, Maddy, a transport pilot who flies a Caribou and fellow Gnatties Jana, Gana and Mana, Shaanu has nothing on his mind but glory and adventure – until he encounters Tehmina Dadyseth, famed bathing beauty and sister of a dead fauji, who makes him question the very concept of nationalism and whose eyes fill with disillusioned scorn whenever people wax eloquent about patriotism and war… . Pulsating with love, laughter and courage, Baaz is Anuja Chauhan's tribute to our men in uniform.