Vijyant at Kargil The Biography of a War Hero

By the time you get this letter I'll be observing you all from the sky. I have no regrets in fact even if I become a human again I'll join the army and fight for my nation.'This was the last letter Captain Vijyant Thapar wrote to his family. He was twenty-two when he was martyred in the Kargil War having fought bravely in the crucial battles of Tololing and Knoll. A fourth-generation army officer Vijyant dreamt of serving his country even as a young boy. In this first-ever biography we learn about his journey to join the Indian Military Academy and the experiences that shaped him into a fine officer.Told by his father and Neha Dwivedi a martyr's daughter herself the anecdotes from his family and close friends come alive and we have a chance to know the exceptional young man that Vijyant was. His inspiring story provides a rare glimpse into the heart of a brave soldier. His legacy stays alive through these fond memories and his service to the country. Review Kargil hero Capt Vijyant Thapar's life now relived in a biographyA famous last letter an unusual friendship an arduous journey a bitter war... 'Vijyant at Kargil' celebrates the extraordinary life and death of a 22-year-old soldierTo the world this is a remote Shangri La filled with scree-scattered hills snow drifts and sky-blue rivers. In this landscape of geographical superlatives where the Himalayas envelop the Indian subcontinent in a fortified embrace rests the legends of men as tall as the mountains.Twenty-one years ago in the scorching summer of 1999 527 young warriors of the Indian armed forces fought and died in these cordite-laced desolate spaces in what was to be India's first televised war - Kargil. One among them was 22-year-old Captain Vijyant Thapar VrC (the Vir Chakra was awarded posthumously for gallantry in the Battle of Knoll) whose short life was one crowded with equal measures of valour victory and kindness one that best summed up the adage - ""live life king-size"" - something he urged his countrymen to do in his last letter to his family. It also said ""Please come and see where the Indian Army fought for your tomorrow"".The letter has been shared millions of times on social media books and at talks and literally taken to heart by his 77-year-old father Colonel VN Thapar who has honoured his request these past two decades climbing 16000 feet to the sangar where Vijyant died and where his portrait now hangs alongside a goddess. Thapar has also looked out for Ruksana a young Kashmiri girl who befriended Vijyant when she was a lost three-year-old.These stories and some of the lesser-known anecdotes from the Thapar family album are in the recently-released Vijyant at Kargil - The Life of a Kargil War Hero written by Col VN Thapar and Neha Dwivedi (published by Penguin Random House).With a foreword by General VP Malik (retired) who was Army Chief during the war the book follows the trajectory of Vijyant's life from his birth into a third-generation Army family to his death on a moonlit hill with plenty of light thrown on a charming boyhood in 1980s India. Thapar a retired infantry officer and war veteran on phone from the family home in Noida says ""The book has always been a dream. For the first three years we struggled with the loss. But there was always curiosity about him - television series print media films documentary... I was urged by some military authors to take on the book. My co-author was in Mumbai I had to write long-hand and type it out. It was an enormous task for someone not tech-savvy.""Looking backNo detail of Vijyant's life seems to have been left out - how he came to be called Robin at home his foray into firing weapons as a teen banter with his cousins the dogs he loved the paths he roamed his one true love his resilience when he failed to clear the entrance exam for the National Defence Academy his quiet triumph when he was commissioned from the Indian Mil