Many thanks Dr. Gurcharan ji. On Thu, Nov 21, 2024 at 4:56 PM Gurcharan Singh <[email protected]> wrote:
> Congratulations Vikram Jit Singh ji for this wonderful publication. We did > extensive exploration of Ladakh in 1970, 1971 but unfortunately there were > no handy cameras those days to photograph plants, we would only collect > plants for herbarium. With my two friends in Ladakh in 1971, one retired as > DIG Police and One as Professor from Jammu University. > > On Sunday, November 17, 2024 at 10:42:34 AM UTC+5:30 vikram jit singh > wrote: > >> Thank you very much for the kind words, Garg ji. >> >> EfloraofIndia has been so much a part of the book's journey. Those >> miniature alpine flowers peeping out from rock crevices were the only >> manifestation of Nature (apart from stone & snow) on those war-torn heights >> of Kargil. It is a treeless terrain and the few wild creatures that dwelt >> there had fled. >> >> >> Best regards, >> >> Vikram Jit Singh. >> >> On Sun, Nov 17, 2024 at 10:00 AM J.M. Garg <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> Thanks a lot, Vikram ji, for such a wonderful title. >>> The book must certainly be equally enchanting. >>> Thanks for writing down your story of those difficult times. >>> Congratulations as well. >>> >>> On Sat, 16 Nov 2024 at 19:56, vikram jit singh <[email protected]> >>> wrote: >>> >>>> >>>> Dear Garg ji, >>>> >>>> Greetings. >>>> >>>> If I may, take the liberty to inform you about my memoir which has >>>> recently been published. Its title takes from the alpine flowers of the >>>> remote Kargil battlefields sent in letters home, and their identification >>>> over the years following the war by the efloraofIndia group. It includes >>>> photos of flowers around the LOC posts and Kargil battlefields taken by the >>>> author and by high-altitude link patrols of the Army. The book features Dr. >>>> Gurcharan Singh's explanation of their existence at those heights ranging >>>> to 17,000 feet and above. >>>> >>>> >>>> A glimpse of >>>> >>>> *Flowers on a Kargil Cliff:* >>>> >>>> (i) The book's title takes from the miniature alpine flowers I plucked >>>> from rock crevices while under fire at 15,000-16,000 feet during the Kargil >>>> War and dispatched in love letters to my distraught fiancée; some of these >>>> blooms were contributed by the lonesome troops I was embedded with >>>> >>>> >>>> (ii) As the only mediaperson allowed access to the high-altitude zone >>>> of the Kargil War twice, including a night in a pup tent at 15,700 feet >>>> with 12 JAK Light Infantry, I ducked artillery shelling and navigated cliff >>>> walls to file first-hand accounts for *The Indian Express, *that >>>> included the sui generis ceremony during the raging battle to bury enemy >>>> soldiers with the religious rites due on the knife-thin, Khalubar ridge. >>>> The basis for the Army permitting outlier Kargil access was my track record >>>> of live reportage of multiple counter-insurgency operations in the Valley >>>> while stationed at Srinagar: October 1997-October '99, (and for *India >>>> TV *in 2004) >>>> >>>> >>>> (iii) The book is endorsed by reputed veteran officers and hosts a >>>> prolific foreword by Maj. Gen. Raj Mehta (retd.), who served seven tenures >>>> in Jammu & Kashmir, and with whose troops I went into battle. Titled, India >>>> Needs War Correspondents, Mehta details the global history, role of war >>>> correspondents, Indian media persons reporting on war / conflict, and the >>>> world's best ones: "I saw Ernie Pyle in Vikram Jit". >>>> >>>> >>>> (iv) The book tells the tale of unseen blood on the dim and distant >>>> snows. I witnessed an unsung 48-hour battle waged by 3 Kumaon (Rifles) and >>>> 9 Dogra to nail six terrorists who slaughtered 23 Kashmiri Pandits of >>>> Wandhama and climbed the Safapora mountains at night in February 1998 with >>>> the assaulting riflemen. Accompanying 56 Mountain Brigade on the three-day, >>>> village Gund Rahman operation in Ganderbal (February 1999), I was fired >>>> upon thrice by terrorists in close-quarter battles and witnessed a fearless >>>> CRPF officer slip an IED through a shack window and blow to smithereens the >>>> heavily-armed and notorious IED bomber, Saifullah, hiding in a coal stack >>>> inside >>>> >>>> >>>> (v) Since courage knows no line of control, the book digs out the >>>> heroic stand of Capt Rommel Akram, Sitara-e-Jurat, of the Pakistan Army who >>>> was grievously wounded while fighting alone against a concerted Indian >>>> assault on Kargil's Point 5140. Named after the German General of WW II by >>>> his grandfather who had battled in North Africa with the British Indian >>>> Army, Capt. Akram bears a long, jagged Prussian fencing-like, Mensur scar >>>> across his left cheek. It is the vivid, macho testimony of an Indian sniper >>>> round's mangling impact as the bullet entered under his left eye and exited >>>> from his ear in June 1999. The memoir also revisits the graves of 244 >>>> Pakistani soldiers who lie buried for the last 25 years in Indian soil, and >>>> whose families have no chance to seek a return of the rotting remains and >>>> attain a sense of closure. In forgotten corners and crags of enemy's land, >>>> the snows shroud their nameless graves in white, where icy winds wail in >>>> anguish and in summer's brief interlude do alpine blooms lend a wreath. >>>> These are the most unfortunate soldiers, who will never go home, not even >>>> in coffins >>>> >>>> >>>> (vi) It speaks about decorated young officers of the Pakistan Army's 6 >>>> NLI, who fought in the Drass-Kaksar (Kargil) sector in summer 1999. They >>>> took photographs and marked critical Indian peaks on maps when they roved >>>> unchallenged across the LoC in secret recce missions in October 1998, seven >>>> months before the intrusions were officially detected --- by an Indian >>>> shepherd. The classified photographs were released by retired Pakistanis >>>> for the book, as also three expose images of Gen. Pervez Musharraf and his >>>> Generals (the Kargil Clique of 4) across the Mashkoh LoC on March 28, 1999, >>>> where the entourage stayed the night with incursion troops of 12 NLI. The >>>> book incorporates accounts from the Pakistani side of the capture of Point >>>> 5299-SW Spur (Bajrang Post, the claimed mutilation of an Indian patrol >>>> under Lt. Saurabh Kalia) and photos taken in October 1998 by intruding >>>> recce patrols of the southern slopes of the Indo-Pak 'sore point' of 5353 >>>> (Marpola Ridge, Drass) >>>> >>>> >>>> (vii) The book unearths the tense HQs-battlefield radio set exchanges >>>> and court-martial threats involving the virtual refusal of Capt. Manoj >>>> Pandey (Param Vir Chakra-Posthumous) to follow suicidal orders issued by >>>> HQs 15 Corps (Srinagar) to assault Point 4821-Kukar Thang on May 17-18, >>>> 1999, and thereon for his under-strength, under-equipped battalion to clear >>>> the Batalik axis (Kargil War) in just 72 hours. Of the 12 JAK LI's >>>> Commanding Officer who threatened his superiors with battle withdrawal >>>> after they refused to sanction a heli-lift and instead ordered him to have >>>> the decomposing bodies of his 13 dead officer / jawans (of Point 5203 >>>> battle) lugged dishonourably, in uneven loads of dangling limbs, on >>>> lurching mules to a road too far >>>> >>>> >>>> (viii) Untold stories of love and loss wrought by war's collateral >>>> wounds are told. Of Tek Kumari Shrestha, who refused to accept widowhood >>>> and turned down the compensation due on the death of a Gurkha Rifles >>>> soldier. She refused to believe her missing husband had been killed in >>>> action. If so, show me his body? She stubbornly kept applying 'sindoor' to >>>> the central parting of vermillion in her hair and her weary arms continued >>>> to tinkle with nuptial bangles she was loathe to discard, even as Lance >>>> Naik Dun Narain Shrestha lay decaying in a Kargil cave for two years. Of >>>> late Capt. Jintu Gogoi, Vir Chakra, and AIR news presenter, Anjana >>>> Parasher, whose love triumphed death and was graced by the divinity of >>>> coincidence. Anjana's daughter from a marriage years after the war was born >>>> on November 21, also the date of Jintu's birth >>>> >>>> >>>> (ix) The 16 pages of the book's eclectic photo section are sourced from >>>> unpublished collections of Kargil veterans. Along with a startling photo of >>>> a Gurkha soldier who used his khukri, there is the mysterious one of a dead >>>> Pakistani soldier on Khalubar ridge (17,000 feet) with a white handkerchief >>>> belonging to another Gurkha soldier tied tightly around the chin and wedged >>>> under the ears to secure his tottering head. The haunting image of the >>>> ashes of a young Indian officer being sprinkled from a red 'matka' during >>>> battle at Kaala Pathar (Point 4927, 16,165 feet) where he had laid down his >>>> life. An image of veneration, too: the one taken by the author of the >>>> unknown, functional temple run by LoC soldiers on top of Tololing (15,100 >>>> feet), the site of the most famous and 'turning-the-tide' battle of Kargil. >>>> The book showcases images of wild alpine irises, rhodiola and delphinium >>>> from the LoC heights taken by the author and the Army's high-altitude link >>>> patrols --- the flowers were blooming at Point 4355 (Mashkoh) in the >>>> shadows of 'Batra Top' (Point 4875) and Gun Hill-Drass (Point 5140-16,864 >>>> feet), the two peaks associated forever with the 'Yeh dil maange more' >>>> victory signal of Capt. Vikram Batra (PVC-P) and the battle-winning role of >>>> Artillery, the God of War >>>> >>>> >>>> (x) The book acknowledges the unsung war effort put in by humble, >>>> nimble Ladakhi donkeys. It narrates the animals' stories with an evocative >>>> sketch of donkeys and a war porter in action drawn by an artistic and >>>> animal-loving Kargil warrior officer. The donkeys excelled by carrying >>>> uneven battle loads under shelling, guided troops along virtually-vertical >>>> cliffs and lugged the computer, diesel and generator from an Indus road >>>> head to the Yaldor nallah battlefield to enable the formal formatting of a >>>> battalion's gallantry citations --- a compulsion imposed on fighting units >>>> by the rigid staff officer bureaucracy of HQs 3 Infantry Division >>>> >>>> >>>> Best regards, >>>> >>>> Vikram Jit Singh, >>>> >>>> Chandigarh. >>>> >>>> (Ms: 9814019356, 7347347677 <(734)%20734-7677>) >>>> >>>> >>>> Golf Columnist, Defence reportage and Wildlife Correspondent: >>>> >>>> *The Times of India* at Chandigarh (India). >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/toireporter/author-Vikram-Jit-Singh.cms >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> Sunday Wildbuzz Columnist at the *Hindustan Times, *Chandigarh, since >>>> January 8, >>>> 2012, published episodes: 662. >>>> >>>> >>>> Columnist on Security / Terrorism / Regional Geopolitics >>>> >>>> At *Moneycontrol.com* >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> https://www.moneycontrol.com/author/vikram-jit-singh-37567/#google_vignette >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> War correspondent at The Cliffs of Kargil, 1999 >>>> >>>> Line of fire CI-OPs / CT Ops reporter, *The Indian Express*, at >>>> Srinagar, 1997-1999; *India TV*, at Srinagar, 2004 >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> Eyewitness account, chapter: *WITH HONOUR AND GLORY --- **Five Great >>>> Artillery Battles, *authored by Maj. Gen. AJS Sandhu (2021, Published >>>> by USI of India) >>>> >>>> Author: *Flowers on a Kargil Cliff* --- *India's first war >>>> correspondent in the line of fire in Kashmir & Kargil* (2024, >>>> Published by The Browser / Fauji Days, Distributor: Simon & Schuster India) >>>> >>>> [image: FlowersonaKargilCliff1 (1).jpg] >>>> >>>> >>>> https://youtu.be/6uRcBM5A1qA?si=jmoTdtmQx78Kmgmb >>>> >>>> >>> >>> -- >>> With regards, >>> J.M.Garg >>> >> -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "eFloraofIndia" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion, visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/indiantreepix/f52e5b7c-c7fa-4a68-8c77-11d6c7451692n%40googlegroups.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/indiantreepix/f52e5b7c-c7fa-4a68-8c77-11d6c7451692n%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "eFloraofIndia" group. 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