Book Description

"The heart-warming story of a backward boy, unable to talk at the age of four and sent to boarding school in order to learn to speak. Branded a moron and dragged through ten schools in seven years, he suddenly "finds his feet" and becomes dux of one of India's most prestigious colleges. Later he becomes an officer in one of the Indian Army's most famous regiments and Adjutant of its premier battalion. He comes from a dysfunctional family and a broken home. He is an Anglo-Indian, a much despised member of the human race in the days of the Raj, rubbing shoulders with British and Indian officers. Laugh at his misfortunes and exult in his successes; hold your breath as the four-year old barely escapes a kidnap attempt; enjoy travelling on the world's most famous mountain railway, Darjeeling's toy train, which was once chased by a wild elephant. Read of cobras, jaadu (Indian witchcraft) and schoolboys using toilet paper as currency to support their gambling habit. Accompany the author as he goes to catch a monkey and shoot a panther; as his brigade confronts the Russians over possession of the Iranian oilfields and as he reads fairy tales to a blood-thirsty Pathan warrior who asks if the stories are true! Feel the desperation of millions as murder and mayhem stalk the Indian sub-continent. See the refugee trains, ushered in by the granting of independence to India, when inter-communal violence spawned ten million refugees overnight and one million hapless men, women and children were slaughtered. For the old India wallahs, this is a trip down memory lane to savour the aura of Calcutta, of Chowringhee and Firpo's; of Darjeeling and Mussoorie, of Dehra Dun and Poona; of the railway institutes and the Auxiliary Force, and much much more." -- book cover.