The Hero of Tiger Hill: “No soldier desires war and hopes for peace, but we spend every day preparing for war, so that when it comes, we are ready for it”, said Captain Yogendra Singh Yadav while talking about his recent book ‘The Hero of Tiger Hill’.

The novel ‘The Hero of Tiger Hill’ is an autobiographical novel written by Param Vir Chakra awardee Captain (Hony) Yogendra Singh Yadav, who was a member of the 18 Grenadier Regiment and a brave soldier of Ghatak Platoon during the 1999 Kargil war.

Captain Yadav said he decided to write this novel during his recovery period. He shared, “I wanted to pen my thoughts and memories in the form of a book so that it could reach out to many people and inspire them. It is also a tribute to my fellow soldiers who didn’t make it back home from the battlefield. It is to immortalise our combined efforts that saved the nation at such a crucial juncture.”

The most difficult part of writing about a sacrificial incident is to relive and revisit every emotion the war made you experience. Captain Yadav shared that the same was the case with him as well.

He said, “There were times I would freeze and couldn’t write anymore. Or I would deeply miss someone we had lost. I would reach out to their family and talk my heart out. The book has taken a long time for me to pen, and the toughest was to stop my emotions from overwhelming me.”

The book is not only a documentation of war from the point of view of the soldier, but also the journey of a boy who grows up to become a brave soldier and Param Vir Chakra awardee.

The most different thing about the book was the originality and honesty of the incidents and the Captain’s journey as an individual. Instead of hiding his mistakes done as a young boy, he decided to share the incident and the lessons he learnt from them, which indeed is a very honest and brave thing to do.

The novel unfolds major events of the Captain’s life as a civilian and as a soldier in three parts.

Formative Years contains Captain Yadav’s life in his village. The segment has all the incidences that he gives credit for his hard work, patience, maturity, discipline, and resilience.

From Civilian to Soldier is a segment that talks about the Captain’s training period in the Army Camp. There are incidents that show how unity is built among teammates and how the army battalion becomes a family.

Kargil War is the documentation of the 1999 Kargil War that took place between Indian and Pakistani forces. Captain was a part of the Ghatak Platoon that was sent to capture back the Indian Army post of the Tiger Hills. The climb was dangerous and full of near-to-death experiences which is very nicely described in the novel.