Gallantry & Glory

The Lone Wolf celebrates the life and times of Maj. Ashok Tara VrC

Maj. Gen. Raj Mehta (retd)

My attention was first drawn to this unusually titled book, The Lone Wolf, by the online magazine ‘Coffee and Conversations’ run by author/ blogger Rashmi Nayar. Written by Neha Dwivedi, a doctor, childcare specialist and army brat, The Lone Wolf is her second book. Her late gunner father Maj. C.B. Dwivedi was a Kargil martyr. Neha’s first book was about Capt. Vijayant Thapar, VrC whose poignant ‘Dear Mom’ letter before his death in Kargil underscored his bravery and EQ.

The Lone Wolf, set largely against the East Pakistan crisis and its  climacteric rebirth as the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, is about Major (later Colonel) Ashok Tara, VrC, the young, brave, proactive and unconventional Infantry officer who, besides other ‘lone wolf’ adventures/incidents dramatically rescued Sheikh Hasina, the fourth time PM of Bangladesh and eldest daughter of Banglabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rehman and her family members from certain death at the hands of their trigger-happy Pakistani captors in Dhaka. They were unaware that their Army had surrendered en masse to the Indo-Bangla Forces.

Being second generation military brats, the Tara children grew up in the then developing, laid back 1950’s Delhi to implicitly believe their World War II veteran father’s ethic that ‘fear is just a state of mind’. Their ‘shikari’ raconteur maternal grandfather permanently engraved the rambunctious children’s anti-fear psyche by advising the playful outward-bound children that if confronted by a wild animal whil