My tryst with Vajpayee

It was at a book release foisted into a chambers of industry event that I had my Vajpayee moment

My father was studying to be an officer at the Indian Military Academy when Independence happened. Overnight, fellow cadets of a different faith were removed and flown across freshly denoted, bewildering borders to a country newly named Pakistan without being offered a choice of citizenship. That was not true for their families, several of whom opted to stay “home” in India. Not only did friends become adversaries, even families now had “enemies” within their fold — sons, brothers, nephews — for no cause of their own. Over time, those families became strangers. Seventy-one years later, to acknowledge a relative in