During my time in the Army, I saw 98 fatal casualties, survived a 150 Kg IED blast, suffered many painful injuries, and was forced to continuously expand my physical, emotional and mental limits.
I was deployed in intense counter insurgency/counter terrorist operations in J&K, Punjab, and the North East for 17 years out of my entire service of 25 years in the Army.
Life was extremely tough. In fact, it was brutal.
My guiding light, through all those years, was a promise I made to myself, that I would follow the Chetwode motto to the last letter:
The safety, honour and welfare of your country come first, always and every time.
The honour, welfare and comfort of the men you command come next.
Your own ease, comfort and safety come last, always and every time.
Philip Chetwode
What ‘Under The Sun’ Is About
This book, in essence, is about the various ways I have been tested to uphold the promise I made to myself. That I would exemplify the true spirit of being a ‘Chetwodian’.
It contains 26 stories. Some stories will motivate you, some will entertain, some stories are about adventure and yet, others are about death, loss and the fleeting nature of life. As a soldier, I went through the full spectrum of emotions a human being can possibly feel, and derive tremendous meaning from each experience.
By writing this book, I want to share these experiences, and learnings with you.
I want to tell you that, despite popular media narratives, soldiering is not only about wars.
I want to tell you that a soldier, even in peace time, is constantly deployed in dangerous, life and death situations.
I want to tell you about how soldiering is, perhaps one of the few professions, where good decisions are always expected, and wrong decisions can cause death.
I want to tell you that soldiers are not superheroes. We are ordinary people. Yet, we achieve extraordinary results.
More than anything else, I want to tell you that there is much more within you, than you could possibly imagine. That you can be much more, achieve much more, than you think possible.
The best way I’ve found to tell you this is through stories. I do not want to write a self-help book. I do not want to ‘dictate’ the principles with which I live my life.
I simply want to tell you my about my real life experiences that have moulded my character. No preachiness. No ‘chapter summaries’ or ‘character building exercises’.
You decide the lessons which you derive from each chapter.
Which is why, this book is a collection of 26 stories.
These are real stories.
These can be corroborated.
These are my life experiences.
I am 62 today and have spent my entire life living according to a set of principles I decided upon, early in my youth. I would consider this book a success if it helps you become a better human being. You don’t have to live through a life as intense as I have. You simply have to read the book, decide for yourself what meaning you derive from the pages, and see if you’d like to implement it in your life.
It’s why, today, 16 years into retirement, I go every year to Himachal Pradesh and Punjab to meet 150+ veterans and widows of my unit.
In January 2018, I started an initiative to support the widows and children of deceased veterans, called SAMMAN AND ZUBAAN.
I do all this because I cannot stop living by the Chetwode motto.
I cannot let the nation down.
I cannot let my men and their families down.
I cannot let myself down.
If what I’ve written moves you, you will definitely be interested in reading this book. I would be so happy if you would order the book by clicking the button below
Establishing My Credibility With You, The Reader
I am a big believer in 100% transparency. I was an officer of the Indian Army from 1982-2006 and have given the complete details of my service career in my ‘Veteran’s Declaration’.
In this document, which can be read here, I intentionally mention a few things, such as:
- I never sought favors for yearly evaluations, course gradings, promotions or anything else that aids career growth.
- I never indulged in a single rupee’s worth of corruption.
There are lakhs of veterans on social media today, and a few thousand would either know me personally or would be acquaintances/know of me through spoken reputation (which is EVERYTHING in Armed Forces, by the way).
My veteran’s declaration has been on this site since almost 2 years now. I even made a video version of this and uploaded it to YouTube last year (see below)
I’ll be honest. Laying my life out in the open did not come naturally.
In doing so, my only hope was that whoever views me online can form a view that is the closest approximation to who I am in reality- and not an ‘image’ that I may be projecting.
Anything I write can be corroborated, cross checked and countered by the innumerable veterans who are on social media today.
I write this boldly, because I am confident in the way I’ve led my life.
I hope you will trust me too.
MY JOURNEY OF SELF PUBLISHING THIS BOOK!
Unlike most first time authors, I did not want to approach publishers.
I wanted to learn the entire process of book publishing and marketing and decided in February 2022 that my book would be self published. I have been documenting the entire journey of publishing a book from scratch on my YouTube channel- you can see the first video in our ‘Under The Sun’ playlist below:
I’ve also been writing regularly on Twitter and giving updates. We started with an estimate that we needed to sell 1000 books to break even. After relentless cost cutting, now, that figure stands at 720 books!
1/ COST CUTTING – FIFTH SUCCESS
— Col Sanjay Pande (Retd) (@ColSanjayPande) July 30, 2022
Read #SelfPublishing #CostCutting #UnderTheSun to understand cost cutting in self-publishing.
When we started we were demoralised at Rs 6.1 lacs that came as cost to publish our book and required 1000 books as preorders to cover cost.
As a first timer, I am learning the ropes of SEO, digital marketing, making YouTube videos, etc for the first time at 62!
I know one thing- I have given my heart and soul to this book.
I am sure you will love reading it.