What was the intelligence failure that led to the hijacking of Indian Airlines’ flight IC-814 from Kathmandu on 24 December 1999? Could the aircraft have been stopped at Amritsar airport? Was a commando raid planned on the aircraft? How was Rupin Katyal killed? Was the plane’s destination always intended to be Kandahar? Was it merely prophetic that the hijackers had predicted the end of all negotiations on the millennium eve? These and other questions are answered in this blow-by-blow eyewitness account by Flt. Engineer Anil K. Jaggia, who breaks the silence around the hijacking with investigative journalist Saurabh Shukla of the Indian Express.

What was the intelegence failure that led to the hijacking of Indian Airlines Flight IC814 from Kathmandu? Could the aircraft have been stopped at Amritsar airport? Was a commando raid planned on the aircraft? How was Rupin Katyal killed? Was the plane's destination always intended to be Kandahar? Was it merely prophetic that the hijackers had predicted the end of all negotiations on the millennium eve? These and other questions are answered in this blow-by-blow eyewitness account by Flight Engineer Anil K Jaggia who breaks the silence around the hijacking, with investigative reporting by senior correspondent Saurabh Shukla of The Indian Express

The Captainýs account brings to vivid life the horror of seven days inside the hijacked IC 814, on its way from Kathmandu to Delhi. Nearly 188 passengers and crew were pushed beyond the limits of normal human endurance and forced to confront situations they had never imagined: bloodshed, starvation and the crippling uncertainty of living under the constant threat of death.

This is a small book of life's big and not-so-big lessons. Written from the heart, these nuggets of personal insights will resonate with just about anyone who has experienced and questioned universal conundrums such as marriage, love, failure, parenting, passion, ambition, or money. A relook at everyday wisdom and learning that we all very often take for granted. "An extravagant wealth of profound reflections sparingly expressed" - Sir Martin Sorrell "A lyrical guide to life - accessible, uncensored, and honest. If only we all thought so clearly." - Fatima Bhutto " This is free verse from a free mind, liberated by indifference to conventional rewards and knitted to values and emotions that make life such a unique arc between the accident of birth and the certainty of death" - MJ Akbar "The stuff every parent would love to tell his children" - Tarun Tejpal "I have known Swapan ever since he was born. He is a compelling advertising writer with unique consumer insights. In this book, he presents some unique insights into life. This book is so very Swapan. He leads life by his words, and he leads it with his wonderfully grounded wife and my two adorable nephews." - Suhel Seth

When India and Pakistan held nuclear tests in 1998, they restarted the clock on an intense competition that had begun with Partition. Nuclear weapons restored strategic parity, erasing the advantage of India's much larger military. But the shield offered by nuclear weapons also encouraged a reckless reliance by Pakistan on militant proxies even as jihadis spun out of control within and beyond its borders. In the years that followed, Pakistan would lose decisively to India, sacrificing its own domestic stability in a failed attempt to assert its claim to Kashmir and influence events in Afghanistan.Defeat is an Orphan tracks the defining episodes in the relationship between India and Pakistan from 1998, from bitter conflict in the mountains to military confrontation in the plains, from the hijacking of an Indian airliner to the Mumbai attacks. It is a frank history of an enduringly bitter relationship, set against the background of Islamist militancy in Pakistan and India's economic leap forward.