Wing Commander Vasant Kale is training junior officers in flight manoeuvres when he begins noticing things that should not be happening inside his own squadron. The year is the Second World War, the theatre is Burma, and the stakes of his training programme extend well beyond the pilots themselves — the campaign cannot succeed without them. Then, during a routine flight, his Hurricane is shot down.
Suyog Ketkar builds his thriller around the gap between institutional war-making and the actions of one officer trying to hold something together from within. Kale must survive his own downed aircraft, identify what is corroding his squadron, and find a way to function as a peacekeeper inside a structure built entirely for conflict. Running alongside this is the love story of Vasant and Shakuntala, drawn from real events and given room to breathe against the pressure of the campaigns.
The novel works for readers who want their wartime fiction anchored in specific operational detail — aircraft, campaign logistics, the particular texture of the Burma theatre — rather than generalised heroism.
Wing Commander Vasant Kale is training Junior Officers for flight manoeuvres, which are crucial for the Burma campaign of the British in the Second World War. In the run-up to the preparations, he notices some very unusual events in his squadron. One day, during his usual flight manoeuvres, his Hurricane is downed. But he must survive, as the life of the Squadron is at stake; and his presence is must for the Burma campaign to be success. Does he survive the Dogfights? What will he do to save his fellow warriors? Can he be the lone peacekeeper amid dogfights?
