The year was 2002, and a military contingent was returning in convoy from the border after being mobilised as part of Operation Parakram, the biggest mobilisation of the Indian military since 1972 in the wake of the Parliament attack.
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Along the sprawling desert that seemed to expand up to the horizon stood a solitary dhaba. Not having seen a sign of human inhabitation for almost a day, Sonia Cherian, a young military doctor, then in her maiden year with the Army’ Dental Corps, along with a colleague chose to take a tea break.
Incidentally, they happened to know that the 15-year-old boy who served them tea was married. His father then called his daughter-in-law out and in walked a 13-year-old girl. As Dr. Cherian started sketching her in a notepad she noticed a protruding belly and realised to her shock that she was pregnant.
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“At that point, I realised that my pride over my education, military rank, and opportunity to drive through the desert were all privileges of being fortunate to be born at the right place at the right time,” said Dr. Cherian, who had since then left the military as a lieutenant colonel after 14 years’ short service in 2016.
It was such memories, which remained etched in her heart and documented as drawings with a couple of descriptive lines in her countless notepads, that have helped her turn an author whose maiden book Indian Rainbow – Oru Pattalakkariyude Ormakurippukal (memoirs of a woman Indian soldier) is already into its fourth edition. She was interacting with The Hindu during the course of a book tour organised by Mathrubhumi Books, the publisher, here on Thursday.
“Initially, I felt it was too early to write my memoirs. But now, I am grateful that I got this opportunity to look back at my life so early when the memories are so much brighter,” Dr. Cherian, a native of Kannur, said.
From a very young age, she had this irresistible habit of drawing including in her school books that brought reprimand from school and home alike. It was her mother who suggested that she keep a notepad to sketch her drawings. That habit stuck, and she had since then stacked up notepads through her life.
She could not access all those notepads while writing her memoirs. “But, since I drew, it may have left the imprint in my mind. Though conceived as a memoir, I took it to a wider canvas about my interactions with people, including the very marginalised along extreme border areas, and the nature I have seen,” said Dr. Cherian who is now hooked to writing.