Freedom is an Eagle: Poems from an Outpost is a unique collection of poems by a soldier. Most of them were written on remote outposts in the high Himalayas and are a record of intense loneliness and exile. They record one of the most lonesome sounds – the crunch of a lone sentry’s boots upon the snow. They also record the stark contrast in the sounds of utter silence that you encounter on the Himalayan battle fields and the exact opposite – the thundering sounds of artillery guns, bursting shells and mortars, staccato machine gun fire and the screams of the dying and the wounded that you hear on the self same battle fields. These are the musings of lonely men far from their loved ones – consigned to live alone – condemned perhaps to fight and die. They represent the stream of consciousness of exile and philosophical musings of men faced with the stark choices of life and death and coping with extreme peril and danger. They also provide unique vignettes of war that are intense and searing in their intensity. All these poems are held together by a magnificent liet motif – the majestic Himalayan Eagle that flies in and out of these poems – a symbol of Freedom and valour; of the cosmic destrudo and the aggression of armies.
