Life as I know It

At first I wasn’t sure I could write a review for this masterpiece, not because I didn’t want to (in fact, I was extremely keen on capturing my experience of reading this wonderful book so that I could re-live it whenever I wished), but because I didn’t know if I could write a review that would, in effectively capturing the nuances of the character of Buck, the protagonist, his feelings and experiences, his unparallel loyalty, his life lessons and his frightening ferocity, do justice to this marvel called The Call of the Wild . But then I realized I couldn’t complete the journey I’d embarked on by turning the first page of the book without a proper and befitting farewell by way of a book review. As evident from the title, The Call of the Wild is the gripping story of an animal, a dog named Buck, who lived a King’s life in Judge Miller’s house, a Californian ranch home. Greatly loved and adored, Buck enjoyed hunting with the Judge’s sons during the day as much as he loved curling up ne

Today, I chanced upon three news reports on the recent Maoist attack wiping out almost an entire CRPF patrol, killing 75 paramilitary men and a policeman in Chhattisgarh on April 6. It anguishes me, as it does every conscientious, patriotic Indian, that our paramilitary men became cannon fodder for the Maoists, who after mercilessly carrying out the carnage, walked away with the rifles, SLRs, bombs and other ammunition of the massacred paramilitary men. What’s even more shocking is that 48 of the 82 men of the ill-fated CRPF patrol had little idea of the area they had been patrolling for the one day and two nights before the morning of the attack. These men belonged to the Alpha Company of the CRPF transferred to the location only a week before the attack. Compare them with the rebels, who know the forests like the back of their hands because they were born there and probably have the backing of hundreds of thousands of tribal people. No wonder our jawans were sitting ducks for the Mao