DEEPAK SG
My earliest memories are military ones — bugles, bagpipes, and the particular rhythm of life in hilltown cantonments where I spent my early years. A brief spell at a private school run by a British lady in Calcutta remains the one stretch of schooling I carry with me, across years of moving from cantonment to cantonment.
A degree in English Literature preceded my commission into the Indian Army, where I served for seven years mostly in Kashmir and Punjab. After military service, I read law at the University of Mumbai. I now live in Chandigarh.
The Raj era and its literature has always held particular interest for me, as have Indian martial traditions, and the role of revolutionary spirit in the Indian freedom struggle. The Shivaliks and the Himalayas have nurtured all three. The long silences and winding roads – driving to little cantonments and clubs nestled in the folds of these hills – sparked what became Malokh Cantt: an attempt to tell what revealed itself as a silent story the hills held.
Malokh Cantt is my debut novel. I am at work on a memoir of my years in Kashmir.