Certainly, it was a big event to herald the release for a small book on a great man. I still don’t know why Rupa and Co, my publishers, presented my first book to the public by holding such a big event and inviting a number of important people to it, but I am grateful that they gave a lot of his admirers a chance to celebrate the greatness of Arjan Singh DFC, Marshal of the Indian Air Force, who is an exemplar to all of us.
All of those who came were fans of the subject of the book, some were also there because of the author.
I fondly remember that my friends from college, who I had been out of touch for such a long time, came together for the occasion. Family was expected to be there, and it was. The FICCI auditorium was full—standing room only. Just after the function, there was an orderly queue of people who wanted autographed copies of the book—a heady experience indeed.

The following was the coverage given in The Tribune

War records to be made public
Panel proposals on 1962, ‘65, ‘71 conflicts
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, August 14
The Defence Ministry has accepted the recommendations of a high powered committee to make public the war records of the 1962 Sino-Indian conflict, 1965 and 1971 Indo-Pakistan war as well as experiences of the Indian army in peace-keeping role in Sri Lanka.
Defence Minister George Fernandes while declaring that the Nation had the right to know the truth about the details of the post-independence wars fought by India announced that the ministry had decided to accept the recommendations of the committee which went into the issue.
“The truth about what went wrong, where and why should not embarrass anyone and it is a must that we don’t repeat the mistakes of the past,” Mr Fernandes observed at a function here.
He said the recommendations of a high-powered committee on making public these war records would soon be implemented.
Speaking after formally releasing a biography of “Marshal of the Indian Air Force: Arjan Singh”, written by The Tribune’s Assistant Editor Roopinder Singh, the Defence Minister said national defence in India had suffered over the centuries as Indians did not care much for battle history.
“If we learnt from past battle mistakes, we would not be facing such security threats as we do at present,” Mr Fernandes said as he lamented that India over the years had failed to pen down the details of historic battles fought on Indian Soil.
Though the Defence Ministry has come out with an official account of the 1947-48 Kashmir operations, it has not come out with war records of the 1962 Sino-Indian as well as 1965 and 1971 Indo-Pakistan war.
The Defence Minister in this context also urged the Marshal of the IAF to pen down his memoirs and said writing about the history of wars was somehow not approved not only by the military establishment in the country but also by the government. “For whatever reasons there seems to be a fear of letting the nation know about the truth,” he said.
Earlier Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal S. Krishnaswamy said the IAF owed a great deal to the Marshal of the IAF and recalled his days as a junior officer under the then Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Arjan Singh.
He said thanks to him and many others the IAF had been able to prove its battle worthiness in the very year of its inception.