Soldier's Son

Soldiers live their lives on the edge of a sword - life on one side and death on the other. Even if they survive battles unscathed, they often suffer from post-traumatic disorder from all the nightmares they have had to live through. Often, this is more debilitating than losing limbs.

Their issues do not get easier once they leave the military. We forget they need to earn a living beyond their ‘active service’. Though we make every concession to help them, how far do we go to make sure they make a good living? They need to make a living not just for themselves, but their loved ones too.

We know what we expect from our soldiers – their life in exchange for our own. We expect them to die for us, if needed, so that we may live. BUT, do we realise what we ask of the soldiers’ families? We expect them to lose their father, son, husband, lover, breadwinner for our safety. Do we ever thank them for their sacrifice? They live through all the pain and problems of living with soldiers. They live through short spurts of ‘family life’ while their loved one is on active duty. Once a soldier’s active duty finishes, family’s duty becomes active. They have to cope with all sorts issues ‘our soldiers’ bring home - mental, physical, social, psychological etc. Do we really stand by them when the ex-servicemen / ex-servicewomen’s families are going through all this?

This ‘diary of a soldier’s son’ explores some of these issues. It’s not an easy tale. It’s not a pretty tale. It bears and bares all the scares of battle in its pages. The diary brings to the fore issues of health, sex, domestic violence, incest, bi-sexuality, depression, stress, coping with death of loved ones etc. If we expect a soldier’s son to cope with these issues, can you cope with reading this diary to its bitter end?

If you like the book, can we please request you to donate to charities helping families of ex-service men.