NOTES FROM A SPYMASTER

Amarjit Singh Dulat's A Life in the Shadows: A Memoir is only in part about his life. He does discuss his career in the Intelligence Bureau (IB), then as head of the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) and, finally, post-retirement, as advisor on Jammu & Kashmir in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) till May 2004, when the National Democratic Alliance (NDA)-I demitted office. He also goes into his family background, early life, school and college, and joining the Indian Police Service. But the meat of the book is Kashmir. This is what holds the author's greatest attention and he talks about his assessments of the role of the intelligence community in dealing with what happens to be India's most intractable internal security challenge with all its external ramifications in some detail.

- T.C.A. Raghavan

A LIFE IN THE SHADOWS: A MEMOIR

by  A.S.Dulat

HARPERCOLLINS ₹699; 264 pages