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HomeSoftCoverNew book tells story of Indian doctor's heroism in Japanese-occupied Burma during...

New book tells story of Indian doctor’s heroism in Japanese-occupied Burma during World War 2

Published by HarperCollins, 'The 24thMile: An Indian Doctor’s Heroism in War-torn Burma', will be released on 23 September on ThePrint’s SoftCover.

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New Delhi: Dr Jehangir Anklesaria was a port health officer in Rangoon (now known as Yangon) who led a comfortable life. But that changed almost overnight in December 1941 when the Burmese capital was bombed by Japanese aircraft during World War II.

This was a Burma (now Myanmar) battling a cholera epidemic, influx of refugees, starvation, and other hardships that come with war.

The author, Tehmton S. Mistry, is part of the next generation of Anklesaria’s extended family. He evocatively recreates the story of the doctor’s grit and heroism in his death-defying journey to safety after a trek through 24 miles of a tropical jungle — the book’s title is drawn from this event.

The 24th Mile: An Indian Doctor’s Heroism in War-torn Burma will be released on 17 September on ‘SoftCover’, ThePrint’s e-venue to launch select non-fiction books.

Mistry met Dr Anklesaria through his wife, and he was integral to the couple’s life during their initial years together. For the book, Mistry has pieced together Anklesaria’s life and it has current resonance given that the doctor was also a frontline worker in the service of public health. He was a person who exhibited leadership qualities in the most trying of circumstances, playing the part history had given him at that particular juncture.

Dr Anklesaria’s heroism can be witnessed in the choices he made at the time of war. Following the Japanese invasion, he boarded a ship to India along with his wife and daughter, but an enemy aircraft hit the ship so he put the plan to return home on hold. His sense of duty made him decide to stay back in Burma.

The doctor travelled all through Burma during the war to join the war effort. He also suffered an ambush in a battle near the Indian border where he was robbed at gunpoint.

He then joined the many who were crawling their way up and down the 5,000-foot-high  mountains of Assam to escape the Japanese. His body was ravaged by malaria, dysentery, blood-sucking leeches, and starvation — but Jehangir soldiered on and tried to help as many people as he could.


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