Head Held High

Today, whenever decorated officer Vishwas Nangre Patil recalls the memories of Diwali from his childhood days, the sounds of the firecrackers often transform into the deafening grenade blasts from the night of 26/11. It was his grit, cultivated over the years from the neck-breaking labour of studying for the UPSC exams, that had enabled him to power on and gun down the terrorists inside an aflame Taj Hotel during the 2008 Mumbai attacks. Head Held High, translated from the Marathi Mann Mein Hai Vishwas, is an account of IPS officer Vishwas Nangre Patil's life-from his humble background, through school, college, long hours of studying for the UPSC examinations to the final selection for the IPS cadre and, eventually, his role in the counterterrorist operations during the Mumbai attacks. This nostalgic and authentic account of the most formative and challenging years of his life is sure to strike a chord with the thousands who aspire to join the ranks of the Indian Civil Services.