Inspiring stories always give me a high: Amit Kumar Goswami

Creativity and adventure have followed him throughout his life. Having served in the Indian Air Force (IAF) for 26 years, author Amit Kumar Goswami has now come up with a collection of short stories — Rear View Mirror — that takes readers on a roller-coaster ride of emotions, traversing incidences from his personal life to stories that inspire him.

Talking about how his IAF adventures helped him in becoming a storyteller, he says: “I got posted to a new place every three years. In the IAF, your office staff becomes like your family and, as an officer, one takes on the role of the head of that family. I was also personally involved in Bangladesh operations in 1971 and was present in war-ravaged Bangladesh. Some day I might write about those.”

In his book, he turns mundane experiences into adventure-laden tales. He recalls, “Three years back, the my ankle got fractured and I had to undergo a serious surgery. I was ordered to stay in bed for two months. With nothing to do, I used to think about incidents of my life and write them down,” he says.

Fond of reading stories of Air Force pilots who fought in World War I, Goswami says, “They were the real heroes, who challenged opponents face to face and won by sheer grit, courage, skill, and intelligence. But stories of courage in other fields also inspire me. In the story Twin Queens of Adventure, close to reaching Mt Everest’s peak, the oxygen cylinder valve malfunctions and young climber Nungshi is unable to breathe. While describing this, I actually experienced breathlessness. Due to this personal involvement in others’ stories, the feeling gets transferred to the minds of the readers.”