Military institutions often appear distant to civilians. They never did to me. My father served in the Indian Air Force, and growing up, the Armed Forces were never just uniforms on Republic Day or headlines after a conflict—they were part of the conversations, values, and discipline that quietly shaped my childhood. I, too, dreamt of joining the Indian Army. Life took me elsewhere, but that curiosity never really left. Reading The Curious and the Classified: Unearthing Milit