Flying Officer MP Anil Kumar (5 May 1964 – 20 May 2014) was a MiG 21 pilot in the Indian Air Force; after he became a quadriplegic as a result of a motor-cycle accident, he became a writer and historian.

Modern history is replete with narratives of how nations that do not make enough efforts at peace, so that their soldiers can enjoy a normal lifespan to showcase their unique skills and abilities, will be reduced to chest-thumping jingoists in a land awash with forgotten war widows.

On 28 June 1988, MP was winding up a usual day at his fighter base in Pathankot after flying a couple of sorties as a wingman to senior pilots.

[citation needed] It was his personal battle against tragedy, almost entirely from the Army's Paraplegic Rehabilitation Centre in Pune until he died on 20 May 2014, that makes MP a truly inspirational figure.

The specially created workstation helped MP write some of the most powerful and original commentaries on military issues in India for various publications.

He mouth-wrote "Airborne to Chairborne", an iconic 1994 essay about his accident and how he fought his way back into life, which is now part of textbooks in a few State syllabuses.

[citation needed] Ever since his article emerged in public, hundreds of children dropped in at his Pune home to talk to MP, and thousands more were inspired by him.

In many ways, Born to Fly, MP's biography by his course-mate Air Commodore Nitin Sathe, which was released on 25 October, holds a mirror to the urban elite of India who are yet again in a jingoistic mood.

Socrates K. Valath, noted Malayalam writer and filmmaker has made a documentary on the life of Anil Kumar, titled, And the Fight Goes On.