Sarvochcha Lakshya is the Hindi version of Sood’s The Ultimate Goal (HarperCollins, India, 2020), translated by Prabhat Milind. As an exercise in translation, Sarvochcha Lakshya renders a significant research work into the Hindi language. Since the book is a detailed study of foreign policy, soft power, global leadership and strategic communication, the translation expands the readership and scope of this work. Milind’s translation makes its way through the intricacies of Sood’s articulations to share with our diverse readership the nuances of understanding, experiencing and narrativizing the heterogeneous canvas of foreign policy.
What drives Sood to transition from an Intelligence Officer to a writer? An intense curiosity to join the dots, the pauses, the silences and the slips between the cup and the lip. In his Acknowledgments, Sood writes with remarkable clarity about how the build-up and ramifications of the Iran-Iraq War of September 1980 led him to study narratives and power-play with great interest. He says: