(a) It won over the Pakistani forces hands down, both on the eastern as well as the western sectors.
(b) The outcome gave birth to a new country viz. Bangladesh and
(c) It had accepted the abject surrender of 93,000 Pakistani army men who were involved in the loot,
rape and murder of men and women of the erstwhile East Pakistan.
The celebration of this great day invokes positive national reactions and the Indians are only too happy to celebrate it to the hilt. Such a war and its decisive outcome is rare in world military history. The men of the Indian defence forces can surely be proud of their countrymen's whole hearted support and the great faith that they have in their ability to win any war for them under the most trying conditions!
The scale of the celebrations seems to be on the rise as the years go by.
* * *
At Guruvayur, a small crowd of ex-servicemen from all the three services had gathered at the 'Manjulaal' - the old peepul tree - about 600 mts from the eastern entrance of the famous temple. The chairman of the municipal corporation was the chief guest, Brigadier Subramanian (retd), Advocate Ravi Chankath of the Paithrukam Foundation, the acting ACP and Mr Narayanan, my ex-colleague at the NHQ were the organisers. It was a short ceremony of one hour, where each one of us lit 50 earthenware lamps, during the course of the program and as the speeches were on.
I was the guest of honour as they felicitated me for being a recipient of the Naosena Medal (Gallantry) for my IPKF exploits.
As I looked around, I seemed to know most of the people who had gathered for the event which spanned between 1000 to 1100 hrs. Sobhini and her daughter, Sheena - they had provided ayurvedic treatment to my mother, Indira and her husband, Major Gopalakrishnan, who took an instant liking towards Lekha, Ramakrishnan PO whom I'd befriended, way back during my walks, Ramunni MWO.....the list goes on.
It was another quiet day, otherwise.
Tailpiece.
The Quarterdeck was progressively shut down as we go to Thiruvananthapuram to attend the unveiling of my Muthachhan's statue installed at the Poojappura traffic circle. The Rashtrapathi will do the honours on the 23rd.
Today's the 1st of the Malayalam month of Dhanu. Special 'aarathi' was carried out.
No comments:
Post a Comment