10 Heroes of the 1965 War which ended on September 23 60 years ago.
'At school, on August 15, the Indian flag was raised. There was no national anthem at that time and we sang Rise India Thy Millions Lead,' recalls military legend Major General Ian Cardozo (retd).
Everybody talks of China as the real threat, but we aren't even building a decisive capability against Pakistan, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
'The next war will be fought by China-Pakistan against India and we have to fully be prepared. We must read the writing on the wall.'
'...they were shocked to learn that just 352 Indian soldiers had made 3 brigadiers, 2 colonels, 170 officers, 290 JCOs and 8,000 troops surrender to the Indian Army.'
Today, he lies in an unknown grave in a corner of a farmer's field in Pakistan, having given his all for his country. A riveting excerpt from Ian Cardozo's Beyond Fear: True Stories on Life in the Indian Armed Forces.
Major General Ian Cardozo (retd) lost his leg in the 1971 war with Pakistan. He tells Claude Arpi about the the war where more than 93,000 Pakistani prisoners were taken, a region was liberated and a new nation born.
'With my wooden leg, I was determined to prove to the army as well as to the world, that I could do as well, if not better, than a two-legged person, says War Hero Major General Ian Cardozo (retd).
'He destroyed many of our tanks, and finally, it was just the two of us left facing each other with our tanks just 200 m apart.' A tale of valour excerpted from Rachna Bisht Rawat's 1971: Charge Of The Gorkhas And Other Stories.
'As Indians, we should be claiming and celebrating 'Bhartiyata' rather than seeking commitment to beliefs which are divisive and exclusionary.'
'An unsung hero is fine, but an insulted one is not.'
'The failure to remember the martyrs on a grand scale is a national problem. As a nation-State, India time and again fails to honour its true heroes: The men in uniform.'
When Rediff.com's Archana Masih and Rajesh Karkera set course from the foothills of the Himalayas to the Arabian Sea, they could not think of a better place to begin their journey than the stately campus that has given India some of its greatest military heroes.
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