'I was exhausted, hungry, unshaven and despondent.' 'My mouth was full of sores due to dehydration.' 'My clothes were in tatters due to walking through bushes and sliding down thorny slopes,' Brigadier John Parshuram Dalvi wrote of his capture during the 1962 War.
At this time, sixty years ago, Brigadier John Parshuram Dalvi and a majority of his men were captured as prisoners of war by the Chinese during the 1962 war. His son Michael Dalvi, 77, has preserved his father's memory and the story of the gallant men of the 7th Infantry Brigade with honour.
Michael Dalvi, who played first class cricket for Delhi, Tamil Nadu and Bengal, once hit a century against a fiery Malcolm Marshall and the West Indies. At 77, he has a razor sharp memory, a ready wit and is a rare cricketing treasure.
'China is mindful of the fact that it is not confronting the Indian Army of 1962. But the sabre rattling will continue.'
Did Vinod Sehgal die in Tsangdgar or was he taken PoW to Tibet or China? Why has the IAF kept so quiet for all these years, asks Claude Arpi.
Very few today realise that without Brigadier John Dalvi's courage, we would never have known what really happened during those tragic days of October/November 1962, reveals Claude Arpi.
While Nehru remains an icon for many, including his critics, for the stellar role he played in building institutions of democracy, the 1962 humiliation blots Nehru's copybook, says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
Let us hope that what happened in 1962 will never happened again, prays Claude Arpi
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