Shree Shree Govindajee Temple- Imphal, Manipur

The Shree Shree Govindajee temple constructed in the year 1846, was built in the reign of the Manipur ruler, Maharaja Nara Singh.It is an important place of worship for the Vaishnavites. It is located in Imphal, adjoining the old palace of Manipur.

Shree Govindaji Temple, as the name suggests is dedicated to the Lord Krishna, also known as Govinda.

 The temple also has idols of Lord Krishna, his consort Radha and images of Lord Jagathnath, another form of Vishnu.

The famous Ras Leela dance is performed in the premise of this temple on certain occasions like the Buddha Poornima.

During Holi, the statues of Lord Krishna and Radha are taken out of the inner sanctum to be surrounded by Gopis playing with pitchkari and colours.

in the premises...

the Imphal war cemetry

The Imphal war cemetery

The Imphal war cemetery preserves 1,600 burials of British soldiers who lost their lives in the Second World war while fighting agaisnt Japanese forces in Manipur.
 The cemetry is maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

 Initially, the cemetery housed the graves of 950 soldiers.

The administrative authorities of the cemetery brought in the graves of the soldiers placed in two other cemeteries of Imphal thereby increasing the total number to 1,600.

 The stone tombstones bear the epitaph that recounts the lives of the soldiers and their bravery in death. Some of these accounts are engraved on bronze plaques.

All I ask of you is that you will remember me at the altar of the Lord.

Unknown unto God.

A loving husband and true friend, constant thought for others to the end.

When we celebrate, we must give a thought to those who are in their bunkers day and night

When we celebrate, we must give a thought to those who are in their bunkers day and night

Year 2001, operation Parakram, punjab pak border- every time, be it day or night, whenever we go to our particular bunkers, we used a thick stick to ward off the snakes who had been occupying our bunkers, at times we found them inside our sleeping bags. Such things are still happening....

Year 2001, operation Parakram- natural calamities such as flash floods ate away young soldiers, such things are still happening...

Year 2001, Operation Parakram- we, the Ghatak team, special mission party stayed underground at the border, sleeping from first light to last light and awake from last light to first light, guarding the motherland so that no infiltrators come during inclement weathers and darkest hours. Our three meals for the day used to come by 0330 hrs. We suffered from indigestion because of the cold from the mud beneath. Such things are still happening...

At many happening pubs across the country, people are still dancing till 0400 hrs. Many people are bewildered wondering how to spend their coming weekend, which 5 star hotel to visit, which dresses to show off....and they are still confused as they have far too many choices, such things are still happening...

Year 2001, Operation Parakram- the chilly winters of Dec, Jan, Feb, the entire country were cosying up, warming themselves up with room heaters, bhukharis and there we were waiting for last light to happen to establish minefields, working all nights, digging  6 feet height underground tunnels, such things are still happening...

Year 2002, when the situation became normal, I spent one whole month retrieving all the mines that was laid 6 months before. Man, it was hell of an experience, as due to seasonal change like monsoon, all the anti personel mines got drifted. I worked extra harder with a lot of pressures...pressures of going slow, there were days where i could retrieved 30 mines in a day and there were days where i found only one mine a day after almost digging the size of a mini swimming pool. My team faced sufferings from all quarters as we were slow in the process but we ensured that we found all mines so that the villagers and animals of the village do not suffer later on. Such things are still happening...

Year 2003, Khanpur camp, Delhi- while on preparation to represent the country as ambassadors for United Nation peacekeeping, we guys really sweated a lot. People crib about Delhi weather, about the frequent power cuts, about the extreme heats...we guys braved it all seasons living in tentages, such things are still happening...

Year 2004- Lebanon, during UN peacekeeping , we had overflowing rations. We were getting 740 varieties of ration. Rations from across the world. However, after every 14 days, we had to dig ditches to throw away the extra rations. We could not distribute to the poor people, neither to the villagers, as medias were always hungry to write negative stories about armed forces. When we even distributed biscuits to the children in the street during our patrolling, medias used to report, UN personnel selling rations...medias always project negative image about armed forces. There are so many umpteen good deeds and welfare measures that we guys do in the remotest villages, however the medias are never interested in highlighting those things as it would never give good TRP ratings. However, they would jump like hungry wolves in scandals, scams, such things are still happening...

Year 2005- Battalik, guarding the LOC at inhospitable terrain, we were deprived of basic amenities in life. Electricity were replaced by lanterns, green colour(chlorophyll) was replaced by snow white, STD telephone communication was replaced by handwritten letters, the most dangerous enemies were the natural environmental hazards, snow bite, gangrene, frost bite, avalanch. Such things are still happening...

Year 2005- Batallik- i was with 120 soldiers, each one of us was getting 10 mins time to use STD phone to speak home once a week. Many times, the soldiers spent 6-8 minutes on trying to get it connected and could speak for 2 minutes just to give all okay report at home. Such things are still happening...

There were times where the pressure cooking stove bursted killing soldiers, burning weapons at those extreme dangerous climate. Such things are still happening...

Indpendence day midnight:- Pakistanis were decorating their post from 13-14 Aug midnight. They put around 1000 kerosene lamps across the LOC. The entire we, were collecting used cans, lamps to prepare it the best Independence day celebration ever. We collected over 4000 used cans, filled it up with kerosene and twigs, and man, with full pride and enthusiasm we were lighting those lamps on independence day midnight. We were refilling it with kerosene till the first light. All our chest were swelled with pride. Such things are still happening...

Dec 2005- i was supposed to go on two months leave for my sister’s marriage. Leave already sanctioned from 01 Nov as my sister’s wedding was on 14 Dec, and it was going to be church wedding as well as hindu wedding. However, snowfall started and my reliever came by 01 Dec. My sister who was teaching at shillong those days, took leave for 4 days, went home , arranged everything for the wedding and rejoined her school as students final exam was approaching. As i reached home by 04 Dec, everything was done, all invitations cards distributed. All preparations were completed. I felt like a lump of stinking shit, useless guy to the family when i was needed the most. Well, i was engaged protecting the country at the cost of family. Such is the soldier’s life and such things are still happening...

Flash flood in Leh- when the entire people are trying to move out to safer places, we soldiers were rushing to the dangerous spot, playing with our lives, to save some other lives. Such are selfless soldiers. Such things are still happening...

I am a 9 months old pregnant lady, can’t you consider it for me

 I am a 9 months old pregnant lady, can’t you consider it for me

Every Tuesday is our business review meet at Hulimau, Bannerghatta road, Bangalore at our regional office. It is located 16 km away from my store as well as  from my house. In Bangalore peak traffic hour, it usually takes more than 40 mins one way.

After a brainstorming heavy  session day at regional office, I was heading for my store by 1800 hrs. Since morning, my phone was in vibration mode due to the meeting. As I started driving my car, there was buzz buzz in my shirt pocket. I saw an unknown number with some strange number starting with +91725…, thought it must have been an outstation call from one of my close pals, so with my left hand I attended the call, while my right hand was maneuvering the wheel. A lady’s voice was on the other end “Are you the store manager of spencers hypermarket at sarjapur road? “. “Yes ma’am”. “Do you  take phone order and do home delivery? “ “No ma’am, we don’t do that. However we do free home delivery, where you have to come to the store, purchase the products and leave it there for free home delivery.”

“I am a nine months old pregnant lady, can’t you please consider it for me”. I mulled over for a few seconds, then told her” ma’am, I am driving right now, it would take me another 30 mins to reach my store. Once I reach the store, I will call you up and do the needful for you.”

Our system doesn’t allow us to take phone ordering/delivery. Every product has to move out from the store only after transaction takes place. However, my heart couldn’t refuse her request.

Reaching the store I cleared certain priorities which I had set on mind, and then after everything was through, I called up the lady and took her orders.  She ordered “5 kg ashirwad atta, 2 kg sonamasuri rice, 500 gm besan, 1 packet ashirwad salt”.

When I came down to the grocery section to start purchasing, I realized it was pouring cats and dogs.  I purchased everything for her, made the payment wit my own debit card, and taken a housekeeping boy to get it delivered in my car on my way home. She stays just 1km away  from the store.

When we were tracking the address  Eastwood layout, a beautiful layout, it was still drizzling and the house numbers were not written prominently, we were really struggling to locate the house. We got drenched while locating the house.

Finally, we reached the right place. She was so pleased and thankful to us. “You guys are wet, please take an umbrella”. “Its okay, we came by car”. Then she handed over the amount to me.

“Thank you very much- really appreciate your gesture. The manager himself came to help me out, a pregnant lady”, said she. “Ma’am, its okay, you take care”.

The effort was really worth it, she was immovable. Though the day was really hectic and heavy for me with my reviews and the brain storming session, after doing this good deed, I felt much lighter. Left the housekeeping boy at the store and I proceeded for home.

The REUNION diary (part 1)

(A request- please read all “I” as “we”, this REUNION belonged to all of us. And, the word REUNION is being written in bold capital letters as it’s very close to our hearts).



Enigma, Bangalore (REUNION idea was conceived from here)

05 June, Saturday, at 1030 hrs, I was busy setting up my 35000 sft hypermarket store for weekend sales. Suddenly a call came from Smitha, “Koijam, what are you doing in the evening? Come for dinner at my place”, to which I replied “can’t promise, m not mentally prepared”. Smita blasted me “koji, what’s there to mentally prepare about?” I told Smita that I would think and called back.
Few minutes later, there was an update in facebook by Sunny Hundal “In bangalore”.
Ten minutes later, Prashant Rai called me up, “Koijam, what are you doing for the evening?” Shall we meet? Hundal is also in town. I said, “Pass me Hundal’s no”. I discovered Hundal would be free by 2000 hours. I called up Smita, Prashant Rai, Sushil Joshi, Amit Sharma (Lambu) - Lambu was at hyderabad, reaching bangalore in the evening, but he was game. Smita managed to get in Bhavana too.

So, all agreed to meet at 2030 hours. I called up ENIGMA and reserved 7 seats.Prashant Rai, an OG as always reached the spot by 2020 hours, where as Smita, Hundal and myself reached by 2100 hours. I had gone to pick up Smita and Hundal from whitefiled. The funniest part is Smita knows how to drive ALS, shaktiman, truck but not a civil car, so I had to fetch her. Till the time we reached ENIGMA, Prashant was fuming at its best; we made the sober Prashant to DURBASHA Prashant.

ENIGMA- what a place it was, what an ambience, what music!!! Everything was at its superlative best. And the meeting of 7 long lost friends, and coincidentally it was the first gathering of the Bangalore team too. Thanks Hundal for that.

The ice, the fire, and the water everything was broken within 5 mins of the togetherness. The camaraderie could be seen instantly. Man, the music was just awesome and toooo loud. Too loud that it was very difficult to converse, however we still managed to talk. We started from SSB to the Academy days.

We drank so much, we ate so much we talked so much and the music was so good. Bhavanna was supposed to be pure veg, however it was just namesake that she was eating veg. I had mixed up everything, some muttons, some chicken along with her pure veg.

Lo! Last 15 mins….it was announced and we felt like the party had just begun. The entire crowd had moved out. We were asked to wind up, to which Sushil joshi in typical fauji istyle told them to serve the last round of drinks….once a fauji, always a fauji…

One hour before winding up, Hundal had started giving gyans with the most beautiful and choicest vocabularies. He had converted the two ladies in the group, Smita and Bhavana as masculine gender and continued with his gyans comprising ‘fs’, mc, bc, etcetera…

Smita can sum up the driving experience from ENIGMA to whitefiled how when Hundal continued giving gyans inside the vehicle, Joshi overtook a truck, and how the truck driver got the shock of his life in a U turn….

The party got over, but the spirit was born. We all thoroughly liked it. Hundal told me that he wanted to see the pics uploaded before he reaches Delhi. I was dead drunk, however little senses that I had, I kept on uploading the pics…there were comments and comments for the next few days…

It was a treat to read the comments from so many course mates. Comments like “oh,Prashant has bloated, Joshi ,Amit, koijam remains the same, Hundal is still slim and trim, oh good to see Bhavana and Smita….wagera wagera”. Those pics could make it reconnect with other long lost course mates too.

Seeing the response in the comments of the pictures, my heart felt like everybody cares for everybody, the entire course of SS 70 and WS 16, and it is just that situation and circumstances just make us drift apart.

So on 11 June, I wrote in my facebook status about having this decade old meeting called “REUNION” and the immediate prompt response was overwhelming. That’s how the seed was sown, that’s how the idea was conceived. (to be contd)

Priya one up, Priya two up, Priya three up…Priya hundred up- we were cursing Priya

Priya one up, Priya two up, Priya three up….continues upto Priya hundred up. It was the third day of our reporting for the Army training at Officers Training Academy, Chennai. We really had our share of grumblings from day one as Chennai welcomed us warmly, in fact hotly with 40 degree centigrade plus temperatures and each one of us was sweating in buckets. Some of us had come with two huge trunks and worst was the case when the seniors made us carry those trunks from the security gate till our room- that too from day 1 itself.



Thirty of us reported in the evening of day 1. By the time we reached the room after formalities and dinner, there were lights outs. None of the rooms had to put on lights. Our colleagues who had reached earlier briefed us that we had to put sports shoes along with bathrobe for going to toilet. Man, from day 1 onwards, we found the so many dos and don’ts to be constipating. Next day early morning, we went for the first fall in at 0545 hours. The first sentence that I heard shook me up and my ears couldn’t believe what the senior was spoken about. Said he, “who were the four fuckers who came last night?” and since then none of the sentences would be completed with “f”s and MC, BC …many of us were awestruck, this place is supposed to be the most disciplined one and what are we hearing. We were all in civvies mood till then, and some of us would argue for reasons why we were being punished. The ones dared to open their mouths were called “sissy characters”. By day three we knew how to act.



“None of these jokers (we juniors) should be seen walking, they should be flying in groups of four of six”, were the orders for us. By third day morning, all of us were limping, running or managing to run like an overfed pregnant lady because of the wear and tear of muscles. By third day evening, there was a fall in for the juniors by the seniors at footfall ground. The seniors challengingly asked a question to us, “How many of you have got girlfriends?”



Many of us knew what would be the outcome if we volunteered to answer, so we remained mum. Suddenly came an answer from within the group” Sir, I have got girlfriend”. That broke all hell let loose. The seniors asked our friend, “ho hero Salman Khan, what’s ur name? Our friend replied as *Vikas( name changed as Vikas ). So, what’s your girlfriend’s name? asked the seniors , to which Vikas replied “ PRIYA”.



Now, the seniors turned to eighty of us ,Naushera Company( during our first term there were four companies comprising of 80 gentleman cadets and one company of ladies cadets). “You jokers, all of you bent down” ordered the seniors to us. We obliged. “In the name of PRIYA, your friend’s girlfriend, do hundred push ups. All of you will shout loudly, Priya one up, Priya two up, Priya three up…till Priya hundred up. If one of you sham out, it will start from PRIYA one again”, the seniors passed the instruction. That moment, that verdict was same as someone who got a heavy duty punishment at Supreme Court.



While continuing with Priya one up, priya two up….each one of us was cursing our hero Hiralal and madam Priya. That was the first time where we learnt the value of “All for one and one for all”. The loud shouting of eighty of us, the unison, the sweats, the echoes of our voices all became one. Gradually, as days passed we had forgotten the individual self and start thinking and acting as group. During cross country running competition, march and shoot competition, we became one, the mightier ones took care of the not so mightier and faster ones by carrying extra gun, rucksacks, by kicking, shouting and mouthing the dirtiest names , ensuring that all eighty of their groups closed in at recorded timings. That was how we were grounded…we hardly remember the number of parties that we attended, however we can never forget the friends whom we had sweated together, struggled together, passed the innumerable darkness and nights…and when light came ages later, we still remember those buddies…and SS 70 and WS 16, are the best examples from the history of OFFICERS TRAINING ACADEMY…and we are proving it….and this is just the prelude…

…to be contd

"Sahab, aap halwa bana raha hai( sir, u r making halwa)

“Sahab, halwa maat banoa”


It was a Long Range Patrol (LRP) meant for 3 days in one of the remotest villages of J&K, with a platoon strength (30 soldiers) , each one of us carrying our own individual ration, weapon, ammo and clothing. The first day was a smooth walk. We gave some of our rations like sugar, tea, dal to the villagers and they in turn gave us freshly plucked apples from their trees. Many of them offered home plucked cucumber along with green chilllies smashed in stones. The walk was such a pleasure as we were in a place where nature was at its best, where not even a single vehicle dared touched its ground.

We halted at a village school as our patrol base. After being sanitized and fully secured the place, we moved out to prepare our lunch and ate whatever we could manage for that day. After the lunch we ventured out and noticed a beautiful river passing by just beside the village school. We all decided that we could catch fishes that should last to serve meals for the next two days. Six of us went inside the river for the adventure trip while 8 of the soldiers were guarding us from all corners of the flanks with an LMG (Light Machine Gun). Man, in just 2 hours time, we caught around 40 kg of fishes. What more could have been pleasurable for a patrol leader who loves mountains and rivers having the same taste with his soldiers, all being PAHARIS.

It was fishes for the next two days meals – fish curry with sukha roti in breakfast, fish curry with rice for lunch, fish curry with rice and roti for dinner. One of the dinners, I tried my hand in the fish curry. I had never cooked fish curry before, but my mom makes wonderful fish curry. When I was young, at times I used to sit beside her while she was cooking, so I had a vague picture about the whole scene, the timings of what ingredients to be put when. I created a mental picture of how to go about it, to cook these lovely fresh fishes in Manipuri style. We Manipuri guys are very fond of cooking meat and fishes, in fact almost all male species are all gifted good cooks of meat and fishes. My specialty for cooking meat has always been PORK, I love cooking pork with all my heart and I like it better when my guests finished up the entire dishes with generous comments. Three of my boys (soldiers) were sitting beside me keenly observing as if I was the best trained chef from a 5 star hotel.

Somehow towards the end I realised I was using a wrong formula and my nervousness was transmitted to the three boys who had so far been accepting that whatever I was doing was a flawless act. Their tentacles started acting as I was stirring it a lot, to which they all unanimously said, “Sahab, aap halwa bana raha hai, yeh masli hai”. We all had a hearty laugh as I jokingly told them that it was altogether a new design and that change is the only constant thing in life and that they should be willing to accept change without cribbing much. And yeah, it did taste real good.