Maj Gen Balwinder Singh (retd) has a special memoir at the entrance of his house. This is the helmet of an Indian soldier, who was killed by the Chinese troops in 1962 with two bullet marks in it. A Tribune Photograph, with Deepkamal Story

Deepkamal Kaur
Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, March 13

Enter the house of Maj Gen Balwinder Singh (retd) in Seth Hukum Chand Colony here and one finds a special memoir that he has displayed right at the top of his main door to the drawing room.

This is the helmet of an Indian soldier, who was killed by Chinese troops in the 1962 war. The helmet has two bullet marks slightly on its left side. It perhaps were these marks, which led to his killing in the Indo-China war.

The ex-serviceman discloses as to how he collected it and what makes it so special for him. “The Indian Army deputed me at Dhola post in Arunachal Pradesh in 1986. Dhola post was a border post set up by the Indian Army in June 1962, in the Namka Chu river valley area disputed by China and India. During the Sino-Indian war, Chinese troops attacked the Indian side. Many Indian soldiers lost their lives. So, 24 years later when Army sent me to this posting, I realised that the bodies of many soldiers could not even reach homes and we could seldom spot their skeletal remains. There during a routine recce, I found this helmet with a part of the skull in it and I picked it,” said Maj Gen Balwinder.

“I went on moving with this helmet to all my postings. I have always kept it with me and displayed it well wherever I got posted. After my retirement, this was one thing that I brought back home, maybe out of respect for that soldier who died fighting on the front. This remembrance of the ‘unknown soldier’ has become my biggest prized possession,” he concluded, pointing to the black special memoir which he has got nicely juxtaposed on a black oval background on the front elevation of his house.