An area covering 238,254 square kilometers and straddling both India &Pakistan within geographical co-ordinates bearing 27 Degrees N and 71 Degrees E,lies the Thar desert also known as the ‘Great Indian desert’. It is the world’s 9th-largest hot subtropical desert. About 85% of this Thar desert is in India, with rest of 15% in Pakistan. More than 60% of the desert lies in the Indian state of Rajasthan; the portion in India also extends into Gujarat, Punjab and Haryana. The portion in Pakistan extends into the provinces of Sindh and Punjab with latter portion referred to as the famous Cholisthan desert. Dotted within these geographical co-ordinates as mentioned above are numerous towns, cities, villages and hamlets often drawing names from local deities, personalities, and such like.
Munabao is one such bordering village, just 125 kms from Barmer city in the Barmer district of Rajasthan, India. It is one of the designated border crossings between two nations, where a daily beating retreat ceremony is held. Munabao is served by the Munabo railway station on the ‘Marwar-Munabao line’ through which once a week ‘Thar express used to run between India(Bhagatkikothi near Jodhpur) and Pakistan(Karachi) passing through Munabao on Indian side ,Zero point border station and Khokhrapr on Pakistan side.
The 15th of August 2002 found me at this famous border point of Munabao with my troops as part of ‘OP Parakram’ with designated role to play in the larger scheme of country’s response to our arch enemy’s provocations on our western front. What was initially supposed to be a brief sojourn with the ‘’Thar desert’ turned out to be a long haul interspersed with some memorable events with bitter –sweet memories to be recalled at such times that find vibrancy with our citizens like the ‘Independence day’ celebrations.Having wheeled into the wilderness of Munabao with my troops in the winters of January 2002 I never ever imagined that this non-descript place will find me celebrate not only the ‘Republic day ‘ but also the independence day amidst a brutal landscape made only bearable by the disarming demeanour of its local populace.
The ‘Republic day celebrations at this place few months before had poignantly brought before me the glaring deficiencies that the local administration had to put up with to organize a simple function as a national day in this remote western most part of India abutting Pakistan. Having ‘commandeered’ the only primary school of Munabao for my staying purposes that had a three class room set with a small store room, I was determined to make up this commandeering of mine with an equal gesture of benevolence for the larger good of the student and teaching fraternity this independence day of 2002.
With my sub-unit located a small distance from my temporary stay I, called for suggestions from my men to help them chip in with their efforts. Simultaneously I approached the senior most teachers of the primary school and the students to prepare for a gala event in conjunction with my troops as part of the ‘Civic action’ of army a few days ahead of the event. The children were as if looking for this opening to display their talents of various hues. The venue for this event was the forecourt of the school that was directly overlooking my small room in which I was putting up. I asked my men to make a flag pole with a pulley and a rope as also a tricolor appropriate to the size of the event.
Apparently till now this primary school used to take their students en masse to the secondary school at ‘Gadra road’ for the celebrations of this kind. I requested the senior most teacher to approach his authorities and take permission to celebrate this year’s independence day all by themselves at their primary school itself. Having acceded to our request the primary school of Munabao went into an overdrive to make the event an unqualified success. I asked my men to prepare some sweetmeats, gifts wrapped up in glazed papers and a cup of tea as also a bottle of soft drink made from our soda water detachment that we were carrying with us for this operation to be gifted to the children and the teaching staff on the culmination of this event.
I delineated various duties to my men in preparing for this event alongside the students. Being all India class unit, my men had no dearth of talents to show case for an event like this. Deliberately putting events like a Fancy dress competition for the children, on the spot painting, rural folk singing with Rajasthan tales of valour ,and few sports events were enough to push the levels of adrenaline amongst all of us. The day of independence dawned bright and clear which made the day all the more enthralling for the participating children. I wanted the senior most teacher and the senior most students of the school to do the honours of hoisting the national flag, which they in their wisdom put the onus on me to do the honours. Disarmed by their humility and an all-encompassing gratitude to the army, I accepted the same and to the singing of national anthem by a combine duo of students and my troops I hoisted the national flag in the forecourts of primary school of Munabao.
Understandably the westernmost end of India with an imprint of education in the form of primary school Munabao gave me Goosebumps while hoisting the national flag. The hoisting of national flag was followed by a flurry of events as was choreographed very carefully by the students and my troops. The students as well as the teachers removed all stops that day to partake in all the events with an air of gay abundance seldom seen in those sand dunes of Munabao. I was particularly struck by the excellent performance and exotic costumes which the students had worn for the fancy dress competition that showed the level of interest of the participants as well those of their parents to put their best foot forward. For on the spot painting competition I had procured few chart papers and colour crayons from Barmer and got it sent in advance to the school which was made full use of by the participants imprinting their individual creative instincts.
The closing hours of the Independence Day celebrations saw my troops enthusiastically serving sweetmeats and such like things to all participants with a few photo shoots too for posterity. One such photo is accompanying this write up that shows me hoisting the national flag at the precincts of the primary school Muanbao. Since the school didn’t have a decent set of table and chairs for the teachers and students to have their daily meals, my sub-unit pooled in and gifted two large sized tables and 14 odd chairs of ‘Neel kamal’ variety to the school. After the event was over it set me thinking that it is places like Munabao which are the last vestiges of India’s border outreach that have to be strengthened in terms of infrastructure buildup to help restore confidence of the locals in the union of India who un like rest of us do not rush to the metros in search of greener pastures. I am sure our little actions on that Independence Day did contribute to the short desert saying—‘Take only memories, leave only footprints.’
(The writer is a retired army officer and can be approached on his [email protected])
