The next three months, it was only Bhagwati and my father. He was well taken care of and his health improved a lot so that he was able to do everything on his own and the coughing bots too almost stopped. Rest of the village however kept a safe distance. They could not think that someone can love his brother so much that risking getting TB was not a concern. My father ensured that most of the time he studied when not chatting with Bhagwati. These three months he came to know almost all about his four years in war. He was thrilled at the experience and equally appalled at the loss of human life which this war caused.

It went on that the unit was engaged in direct warfare with Japanese in thick jungles of Malaysia and the British troops were pushed back to Singapore. Just before the surrender, Bhagwati’s unit moved out of the city under heavy fighting and slipped into inhospitable terrains of Thiland and then to Burma. The country was only jungle and they lost all sense of direction and time. Heavy rains made their movement extremely difficult and their entire heavy machinery and trucks were rendered immobile. The only way they could move up and reach their next post was on foot. This was the most dangerous part as the south of Burma was infested by all kind of tropical animals and reptiles. Several snake bites and python encounters took their toll but the worst was the insect and mosquito bites.