Repacked into trucks, almost after two days of grueling journey and finally after long marching, they reached their base camp. Till now, their numbers were the same when they started – two thousand seven hundred of them. All of them were Hindi and Nepali speaking from Gorakhpur and Nepal. The regiment from where these soldiers came was the famous “Gurkha” regiment which was feared by everyone for their valor and courage. Even Japanese feared them. Gurkhas fought like there was no death and never surrendered. For them surrender was worse than death. The war cry “Jai ma Bhavani” (Hail Goddess Bhavani) charged each one of them to fight and eliminate the enemy. Bhagwati was the army truck driver and had opportunity of the company of the senior people sitting besides him. It was several miles away from civilization that the camp was put up. They were finally briefed – Enemy is very near. They have to be ready to fight and die any time now. They tasted blood within few hours of landing in their camp when a Japanese patrol ambushed them. Things were different now. There was no way out but to fight and survive. If caught, death would be extremely painful and slow.

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