'I operated upon 300 soldiers, and lost one'
July 22, 2020  16:44
Dr Arup Basu, sitting, second from left.
Dr Arup Basu, sitting, second from left.
Take a break from reading reports on the pandemic with this story.
Dr Arup Basu was a young surgeon at the small military hospital in Kargil when the war broke out.
He spent two months as the only surgeon in the small medical team that battled night and day to save lives during the war.
He had just completed his MS degree from the Armed Forces Medical College in Pune when fate brought him to the frontlines.
"My exposure to surgery came amid fire, guns and bullets," he says over the phone from Jamshedpur, the hometown he returned to after taking premature retirement from the Indian Army.
"Unless you capture territory, plant your flag, the war is never won -- and that was done by the infantry men. I would give them most credit for winning us the war."
The doctor received the Yudh Seva Medal for his duties during the war. His son is now pursuing medicine at the Armed Forces Medical College.The gastro-surgeon shares his memories of those two months during the Kargil War with Rediff.com's Archana Masih.
Read the interview here
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