Lest We Forget - A short collection of interesting facts and events from history

Tucked away in a small corner outside the Raj Bhavan complex (Governor House), in my home town of Dona Paula in Goa, is a small cemetery. A short white wall surrounds the 103 graves which appear to be spread in non-geometric pattern. It appears indifferent to anyone walking past, considering every village in Goa will have it's own church and an attached cemetery until one looks closely and reads the information plaque about this being a cemetery to British soldiers. Now why would you bother considering Britain ruled India for almost 200 years. The major difference here being this is Goa - which was a Portuguese colony until 1961. So why do we have a British cemetery in Goa and what were British soldiers doing in Goa? The answer lies in the Napoleonic wars of 18th century Europe, and the struggle between 2 European powers to get a stronghold in the Indian sub-continent. Cemetery as visible from some distance due to road construction View of the graves from the entranc

When You Go Home Tell Them Of Us and Say For Your Tomorrow We Gave Our Today - Epitaph at Kohima war Cemetery in Nagaland (India) View of the war cemetery in Kohima The year was 1944 and world war II was at its peak. In Asia, the Japanese imperial army was going like a blizzard, conquering countries across south east Asia. China, today an economic and military power, had already fallen to the Japanese in 1937 and the important British trading port of Singapore fell in 1942. The Japanese were rapidly pushing across Burma towards their ultimate prize, India. In March of 1944, the Japanese forces arrived at the border between India and Burma. Before I go deeper into this article, let me remind that as always my intention is not to detail the complete event, as there are numerous articles on the internet for those who wish to read into the details of a battle or event. Here I intend to present some interesting facts and my own understanding of significance