'Respectful homage to Sweeper Chunni of WWI lying commemorated in Merrut Military Cemetry, France' - by K J S Chatrath

In October 2016 I went to a small town named St. Martin Les Boulogne in north of France to visit 'Meerut Military Cemetery' where 312 Indian soldiers & non-combatants lie resting since the last 100 years. They sacrificed their lives in defending France during the World War I. Incidentally Meerut and Lahore Divisions were the first units of Indian army that reached France in Seprtember 1914.




Indicative location of Boulogne in the map of France.

I paid my respectful homage to all these braves. I had taken paper marigold flowers from India. I put one on each commemorative stone.

This stone remembers martyr Chunni whose designation was Sweeper, Army Serial No. 75 in the Indian army. He was a non-combatant not carrying any arms and obviously had died in the war as defenceless fodder. He belonged to the Army Hospital Corps,  Secunderabad General Hospital in India and died on 29th November 1914, that is within two months of arrival in France. Refernce no. for locating his place of resting in this cemetery is- I. A. 10.

Respectful salute to martyr Sweeper Chunni.


My book on Meerut Military Cemetery, France


That is me at the gate of this cemetery in October 2016.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

'Some stunning AI portraits by Polish painter Dorota Piotrowiak' - shared by KJS Chatrath

Image
Dorota Piotrowiak' obtained a diploma in the painting studio of prof. Mieczyslaw Ziomek at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń in 1996. . She works in painting, sculpture and graphics. Since 2013, she has been creating models and dioramas of nature, as well as maquettes and thematic displays for national parks, landscape parks and museums. She conducts authorial workshops for children and young people using the papier-mâché technique. She is the initiator and organizer of “Sztuka Papieru” ( the Art of Paper ) Festival in cooperation with the Friends of the Lower Vistula Society and Paper Technical School in Świecie on Vistula. Associated with the Art of Paper studio ( www.sztukapapieru.pl ). Here are some of the portraits made by her: Disclaimer: The copyright remains with the original holder. This blog is intended to introduce this amazing artist to a wider audience.
Read more

Arthuna- a cluster of gems waiting to be 'discovered' - by K J S Chatrath

Image
  I was lucky to have visited Arthuna, located in Banswada district of Rajasthan early this week. I took a train up to Ratlam and from there Arthuna by excellent road is about 130 kms. The place is a gem for archaeology lovers waiting to be visited and written about.I am grateful to my facebook friend and a remarkable traveller and blogger Mr. Sabya Sachi Ghosh for getting me interested in visiting Arthuna. I look forward to soon meeting Mr. Ghosh in person.  Previously known as   Utthunaka, Arthuna was the capital of Paramara rulers of Vagada during eleventh-twelfth centuries A.D. They patronized both Jainism and Saivism simultaneously, so they constructed a number of Siva temples. An inscription of the Paramara prince Chamundaraja records that he built a temple of Siva called Mandalesa in honour of his father in A.D. 1079. Another inscription of A.D. 1080 mentions that his officer’s son named Anantapala also founded a temple of Siva.  In a group of temples known as Hanumangarhi i
Read more

'Achars- the Indian pickles' - by K J S Chatrath

Image
  According to Hobson-Jobson: The Definitive Glossary of British India , the word ‘ āchār’ finds a mention in CE 1563, in works by Garcia da Orta, a Portuguese physician, describing a conserve of cashew with salt which he refers to as ‘and this they call Āchār.’ In his book A Historical Dictionary of Indian Food , the late food historian KT Achaya notes that pickles fall into the category of ‘cooking without fire’; however, many pickles today do use heating or fire to some extent during preparation. Pickles in India have a rich legacy, which is clear when the historian further adds that a ‘Kannada work of CE 1594, the Lingapurana of Gurulinga Desika describes no less than fifty kinds of pickles’! Another later mention is found in the 17th-century Śivatattvaratnākara , an encyclopedia of ancient Indian lore of Basavarāja, King of Keladi. Pickles in India are of three basic types: those preserved in vinegar; those preserved in salt; and those preserved in oil.   Gosht Achar
Read more

Total Pageviews