“I still remember my first attack. We were given rifles with bayonets and told to hold them close by our sides with the knife facing forward. We assumed the position and charged at the enemy, which was also charging at us. I was terrified. But then something happened. There was a young lieutenant of my age, running by my side, who was hit by a bullet and died on the spot. I thought the shooter could have just as easily aimed slightly to the left and hit me instead. When I realised this, the fear left me completely.”

After the war, he was posted as the Aide-de-Camp, ADC, to the then governor of Andhra Pradesh, after which he was posted to Kashmir at the Line of Control. “The troops are literally eyeball to eyeball. Now we are getting such disturbing reports about what is happening there. We have heard Pakistani soldiers are holding up banners that read ‘Jo humse takrayega, Jantar Mantar par apni hi police ke dande khaayega. (Those who fight against us will be beaten by their own police at Jantar Mantar.’ Can you imagine the shame? And the morale of our troops that are defending our borders?”

“The jawans that are guarding the borders know that their fathers and grandfathers are sitting here (at Jantar Mantar). It’s these men who have kids in the army; civilian bacche bahut kam hai army mein -- inke bachhe hai wahan(very few civilian kids are in the army, it is our kids that serve in the forces).”

“Before election it was adhikaar,’ now it is ‘agitation’ and ‘protest? Obviously, we feel let down, we feel angry.”

The colonel has spent every day of the last three months at the Jantar Mantar protest. He comes wearing all his medals, and stays till the end of the day. “It’s not like we enjoy sitting on the streets in the Delhi heat. If this isn’t insulting enough, look what they did to us on August 14."

“We were having a peaceful protest like any other day, when the Delhi police came and uprooted our tent, roughed us up and went so far as to tear the medals off the uniforms of the soldiers! Have you ever heard of such disrespect?”

“These soldiers have not bought their medals, they have earned them! And then there was a lathi charge -- they said we were a security threat. My foot! All these men sitting here have given the best years of their lives to maintain law and order in this country and now they are saying we are disrupting it?”

“If you think about it, all we are asking for is respect. My pension is sufficient; I am a colonel,” he says with his head held high. “The question is about how we feel -- why should my junior be getting more than me? Treat us according to our rank and service, not which year we retired. Keep us at parity; don’t demean us.”

After retirement, the colonel tried taking a job as a manager in a transport and logistics company. Since he didn’t enjoy it, he took up a part time job at the Scottish High International School, where he gives lectures on leadership qualities and personality development to high school children. “Now I’m happy,” he smiles. “I like being around children.”