Point to Ponder: Worse than not giving credit to the right person is only giving it to a wrong one and that's being unfortunately done by most people too often- Anuj Somany
Story Line: In my younger years, my mother used to tell me a story of an American boy who was left in care of Gandhi Ashram when his father, who was spending time there with his son, got called for his army duty in Burma during World War II.
Gandhi referred the little boy to ShardaMandir, a well reputed local school. The boy stayed with one of the founders family in their home behind the school premises. My mom believed his name was Sirius or Cyrus. But they lovingly used to call him Serious. 😊
That little one was by no means serious and enjoyed local Gujarati cultural things; habits, food, customs, loved to eat dal roti with hands and speak in cute Gujarati accent.
When the war ended, his father returned to pick him up. But Serious didn’t want to go back. So when the day of departure came, nobody could find him on the campus. Everybody was in panic until one person noticed someone hiding much higher on a neem tree. It took a lot of efforts to bring him down. He cried and cried, and finally his father took him to Gandhi who persuaded him to return to America with his father.
That story was my first orientation to a country called Burma (Myanmar now). Because of my curiosity about that country, my father introduced me to the movie of his favorite actor William Holden, The Bridge On The River Kwai. The movie was a great commercial success and put this bridge in Thailand and the railroad that was built to Burma from there on the world map.
During our visit to Bangkok last month my wife arranged a day outing to see the bridge on the river Kwai, the one made famous by the movie. All my sweet childhood memories became alive .
Visiting The Bridge:
During visit to Kanchanaburi where this bridge is located and then traveling on the railroad that goes towards Burma (Now called Death Railway), what we learnt was eye opening experience about sad part of human history, much different than some fictional events of the movie. (Though curiosity after seeing the movie had brought me there..,.)
“During WW II, Japanese Commander in charge in Burma, without the knowledge of The Emperor, decided to construct 250 miles long meter-gauge railway line from Ban Pong in Thailand to Thanbyuzayat, Burma, extremely difficult terrain of dense forests and mountains. This is now known as the Death Railway.
The railway line was meant to transport cargo daily to India, to back up their planned attack on India. The construction was done using POWs ( English, Australians, Dutch and Americans) and Asians ( Burmese, Malaysians: Malay, Tamil, Chinese; Thai and Indians) slave laborers in extreme unfavorable conditions. The work started in October 1942 was completed in a year. Due to the difficult terrain, inhumane conditions and harsh punishments, one hundred thousand laborers and 13000 POWs lost their lives. It is believed that one life was lost for each sleeper laid in the track.” ( true historical account). The Death Railway Museum has many exhibits of what happened there.
In Kanchanaburi War Cemetery next to the museum , around 7,000 POWs, who sacrificed their lives in the railway construction, are buried with slaves buried in other locations.
Reflection:
So many times we visit historic places like this; Taj Mahal, Great Wall of China, Pyramids, Colosseum in Rome and many others to see marvel structures and appreciate magnificent architecture, carving in the walls and admire the kings and royals but not knowing the sacrifices of true heroes who put their blood, sweat and tears and lives ( often killed) to build these places. They are mostly forgotten which is the saddest part of human history.
It’s appropriate that Thailand has named this as Death Railway and created a museum that shows the true account of historical events.
video of The Bridge On The River Kwai