Much like the current faceoff between the forces of the two countries sans the resultant violence, the two forces kept sitting on their posts for several days.

With Galwan valley coming into focus after becoming the flashpoint between the Indian and Chinese army, folklore and interesting incidents related to the valley on the Eastern Ladakh border have also started cropping up. Phunchok Tashi, an army veteran who fought in the 1962 Indo-China war recalls that the Chinese soldiers used to play the Lata Mangeshkar and Mohammad Rafi songs in order to befriend Indian soldiers and convince them to leave their forward posts, IE reported.

Chinese played two famous songs for most of the time; one was Mangeshkar’s Man Dole Mera Tan Dole and the other was Rafi’s Tumsa Nahin Dekha, Tashi who retired as a honorary captain in the year 1988 from the Indian Army told IE. Much like the current faceoff between the forces of the two countries sans the resultant violence, the two forces kept sitting on their posts for several days.

Tashi recalled that the Chinese sat on top of the hill and Indians on the ground for several days. Tashi also said that the Chinese also used to make announcements on the border from the huge loudspeakers asking the Indian soldiers to step back from their forward posts.

‘This land is neither yours nor ours. You should go back and we are also going back’, the Chinese used to announce from the loudspeaker, Tashi said. He added that apart from the announcements, playing Hindi favourite songs was an attempt from the Chinese to convince us to head back to our posts.

Tashi also said that he was unaware of the reason which led to the current standoff between the two nations. There was never a dispute during our times on the Galwan valley; the Chinese used to stay on top of the hills and we used to stay on the plain on our side of the border, he added. Hinting at the expansion of the border infrastructure from the Indian side including the construction of roads and bridges, Tashi said that the Chinese might have disliked the development and started the dispute.