Ganju Lama - October 1999
During my election duty in Sikkim on the very last day of my stay I was fortunate to meet Ganju Lama. The counting of votes was over and the ruling Sikkim Democratic Front party headed by the present sitting Chief Minister had been victorious. The house of the chief minister of Sikkim was only a stone's throw from the counting centre and I was taken by the District Officers to call on him. Mr. Pavan Cahmling and his wife received us most graciously. There I met Ganju Lama, another celebrated figure about whom I had heard and read a lot after arriving in Sikkim. Ganju Lama the winner of the Victoria Cross is one of the three survivors of the thousands who won the Victoria Cross from 1856 to 1978 from fourteen Commonwealth countries.
-chander kanta Gariyali,IAS
