Nir Bahadur Gurung too had a vision of winning many awards and decorations for bravery. A proud but illiterate Gurkha, a native of Nepal, he overcame abject poverty to somehow come to Darjeeling and join the Gurkha Regiment with dreams in his eyes. He made it into the army but then fate played a hand.


Nir Bahadur Gurung

His spine was crushed in a freakish accident when he was barely past his teens, when tons of ammunition fell on him with such force that his rifle, too, broke. Yet, barring a brief period when he thought of committing suicide, he decided to tackle life head on.

Nir was born in Shillong on 11 March, 1958. His father was a soldier with the British Indian Army. One day in December 1977 his father's younger brother, a soldier in the Indian Army, convinced Nir to join up. His training finished in July 1978 and Nir shifted to Panagarh in West Bengal where the regiment was transferred. Nir however was soon sent to Shillong for an extensive driver's course.