Remembrance Day 2016
It is a little known fact that 7955 Indian Seaman lost their lives while sailing on board British Merchant Ships during the two World Wars. Their names are engraved along with the names of the ships they served on at the Memorial Gardens in London. There is no such record in India. The Indian Maritime Foundation in partnership with the Pune Municipal Corporation got a War Memorial band built to commemorate the sacrifice of these brave Seafarers at the iconic Bund Garden in Pune. This is the only memorial located in a public garden. Tremendous perseverance and hard work saw the commissioning of this Memorial on Gandhi Jayanti Day in 2008. Ever since then ‘Remembrance Day’ is commemorated on the Sunday closest to 16 November by laying of Wreaths at the memorial.
It is an extremely solemn ceremony, which begins with an Invocation and the Naval Prayer, before Wreaths are laid on behalf of the Merchant marine, the Indian Navy, the Indian Army, the Company of Master Mariners, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, the Tolani Maritime Institute, the Maharashtra Naval Education and Training (MANET) Institute and the Sea Cadet Corps. Alert, Last Post and Arouse are played by Buglers, and homage paid by observing two minutes silence, by all. This is followed by a performance by the Sea Cadet Corps Band playing martial music for about 10 minutes.
This year Remembrance Day was commemorated on the 20th of November, a pleasant and sunny day. Capt Nalin Pandey, CMD of Pentagon Marine Services was the Chief Guest. Capt Tommy Rosario, 98, the seniormost merchant navy officer was present. Cmde Rakesh Verma of MILIT represented the Indian Navy and Col Atul Sharma, the Indian Army. Capt KG Apte laid a wreath on behalf of the CMMI and Dr BK Saxena on behalf of the TMI. Cmde Rajan Vir, President IMF laid a wreath on behalf of the IMF.
The Function was coordinated by Capt Rabi Mishra. Capt Anand Dixit was the Master of Ceremonies, and Cdr Mukund Yeolekar controlled the Buglers. Our thanks to Dakshin Maharashtra Sub Area for the services of the Buglers.
