Cavalryman who rode into flames, not away: 28 years of Captain Manjinder Singh Bhinder's final charge

CHANDIGARH: He rode before he walked - years of equestrianship in boarding school, leading the Junior National Polo team to a podium finish in 1990, captaining the NDA's Riding and Polo team in 1990, and doing it again at the Indian Military Academy in 1991.

This excellence is what took Captain Manjinder Singh Bhinder to the elite 61st Cavalry - India's only serving horse-mounted regiment and one of the few operational ones left in the world. And it was the same fearless spirit that led him, at just 29, into the burning Uphaar Cinema in Delhi on June 13, 1997, where he died saving over 150 people.He was watching 'Border' film with his wife Jyotroop Kaur and their four-year-old son when the Uphaar Cinema in Green Park, Delhi, caught fire.

As panic gripped the audience, Bhinder acted along with his junior, then Lt Rajesh Pattu.

He guided his wife and son to safety and turned back - entering the thick smoke and chaos to pull others out, making multiple trips. He did not return from the last one. His wife, 26, pregnant at the time, and four-year-old son also did not survive when they rushed to find him.Colonel Sukhdev Singh still remembers the day they both joined The Punjab Public School, Nabha, on January 18, 1978. Their racks in the dormitory were side by side - R505 and R506 - and stayed that way through every year until they passed out in 1984. "All those years, our belongings were next to each other. We woke up, dressed, went to morning drills, and lived shoulder to shoulder through every day. His legs were always blue and bruised from riding, but he never bothered.

The day I joined NDA, he came a few days later and said, 'Lao, main vi aa gaya.' That's how he was- unshakeable."