Lieutenant-General SK Singh (second from left) receives a memento in Rohtas on Saturday. Picture by Sanjay Choudhary

Patna/Bhojpur, Sept. 15: Vice-chief of army staff Lieutenant-General S.K. Singh could not hold back his emotions today on meeting so-me of his mates after around 46 years and recalling the days at a school in Rohtas district.

Singh, who was felicitated at Raj Rajeshwari High School at Suryapura in Rohtas, around 120km south-west of Patna, met Rajendra Prasad Singh, Dr Parmanand Singh, Madan Mohan Singh and Parsuram Mishra and talked about the four years he had spent with them before getting admitted to the army school in Dehradun in 1966.

Rajendra Prasad Singh, one of his classmates at Raj Rajeshwari High School, is the principal of SP Jain College, Bikramganj.

Lieutenant-General Singh, accompanied by director-general of National Cadet Corps (NCC) Lieutenant-General P.S. Balla, Brigadier Sudhakar, Major-General Rajpal Singh and Colonel Ajay Bakshi, visited the room number 8 of the hostel where he spent some of his childhood days. “Ye room to kafi kharab halat mein hai (this room is in a bad shape),” Singh said after the visiting the hostel.

He signed a cheque of Rs 1 lakh to the headmaster of the school, Raj Narayan Singh, for its repair.

Going down the memory lane, Singh said he had once got an opportunity to welcome then chief minister Dr Shri Krishna Singh during his visit to the school. “I was in the military uniform and was asked to recite a poem. I recited Maa mujhe bandook thama de mai bhi ladne jaoonga (O Mother, hand me a gun and I will also go to battlefield). This was a turning point in my life,” he said.

Singh also refuted reports suggesting women were not interested in serving the army. “There are about 3,000 women officers serving in the army. They are not deputed at the border because of lack of sanitation facilities,” he said.