Often, the village was an observer as well as a participant in the war. But in Asal Uttar, there's a sense of pride at having answered the call of duty. 'In 1971, we were asked to assemble at the gurdwara where an army officer asked all of us to leave our kids and women 50 miles away,' says Joginder, a 65-year-old labourer. During the 1971 war and the Kargil War too, they were asked to repeat the drill. In times of conflict, villagers are asked to shift women and children to safer places. In general, border villages seldom romance war because it means damage to life and property and massive disruptions.

Nearby villages compete in volleyball, kabaddi, football, tug-of-war and other games,' says Mukhtar, who also claims that the village was earlier only known as Asal but got its name Asal Uttar (fitting reply) after the battle. For many years now, we have been celebrating his heroism with a three-day festival, from September 7 to 9. Mukhtar Singh, sarpanch, Asal Uttar, says Hamid's daredevilry blocked the march of the Pakistani fauj to Amritsar. 'They take photographs, make films,' he says.

Visitors come from faraway places to pay their respects. Like almost everybody here, Pyaara Singh, the 35-year-old memorial's caretaker, speaks of Hamid with reverence. 'Here on this sacred soil rests this brave son of India,' reads a part of the commemoration. A bunch of jawans are cleaning the place and the boundary walls look freshly painted for the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the 1965 war.

Spread over an area roughly one-third the size of a football field, Hamid's memorial is filled with a variety of trees - eucalyptus, bottlebrush, teak, jamun, peepul and neem. At Asal Uttar, even 50 years later, he's an idol and a legend. He was posthumously decorated with Param Vir Chakra, the nation's highest gallantry award. Of the many supermen who engineered this triumph, one of the most audacious was company quarter master havildar Abdul Hamid of 4 Grenadiers, who displaying total contempt for personal safety, destroyed three Patton Tanks with his recoilless gun and was killed going for the fourth.

Us military tank graveyard