
Major General Ian Cardozo in conversation with Vivek Menezes at GALF.
PANAJI
War hero, Major General Ian Cardozo stressed the need for India to become the happiest country in the world.
The war hero, who was under the spotlight for the second, consecutive day of the 11th Goa art and literature festival organised by the International centre of Goa in association with Goa Writers said, “India can easily become the most powerful country in the world. However, it may be a better idea for India to become the most happiest country in the world. This way, India would need to focus on eliminating poverty completely and ensuring that nobody remained poor and starving in our vast country.”
The General who recounted multiple anecdotes from his soul-stirring autobiography, “Cartoos Saab” recounted the time when he saved a young soldier in the seas off Kerala, despite possessing only one leg himself. He also recounted the valour of the Gorkha soldiers, whom he considered the bravest in the world, when he cited the real-life incident of how a brave Gorkha mother sent her youngest son to join her older son’s army regiment, even as she was told of her older son’s martyrdom. “I do not want our family tradition and line with the Indian army to be broken,” the Gorkha mother is quoted to have said.
Earlier in the day, Nobel prize-winning economist Abhijit Banerjee and his illustrator colleague Cheyenne Olivier regaled everybody about their cook book: “Cooking to save your life” Banerjee maintained that everyone on this planet could cook and even excel at it, if they applied their minds and learnt the basics properly.