A resident of Kanjurmarg, the major, now posted in Jammu and Kashmir and back home on leave, waited in the queue to sign the visitors' book. And wrote: Having fought the actual war, it brought back nostalgic memories. Thanks.

Here, both at Chattrapati Shivaji Terminus and at Churchgate, people actually formed a queue, waited patiently for their turn and wrote what they felt about the Kargil Photoexpress. Even if it meant missing the all important local transporting them to their destination.

The response of almost 8,000 people who visited the exhibition is as much an eye opener for us, as is the Kargil exhibition for them. ``My wife and I have come from Virar to see the exhibition. And it is an eye opener'' said Dr P P Borkar, a surgeon at Virar.

Major Punde, who was an observation post (OP) officerduring the operations to recover peak 4700 in Drass talked about the war, the artillery action and the coordination with infantry soldiers. And we talked about young Captain Sumit Roy, a common friend who was killed in the Kargil war. People gathered around to hear of his bravery and stories of valour of the officers and jawans.

``This war has been won by the jawans - Jai Jawan,'' wrote Adarsh Saini, a class XII student of St Xaviers College. But what have the soldiers got after the war ? Have their salaries increased? Will they get higher pension and better working conditions? Can a jawan also become an officer? The impression was that despite 1999 being declared the year of the jawan, precious little had been done to enhance his salaries and status.

Shobha De too was touched seeing the pictures. ``Deeply moving. Very humbling. But more than anything else, inspiring. God bless our brave soldiers!'' she wrote. Priti Chongule, a resident of Panvel too signed the book with the touching comment: ``Inspiringand fabulous photographs which cause a temptation to possess each one of them. Sufficient to ignite feelings of belonging to India,'' she wrote.

The sense of belonging and involvement with the Express photo journey was also evident as people offered suggestions for taking the exhibition to their neighbourhoods, stations, schools and colleges. Jayant Joshi, a resident of Khar, said: ``Your Kargil Dateline was really appreciable. No other daily covered the events so beautifully and motivated people at large. Please continue the exhibition at small towns too.''