A reel posted on social media a week ago went viral. It was speedily picked up by tricity news outlets, including the mushrooming web-based channels so visible on platforms such as Facebook. The reasons for its ‘’virality’’ were not difficult to fathom. It showed a serpent hiding among bundles of linen / clothes at PGIMER, Chandigarh, allegedly on September 4, 2026.
The reel was posted with false inscriptions (replicated by news outlets). That, it was an ‘’ajgar’’ (python) and that it was “18 feet long”. In fact, the serpent filmed was a highly venomous species, the Russell’s viper, which seldom exceeds 4.5 to 5 feet in length. However, to sensationalise the reel and quench the thirst for ‘likes, followers, shares and comments’, bogus claims were sold to gullible viewers.
However, this was not the end of the fraud. I visited the place where the reel had been filmed. It was the Laundry Plant/Linen Bank of PGIMER, specifically a huge storage area within it known as the Condemnation Room, where unserviceable, torn or permanently soiled linen is stored before being discarded or auctioned. The visitations of serpents to the laundry premises are frequent as it is ringed by jungle and has junk dumped along a boundary wall.
I questioned the laundry workers. They were puzzled by the excitement generated by the reel. This is because though the reel was a real one, but it had been filmed more than a year ago in the ‘Condemnation Room’. The workers had forgotten about the serpent and the reel but the smart alecks of social media had reinvented its timeline and facts to reap a rich digital dividend.
{{/usCountry}}I questioned the laundry workers. They were puzzled by the excitement generated by the reel. This is because though the reel was a real one, but it had been filmed more than a year ago in the ‘Condemnation Room’. The workers had forgotten about the serpent and the reel but the smart alecks of social media had reinvented its timeline and facts to reap a rich digital dividend.
{{/usCountry}}The flowers of Batra Top
Point 4875 in the Mashkoh LoC sector is where Capt Vikram Batra laid down his life and was awarded the Param Vir Chakra for the Kargil War. Point 4875 (15,994 feet) was later christened ‘Batra Top’ in his honour after initially being named ‘Gun Hill’ to enshrine the battle-winning role of the Regiment of Artillery.
It is here that Batra’s spirit abides and small flowers of the high altitudes blossom in summer to lay a floral wreath for him and bravehearts of 13 JAK Rifles, 17 Jat and 2 Naga, who fought for the Point 4875 Complex. The Infantry was backed by the shock, firepower and destruction unleashed upon the enemy by the ‘topkhana’.
September 9, 2026, would have marked the 52nd birth anniversary of Batra. To commemorate the event, his twin brother, Vishal, and the gallant RMO of 13 JAK RIF during the war, Col Rajesh Adhau, SM (G), climbed 12 km to Batra Top on Wednesday along with troops of the 8 Mahar where the spirit of the twins united once again. They celebrated there with chocolate cake slices and chips. The twins last celebrated their birthday together in 1995.
Amid the rock crevices of Batra Top, slink shy alpine skinks — a wonderment to life’s existence in such hostile natural environments. Batra has done his duty but Infantry still maintains an exhausting, lonely vigilance and battles natural extremities on the Kargil LoC. For soldiers, the alpine flowers are tiny specks but symbols of life and resilience in the barren mountains.
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