India, April 25 -- The white colonial bungalows of Ferozepur cantonment gleam quietly in the late spring sunlight. The many monuments and plaques at the chowks and in the streets commemorating fallen soldiers send an involuntary shiver down the spine. As does the black and white photograph of Cfn MC Gopala Pillai, killed during the 1965 war with Pakistan, that hangs in your room in the EME Mess.

This town on the Sutlej with its Sikh Empire era fort and memorials of the Anglo Sikh Wars hosted the 1st Ferozepur Heritage, Military and Literary Festival held on 28 and 29 March 2026 at the Dass & Brown World School campus and the Sunder Singh Stadium.

There's an edge-of-the-world feel to Ferozepur, once a distant suburb of Lahore, which is j...