The early 1970s saw a large contingent of students from Patna joining the RIMC. The cadets travelled together in Doon Express to and from Patna in a reserved sleeper class coach. The Patna Railway station provided an opportunity to the families of these cadets to become friends. They would meet frequently during vacations. My elder brother joined the school in January 1973. It must have been sometimes in 1973 or 74, in one of those family get togethers, that I first heard the Thimayya name -- the Thimayya Gate, the Thimayya Road, and so on.

I joined RIMC in 1979. By then I knew where the Thimayya Road started. The importance of being selected to study at the RIMC dawned on me no sooner than I entered the imposing Thimayya Gate. In his briefing to first termers, the Commandant must have mentioned the Thimmayya name several times. Thimayya, was already a legend to me, but he soon became one to all my classmates. During our excursions to various cantonments, we would often find one of the main roads named after Thimayya. I remember my class (115th course) feeling really proud when on its way to writing the NDA entrance examination in Lucknow’s cantonment, it came across a traffic junction around which converged the Thimayya Marg, Atal Marg, Bewoor Marg and Bhagat Marg! Surely a strong case existed to rename the junction point, “The Rimcollian Roundabout.”

I found the feed-back to the first Thimayya issue very encouraging. Thus I thought of releasing another issue on Thimayya during our Reunion on March 13, 2007. After all, we must celebrate the centenary of our legend in style.

I must mention here the contribution from Col Ali Ahmed Zaki. For the previous Thimayya issue, he sent us a letter from his family archive. For this issue he put me onto Brig CB Khanduri’s biography of Thimayya. We have depended heavily on the book, “Thimayya: An amazing Life” for bringing out this edition of the special number. We must compliment Brig Khanduri for drawing a very lucid picture of the man who is adored by military officers across generations. I the two special numbers will help Rimcollians better understand the truly magnificent legacy of Thimayya.