YOU can't get away from them anymore. Each of these mountain peaks in the Drass sub-sector, now pockmarked by shells and bombs from fighter aircraft, are destined to loom large in every tale about the Kargil affair.

Tales about Captain Batra's valour, as he took peak after peak before he finally fell at Pt 4875; and how he, and men like Naik Surinder Singh (name changed) of the 17 Jat Regiment, have lived where no man has lived before.In a narrow valley where the dusty Srinagar-Leh Highway winds past is the newly set up Drass Brigade headquarters, housed in 20-odd makeshift tin houses and two-month-old bunkers.

``It wasn't much of a headquarter then,'' recalls Naik Surinder, with a palm resting on his once-fair face, now deeply tanned by the harsh mountain sun. ``We hadn't even built the bunkers. For the first couple of days we hid behind the rocks and built the bunkers at night. We moved little because thePakistanis were right above us.''

Then the Bofors guns arrived. And once these opened up at the intruders , the battle started. The intruders retaliated with mortars and cannons. Sometimes even artillery shells from across the LoC landed on the Drass camp.``They knew that we were here,'' says Naik Surinder, ``The bunkers were the only place where we could find shelter till we would begin moving forward to take the peaks. We stopped eating, shaving and even answering the call of nature for two to three days at a stretch. And we dared not sleep.''

In mid-May, several patrols went out to locate the exact positions of the intruders and gauge their strength. Most never returned. ``We realised that the situation was getting worse. Then the Air Force sent its fighters. And the tide started changing in our favour. We would leap with joy every time we saw them hitting the peaks.''

Finally, in the last week of May, the assaults began. And Tololing Top was the first that was wrested from the intruders. VikramBatra, then a lieutenant (he was promoted to a Captain on the battlefield), had arrived. A fortnight later, Batra and his men, started the assault on Point 5140 adjacent to Tololing. For five days a bloody battle ensued. ``It was a battle of minds as much as of courage,'' says Naik Surinder. Next stop was Tiger Hill. We climbed the peak for two days and one night. The Pakistanis were shocked.'' But not as shocked as their colleagues on Point 4875, who were sipping tea in the afternoon when Naik Surinder and his colleagues attacked. Until then all the assaults had been launched in the dark. But this time Batra and other officers changed tactics. Naik Surinder survived with a minor abrasion on his knee, sustained as he ran towards Captain Batra, even as the young officer was hit by a volley of bullets.

There are many soldiers in the new Brigade headquarters now: the battle may have been won but the vigil has just begun. And Naik Surinder and others are preparing for the long haul ahead.