This year marks 20th year of Kargil war.
Though our country won the war, we lost many brave sons. Have you ever wondered what happens to the families of soldiers who sacrificed their lives?
After two decades, though many of us may struggle to remember the details, the families of martyrs are still living with the pain of losing one of their own.
Here is one such heart-touching story of pain & pride, which was shared by the daughter of martyr Major CB Dwivedi on her Instagram.
Recalling the unfateful day and painful memories, she shared how the summer of ’99 changed everything for her and her family:
“AND WE WERE LEFT BEHIND….
Standing at the door of the room that everyone was huddled in, my eyes went straight to my mother.
While others were sitting at the edge of the bed, my mother sat in the front, on a low chair, face buried in her hands, hair sticking to her cheeks and ears, and her skin was crimson.
To me she looked small and helpless.
My heart sank.
I knew the that the news was bad, and almost instantly I started praying under my breath for it to be bad rather than worse.
Let him be injured God, please let him just be injured.
It couldn’t be…. could it?
With that feeling I started going from one person to another, shaking everyone, trying to ask why mom was crying the way she was.
“Tell me pls. Kya hua mummy ko? Bataiye na!”
Until my aunt looked at me and said something to the effect of what’s left to tell…Then a hand(that of my elder brother’s) swooped me in an embrace as he said in my ears, as gently as one could….
“beta apke daddy shaheed ho gaye”.
For a minute, my heart stopped. Like I couldn’t hear anything. Then the very next minute, it started beating very fast. Like I needed to do something.
I screamed for my sister and the minute she walked in, looked at her and said , “diksha… daddy…daddy”..
Then I turned around, looked at my mother, but, what could I say?
“It will get better”, maybe? I mean that is what they always said in the movies. But right now, they seemed like the wrongest words on earth. How will it?
Also, what was this hard pounding in my chest?
As I tried to rotate between mummy and Diksha, my heart wouldn’t stop pounding. I remember thinking, am I going to die too?
Is this how you feel when you are about to die? But I can’t. Daddy’s gone already. Who will take care of mummy?Who will see Diksha through?
I was 12, all of 12, but suddenly I felt like I was older and all of this was upto me.”
She further shared:
“The rest of the day passed by in some kind of a routine.
Mummy would cry, stop a little at some point, when a fresh group of people would walk in, and she would look at them and burst out again. Every single person was connected to daddy.
Not just people, objects too.
When she went to take clothes out from her bag in the night, the bag welcomed her with the stuff that she had bought for daddy from her trip to Siliguri.
As for me, I remember praying very hard through out the day, that let this be a bad dream. Let me wake up now. Please God please.
Who will teach me maths now? I will fail my exams… People will laugh at me.. and then who will step forward to save me from the embarrassment. Nobody. No, I am not prepared for this… Please God please….”
Losing one’s dad is never easy. The unfortunate war took away their pillar of strength and left them broken. It was obvious for a 12-year-old to ask why HIM?
But after 20 years things have changed. She shared with Times Now how she and her family came to the terms of her father’s sacrifice:
“I now understand that had it not been him, it would have been someone else.
A price had to be paid and it was. Some of us pay for it more dearly than others and that is just how it is.
Over the years we have often been asked how we feel?
How did it affect us?
What are our expectations of this country or its people?
To be able to give an honest account of the numerous ways in which we were affected and continue to be affected by every single one, every single time, is not possible.
All I hope and wish for is, that we as a country, understand and value the life that we are able to live today, at the cost of those who gave theirs up yesterday.
Realise our duties. Try and be good, compassionate, responsible citizens.
Sacrifices have been given and will continue to be given in order to protect the country that we love and call our home. It’s how it is and it is even fair.
The uniform-clad gentleman doesn’t question his duty or the need for his sacrifice. In fact, more often than not, he goes towards it with a smile on his face.
Not everyone who goes ahead comes back to his family with the same smile.
A lot of them come back in coffins, which don’t just carry the weight of his body, they also carry the weight of his hopes and dreams for himself and his family in his life ahead. Or what was supposed to be his life ahead.
More often than not, it is these coffins that are the heaviest.
When the war at the battlefield ends, another starts in the lives of the people left behind.
Let us all try and make ourselves worthy of both of them.
Jai Hind!”