HAV JAI PARKASH SINGH, 39
16 Grenadiers
Tradition Bound
Mission: Attacked on the ridges, he kept fighting
and tried to evacuate injured colleagues before blown up On May 29 two soldiers delivered a
packet to Ran Singh, 65, a retired soldier in Desalur
village, Haryana. It contained the ashes of his son,
Havaldar Jai Parkash Singh, who died on the battlefront
in Kargil.
When told that Jai
Parkash's body had to be cremated amidst the icy peaks
because it was torn apart by enemy fire, all the father
-- his voice choked with emotion -- could say was,
"I'm proud he got the bullets on the chest."
It's this Jat pride that
keeps the men of Desalur in Haryana's Jhajjar district
going. Sending men to the armed forces is a treasured
tradition here. No wonder then that 19-year-old Jai
Parkash didn't think twice before signing up during an
army recruitment drive near his village in 1980.
His sharp-shooting skills
made Jai Parkash the natural choice for the first patrols
sent up to probe an enemy occupied ridge on May 8. The
patrol came under immediate attack, but the gutsy
Haryanvi held his position. He flashed a message to the
rear about the attack and was trying to evacuate his
seriously injured fellow colleagues when a barrage of
mortar shells cut him short. His body could only be
retrieved five days later, too mutilated to be
transported.
Sitting in the courtyard
of his house, Ran Singh stoically looks at the framed
black and white photograph of his son and consoles his
wife Piari:"Only the brave die for the
country." Jai Parkash's wife Kamlesh has no tears
left to shed, as she gathers her two sons -- aged six and
eight -- about her.
But ask her if she will
send them to the army and pat comes the reply: "Why
not? I am waiting for them to grow up." Ran Singh is
equally emphatic. "So what if my son has died, the
tradition must not die". He has only one regret: he
could not salute his son's body.
-Ramesh
Vinayak
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