Salunke, of the 6 Maratha Light Infantry (MLI), is the first war casualty from Anpatwadi in 27 years, the last being Tanaji Sahamrao Bhagwat, who died in the 1971 Indo-Pak war.

Salunke's three children - five-year-old Prakash, three-year-old Pinku and one-year-old Pratiksha - will be wondering why `baba' won't be coming home for the holidays anymore. Because Salunke had gone back to his unit barely 40 days back and sent a money order of Rs 1,500 on June 2.

In the Salunke's little village of Anpatwadi, those with land grow peanuts for a living, while those without land fall back on their generations-old profession of breaking rocks to build roads. A profession that has given them the hardiness that makes them such goodsoldiers.

For Hemlata, life in Salunke's absence meant being glued to their 14-inch black and white TV in Khatoa village. The set that would give her news of the operations in Kargil and a vague hope that her husband was doing fine.Remembers Mangala Sankpal, her neighbour in Khatao, ``She got a letter from him a few days back asking her not to worry too much. His son would refuse to go to school when he was here on leave. He was afraid that his `baba' would go away,'' she says, wiping her tears.

Eighty-year-old Maruti Salunke knew his son was killed in action, but held on to the hope that it was someone else. Finally, he had to come and tell Hemlata that Narayan was coming for four hours, so he had come to pick her up. Married a year after Salunke joined the Army in 1984, Hemlata saw her life shattered when her father-in-law came to pick her up from her home on Thursday morning.

Salunke had saved for 14 years, and built this home with Hemlata last year, after moving from one counter-insurgency operationafter another. A framed newspaper cutting in his small house shows him marching towards the Hazratbal, when the army had cordoned the shrine off to flush out militants.In the village of his childhood, Salunke's five brothers and two sisters remember the `baby' of the family. ``He always wanted to join the Army,'' remembers Haribhau, one of the brothers. This small village has 25 youths serving in various battalions of the MLI regiment. And for them, the grief of Salunke's passing away is mixed with a gritty sense of pride.