Rewari bids farewell to long lost soldier

“The first thing Brigadier Saheb said to me when he called was if I remember my father. I said I had never forgotten him. He told me his body had been found,and it was to be sent back. I couldn’t speak and started crying. Brigadier saheb asked me if I was happy or sad. I told him I had never felt such joy,” Ramchandra said.

But the mountains hadn’t finished with the family yet. Everyday,Ramchandra and his three sisters,Bina,Kamlesh and Sushila waited for news that the body was on its way home. “We were told that the weather in the mountains was poor. For three days,the body waited in a chopper in Leh. We asked the army to transport my father by car to Delhi as we were afraid something would happen again. Eventually on September 2,the body was brought by road to Manali and by helicopter to Chandigarh before finally arriving in Meerpur,” Ramchandra said.

The wait for the body,however,gave the village time to prepare a fitting homecoming. And on Wednesday morning,a cremation like no other was held. “A Major and other jawans came with the body,and there were 5000 people who came to pay tribute. Sweets were distributed,a DJ played,and instead of mourning,people said ‘Badhai ho’. There were mediapersons as well,and people jostled for space. Once the cremation,with full military honours,was over people asked me what the body looked like. Only the left arm and a few toes were missing. His face was intact,and he seemed to be in a deep slumber,” said Ramesh,Jagmal’s grandson.

The one regret the family has is that Jagmal’s wife,Bhagwan Kaur wasn’t there. “Till the day she died in 2008,she prayed everyday that her husband would return. She would talk to my father’s picture in the puja room before she took any decision. Once,in 1991 I was posted to Leh as I was an EME with the Royal Bengal Engineers. My mother forbade it,and within a month I took a transfer to Roorkee. She retained her admiration for the Army,but she hated the mountains with a vengeance. The villagers believe that it is on the strength of my mother’s prayers that his body was found. She arranged it from heaven,” Ramchandra said.

His family’s association with the Himalayas seems to have ended,for now. Ramchandra believes that his two sons should stay away from the army,and stick to the family business that he started following his retirement in 2007.

Apart from his father’s body,the mountains have left the family some precious tokens that have found a place in the puja room,next to photographs of Jagmal and Bhagwan Kaur. A bag with two brushes,a water bottle,chappals,a torch,a shaving razor,a wallet with Rs 10,a life insurance pamphlet and a torn letter from his wife,which Ramchandra intends to leave as it is. Preserved in ice. Since 1968.