“See, Mukho, see how short my lifeline is?” Salaria said as he showed me his palm, “Do you know that Nostradamus predicted a war between India and Pakistan in 1996, and I have a feeling that I will die in that war “. I tried not to laugh too hard and hide my obvious disbelief. This was in the early 1990s — after the collapse of the Soviet Union, when we believed anything was possible, even the alleged prophesies of an ancient Frenchman. I was a sceptic of the end-of-the-world stories, and in fact, did not believe in much else either and this infuriated Salaria. “Your lack of belief may be fashionable, but I am telling you, in 1996, there will be a war over Kashmir and I will die fighting!!” On January 9 1996 — so early in that year — Salaria was killed in a firefight in Kashmir.

The Indian Express played a huge role in constructing a war memorial to honour soldiers from the states of Punjab, Himachal and Haryana in Chandigarh. Although the idea of regional war memorials is commendable, the need for a national war memorial remains. Probably to address this concern, President Abdul Kalam, while inaugurating the memorial in August 2006, announced that he would extend his support to the construction of a national war memorial.

A couple of months after his announcement, civic bodies in Delhi reportedly objected to the plan put forward by the ministry of defence for the construction of a war memorial on the lawns of India Gate. The design and layout of the monument itself is shrouded in mystery — as if it is a burden and an act of shame that bureaucrats and politicians want to get rid of quickly. In other parts of the world, there might have been an open competition for the best design for a monument to honour their ‘heroes’. In India, the idea and its implementation are lost in a bureaucratic maze.

... contd.