There was the usual Diwali gaiety with the lamp being lighted in the house of Major Shubham, the martyr from Haridwar, after a long spell of 11 years. And this was due to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call to the people to light lamps this Diwali for those engaged in the grim challenge of fighting terror along the border areas of the country.
The courageous Army officer, Shubham, credited with three solitary encounters with the terrorists in Rajori, Poonch and Kargil areas and endowed with Army medals for his readiness to take challenges head-on, had died an accidental death while serving the Indian Army being in Rajputana Rifles in 2005. His father died two years following his death, something that further deepened the gloom hanging over the family .
His mother Asha who lives alone in the house of Gyan lok Colony said this was for the first time in 11 years when the Diya was lighted to celebrate Diwali.
“I clean the photograph of my dead son daily. But we refrained from celebrating any festival since Shubham died. However, this time, Modi urging the countrymen to light lamps, wishing for the brave soldiers protecting our borders from the enemies has nudged us to rupture the tradition of staying away from celebration,” she said.
She defined her feeling as something of catharsis that sublimated her emotions. “I used to light lamp in the place of worship. But from now onwards, I would do the same to celebrate the festivals. My house would be illuminated too and we would enjoy while recollecting the fond memory my son has left behind for us to treasure,” she said.
“Major Shubham, a commando of Rajputana Rifles, was courageousness incarnate. We used to be thrilled when he recounted his thrilling encounters with terror. We are exulted seeing the house, remaining plunged in the gloom for a number of years, coming back to life on the occasion of Diwali.
The lamp lighted on the occasion by his near ones seems to be a flaming testimony of the death-defying spirit he embodied when alive,” said a family friend Sumitra Pandey.