My cousin Mala Murthy, a martyr’s mother, breathed her last recently. It takes courage to send one’s son to war. Losing soldiers to a war is tragic enough, but how do you come to terms with many of our sons losing their lives in the proxy war of these times? Major Dinesh Raghuraman was one such courageous officer, who lost his life on October 2, 2007, combating insurgency in Kashmir.
Mala and I grew up in the same household with the usual camaraderie and rivalry any siblings will have. She is three years older to me but we were in the same class due to some disruption earlier in her education. A natural linguist, she had mastered quite a few Indian languages. Her culinary skills would awaken even a dead palette. Her garden was an expression of her green fingers. Her hospitality and kindness were legendary among kith and kin. She made friends with ease in any neighbourhood her husband’s transfer took her. At 24 and 27 years of age we were more like best friends than anything else and only six weeks apart in our pregnancies (my first, her second). She gave birth to a baby boy on April 6, 1978, a brother to her daughter.
To our great admiration, Mala and her husband Murthy had motivated her daughter and son to serve our nation and humanity. Her daughter Aparna serves as the most-loved and well-respected gynaecologist in a military hospital. Dinesh Raghuraman joined the National Defence Academy in 1996 and was commissioned into the 19 Battalion of the Jat Regiment and later became a Major. Its not easy to find a life partner when you are constantly living in the shadow of death. He was fortunate to find his wife Latha, with whom he lived on and off as his duty would allow, for three years.
Brave end
In June 2007, Major Raghuraman conducted a successful operation, ‘Op Narawar’. On October 2, 2007, he was assigned the task of launching an operation in Baramulla to flush out terrorists hiding there. During the operation he crawled towards his fellow-officer who had been injured in hostile fire and moved him and two more injured soldiers to a safer area. Soon afterwards, he took several bullets from another front of gun battle opened by terrorists, and was seriously injured. He succumbed to his injuries in a Srinagar hospital. At that time his wife Latha was pregnant with their daughter Shrishti.
Ever since Dinesh joined the NDA, Mala had kept pushing aside her fears and anxieties. She immersed herself into the lofty ideal that her son joined armed forces to make the world a better place. But the void created by the demise of her son never felt right in spite of all the felicitations regarding her son’s courage. Her grief was heart-wrenching. Dinesh was the first thing in her mind when she woke up and the last thought whenever she fell asleep.
Major Raman was given the nation’s highest peace-time gallantry award, the Ashoka Chakra, for his exceptional courage, camaraderie, fighting spirit and supreme sacrifice. Yet, her wound never healed and the void never vanished. At 67, she was too young to die, but 12 years of inward grief took a toll. Her kindred spirit has now become part of our family folklore.
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