Burying the grief of having lost her father and keeping his mortal remains waiting at a place some 130 km from here, an Inspector led the Independence Day parade on Saturday.
Since N. Maheshwari, an Armed Reserve Police Inspector, had led the police personnel in the Republic Day and Independence Day parades for the past several years, she actively participated in the rehearsals held at VOC Stadium in Palayamkottai over the last few days.
When she returned home after the dress rehearsal on Friday, she received information that her 83-year-old father Narayanaswamy had passed away at Vadamadurai in Dindigul district.
Maintaining composure
Though the tragedy shattered Ms. Maheshwari, the young police officer was determined to lead her contingent in the Independence Day parade as usual.
As Ms. Maheshwari stood graciously in front of her contingent on Saturday morning before the parade, none could read the grief from her face as she was quite composed.
As usual, her commands reverberated across the VOC Stadium, where few members of the public had been allowed to watch the Independence Day celebrations with physical distancing.
After leading the police personnel in the parade and presenting the guard of honour to Collector Shilpa Prabhakar Satish and Superintendent of Police N. Manivannan, Ms. Maheshwari majestically left the ground along with her contingent. Only when Ms. Maheshwari, her husband Balamurugan, a constable with the Intelligence Section of Tirunelveli City, swiftly left the venue in a vehicle, others, including those who took part in the parade, realized that she had suffered one of the worst losses of her life 13 hours ago.
Even as words of consolation poured in, a teary-eyed Ms. Maheshwari left the stadium for Vadamadurai to take part in the final rites of her father.
Mr. Balamurugan, who had been deployed at the Tirunelveli Medical College Hospital to gather information about the influx of COVID-19 patients into the hospital, contracted the infection two weeks ago and reported for duty only on Friday, after being under quarantine for 15 days.