My father was my super hero, I wanted to be like him. He was a second generation soldier, having joined the British Indian Army in the early years of the second World War. He brought in a lot of commitment, love and integrity into the family, and along with my mother’s innate offerings of order, fun, organization and passion, the children were blessed in their upbringing. I was the youngest of four siblings in a military family.

I was drawn to the romanticism of being a soldier from my early years; it happened with me, but it necessarily doesn’t happen to everyone. Like my elder brother never felt drawn to the profession of arms. After graduating with honors in Political Science, I quit a fairly cushy and promising job in the private sector (much to the agony of my boss) to join the Indian Military Academy (IMA), Dehra Dun, when I cleared the tough selection process. My dream life was about to unfurl!

When you have to break a young man down from his past conditioning and habits and remold him into being a tough soldier, an inspiring leader and an ageless gentleman, one has to be put through a daunting grind affecting the physical, mental and emotional entities in all the cadets. There is no soldier-officer who doesn’t remember his days at the academy with mixed feelings, though the aftertaste is always sweet and fulfilling.

What a fantastic place the Army was to continue one’s education about life. The qualities of commitment, bonding, love, bonhomie, integrity, focus, ‘can do’ attitude, fearlessness and responsibility come bubbling forth in the life of a soldier. All these things keep the blood racing through your veins all the time, it keeps you alive and excited, it keeps you in a space of love all the time.

I married the first lady I fell in love with. We were married, all of a sudden, a little over a year of knowing each other. In June of 1984, with war clouds (so I thought then) hovering overhead, I had come home on a short spell of leave to ‘attend’ my sister’s wedding. While my operational exigencies prevented me from getting home in time for my sister’s wedding, it saw Chitra and I tying the knot instead. When I’d told her of the impending likelihood of a war, she insisted (as opposed to my initial protests) that we must get married then. And we were, the very next day. The next 32 years I spent in the army, saw us having to live away from each other in spells and living together in spells. Along with the blessings of two boys to complete our beautiful family we experienced a life of love and agonies, comfort and challenges, pain and blessings. That’s what life is all about, equal ups & downs. In my 37 years long military career I have had a fair share of mortal danger, fear, agony, pain, sorrow, disappointment, frustration, courage, elation, victory, love, success, satisfaction and fulfillment. A grateful nation to has honored my experiences by citing me both for bravery and dedication to duty. I feel full and blessed.

Then, virtually all of a sudden, came the time to shed my uniform and hang up my boots. As I have mentioned that I had lived and given the best years of my life for almost four decades to this unmatchable way of life. I couldn’t just change tracks in my life so suddenly without taking stock. It dawned on me that the one thing I owed all my satisfaction, fulfillment, love, well being and blessings to was the sacrifice of my fellow soldiers. They sacrificed their only treasures (their lives) not only for me and their fellow buddies, but also for the nation and its citizens, whole lot of faceless people they had never even known. How big is that! How many of us would willingly give up our lives for the safety and freedom of people we don’t even know? While some of these gallant men are recognized for their deeds of courage, the sacrifice of most virtually go unnoticed & unrecognized, save for an honourable military funeral. And then, the worst, they begin to fade from the memories of the very people they sacrificed their lives for.

I decided, soon after I hang up my boots, I would pay my respects to these virtually (and often) forgotten heroes of our nation. I just had to do that before I could put my nearly four decades of military life behind me. I found out that there were just under 21,000 such heroes since the nation attained independence from colonial rule. I devised my personal homage to them in the form of a solo cycling journey around the country, passing through all the 29 states, as our fallen heroes come from every corner of the nation. I had given myself a mandate of cycling two minutes (as we observe two minutes’ silence at memorial services) in the memory of each fallen hero of our country, totaling 42,000 minutes. This would take me anything up to seven months and I would have traversed somewhere between 10 and 12,000 km.

The journey – A Veteran’s Homage Journey began on October 19th, 2016, 18 days after I retired, accompanied by my better half Chitra, who…