Family Portraits Of The Nation

A shared grief unites kin of CRPF men killed in J&K with those of colleagues who fell in Dantewada nine years ago

- Salik Ahmad, Sandeep Sahu,Probir Pramanik, G.C. Shekhar, Abdul Gani, and Ajay Sukumaran

IN life, there are some big things—oath, duty, glory, honour and so on. In death, small things become big too—adding a floor to the house, keeping a promise made to a nine year-old, making a phone call from a faraway place to wake up the children at home every morning.

The killing of 40 CRPF personnel on February 14 in a suicide bombing in Kashmir’s Pulwama district led to much outrage across the country. Hot-headed speeches and calls for revenge rent the air. For those the slain had left behind at their homes and who would never see them return, there came a slew of announcements—monetary compensation, jobs, passes for concessional train tickets. Leaders and officials of every stature flocked to the houses of the bereaved, promising unwavering support and assistance even in future. A month later, the families of the dead find themselves still coping with their loss, and sometimes in disturbing situations.

At slain jawan Koushal Kumar Rawat’s house at Kahrai village in Uttar Pradesh’s Agra district, a CRPF officer poses as he presents the home minister’s condolence certificate to the family, while his gunner clicks a photograph. Born on a Republic Day, Koushal was at home for a vacation in February and had left only two days before he was killed. “Papa was always humming a tune, or tapping his fingers to one,” says Koushal’s 22-year old son Abhishek, who is studying medicine in Russia. “He was also an excellent cook.Whenever he was home, he would take over the kitchen from my mother.”