Reportage: Archana Masih. Photograph: Seema Pant. Design: Dominic Xavier

The army's medical panel rejected him twice.

"Once for something called a heart murmur and then for tonsils," recalls Vaibhav.

By the time the ailments were fixed, Saurabh joined the IMA late and had to make up for lost time.

Of course, it was much harder than the daddu chaal [frog skip] that was the punishment for mistakes at the two-hour weekend NCC drill in college.

His pals made Saurabh laugh during the parade, remembers Rajeev Goma, a friend from the NCC course, and the instructor sent him on the daddu chaal around the field on many days.

When he left home, Saurabh's waist measured 34 inches and he loved to sleep.

At the Academy he set the alarm his mother gave him for 4 am.

When he returned to Manali for a camp one-and-a-half months later, his friends could not recognise him. 'They have scraped and chiseled him into shape,' they told Vaibhav on the phone.

Six months on, home for his first break, his waist measured 28 inches.

He liked to eat, travel and dress well, says his mother. "In 22 years, he lived a full life."

A major general told Dr Kalia: ''I've served in the army for longer than how old your son was. Nobody knows me, but your son, they always will.'