It was as if Harshan was grooming himself to be an officer since he was a little boy. He went to the Sainik School in Kazhakootam, Kerala, which has as its alumni many distinguished military officers -- among them, Colonel N J Nair, who won both the Kirti Chakra and Ashok Chakra.
"He was very hardworking at studies but wasn't as good in sports. Later, one of his strengths was excelling in any sport he took to. Sure enough, he was adjudged the best cadet in Class 12," says Anil Kumar MC, a classmate who now works for the State Bank of Travancore.
He read every book on the Second World War he could lay his hands on and the Commando comic series. Amongst the things that his men brought back to his home after his death was a big trunk full of books.
When he didn't make it to the NDA in previous attempts, his father advised him he could always join the IMA after completing an engineering course and still become a soldier. But Harshan had his reasons: 'A military officer must go through training at NDA to become a complete soldier,' he told his father and friends.
He used to tell his father that an army man's life is like a sanyasi in a mortar. 'Achan (Father), when he is in that mortar, he has no mother, father or siblings.'
As an officer, Harshan forged great bonds with his men. "He knew them all so closely -- all this he had learnt through his training and reading. Napoleon, he used to say, knew each of his soldiers by name," recalls his grief-stricken father.
Image: Harshan's parents. Photograph: Rajesh Karkera
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