There is a strange restlessness in the Nair home after Harshan's death says his brother. "There is scarcely a day when my mother hasn't cried for him. What we have lost is slowly sinking in."
On August 14, the family received a telegram from the Indian defence secretary informing them that Captain Harshan 'who made a supreme sacrifice in the performance of his duty to uphold the sovereignty and integrity of our great nation' had received the Ashok Chakra.
"After Kargil there is a special sense of respect for the soldiers. But when a soldier's body is brought back home it becomes the affair of the State, the locality. Martyrs are eventually remembered only occasionally. The nation needs to give much more importance to its soldiers," says Mr Nair as his wife sits beside him, her grief heartbreakingly palpable.
To give a sense of what Harshan was made of, his childhood friend Manu relates an incident which perhaps defines this fine young man.
'Half way through the IMA, he told me he wanted to join the Special Forces. He told me it was risky -- so I told him the way he was thinking at 21 would be different from what he would want at 26. And Harshan turned round and told me -- "If I want to live like a soldier, I don't want to be an ordinary soldier -- I want to be a true soldier."'
R Harshan was exactly that and his friends want India to know about him. There are two other brave men who will be awared the Ashok Chakra on Republic Day. Let us not fail them because a nation that does not remember its martyrs is a nation without a soul.
Image: The defence ministry telegram informing Harshan's parents that his valour had been recognised by the Ashok Chakra.
Must read: 'Before he fell he told his men: Don't leave them'
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