Sepoy Gurbinder Singh was engaged a few months ago, Sepoy Jai Kishor Singh’s parents were looking for a match for him and Havildar Bipul Roy had been married for nine years. The three men died in the clashes in Ladakh’s Galwan Valley on June 15 — and with them, the dreams of three families across India.
Two days later, around 6.30 in the morning, a phone call from his unit informed the family of 22-year-old Sepoy Gurbinder Singh’s death. “Nothing has been same in the family since then. I couldn’t believe my ears. Now everything is over,” Gurbinder Singh’s elder brother, Gurpreet Singh, told The Hindu at Tolawal village in Punjab’s Sangrur district.
Sole support
“Gurbinder used to send us around ₹20,000 monthly, which helped meet our expenses. We earn a meagre amount from farming on a jointly owned piece of land. The State government has promised a job for one member of the family, besides monetary compensation of ₹50 lakh. It’s our only hope for us now to live a dignified life,” says Mr. Gurpreet Singh. “The money from Gurbinder’s salary helped us to start construction of our house, which is yet to be completed,” he added.
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Sitting on the floor of their unfinished house, Gurbinder Singh’s father, Labh Singh, 62, with folded hands and moist eyes, was accepting condolences from visitors. “Our father has been in a state of shock, he has hardly spoken. No one in the family ever thought that Gurbinder would not return. But we are all proud of him,” said Mr. Gurpreet Singh.
“A few days before his death we spoke to Gurbinder; he told us he