28.08.2012
Dear Madam,
I have 8 sons and one daughter. My youngest son died in 1983 when he was small. All of my sons work in the security forces. My younger son went for a job in security forces in 1995. Our family was drowning in economic problems. Amidst difficulties, we tried our best to give to our children education. We didn’t even have a proper house to live in. We lived in a small house made of clay. My younger son, who knew how much we suffered due to poverty, joined the army, with expectations of uplifting our lives. By then his brothers had got married.
Later, my other son also joined the army. The two of them built a house for us to live. When we heard the lists of names of the deceased soldiers on the radio, we lived in severe pain. Those days, the radio often broadcast news of the war. We listened to them, and we had no relief at all.
My younger son got shot, while serving in the Mankulam operation His elder brother had told my other son, that he had got injured. He had asked him to go home. So, this son, returned to the village. On his way home he got news of his brother’s death.
My elder son came home in a coffin. By then, our house had been built partially. Today, I live because of this son. I receive his salary. I perform religious rites in his name. A wall was built around the Bo tree in the village temple, in his name. A gate to the Dageba, was made. Wherever I go, I always do charitable things in the name of my sons.
All of my children live well now. All of my children work in the security forces. Today, I live without any trouble, because of them. Since there is no war now, my children live with no fear. But the loss of my dead son, cannot be replaced by anything. Every day, I do charitable things and ask for merit to be bestowed on him in the afterlife.
Now, we live much better than those days. We wish there will never be war again. We wish for a country without war.