Kashmir avalanche: Thanjavur village mourns its soldier-son's death
A shell shocked Rajagopal and Bhoominathan could scarcely believe their ears.
Thanjavur: An agriculture worker, R. Bhoominathan (56) of Kannanthankudi Keelaiyur village near Orathanadu, 20-km from here, received a phone call from Delhi on Thursday (Republic Day) evening.
As the person, who called him around 7 pm spoke in Hindi, Bhoominathan asked his friend Rajagopal, a Hindi-knowing ex-serviceman of the village to speak over the phone.
The caller identified himself as Commanding Officer of 51 RR battalion of Indian Army and said that Ilavarasan (27), son of Bhoominathan, a solider in the Indian Army was no more. “He was killed in an avalanche in Kashmir valley,” the caller sadly disclosed.
A shell shocked Rajagopal and Bhoominathan could scarcely believe their ears. However, the commanding officer confirmed the death once again and cut the phone stating that he will call them back for further information.
Even as Bhoominathan was refusing to believe the death of his son, news spread in the village amid a pall of gloom at once descending on the place in Thanjavur district.
“I educated my son in the Government higher secondary school here and later at Rajah Serfoji Government Arts College at Thanjavur, with my hard earned money from the work I did as a ‘cooli’. We were happy when he joined the Army after his selection at the recruitment at Tiruchy. He had his training in Gujarat before he was posted in Kashmir. We-my wife Amutha, my younger son and my daughter thought that all our problems are over and Ilavarasan would help in managing the family with his salary. But all our hopes have been dashed when he died on Thursday”, a wailing Bhoominathan, told Deccan Chronicle at his house (a hut) at the village on Friday. Amutha, mother of Ilavarasan and women of the village, who gathered at the house, were inconsolable.
Bhoominathan’s daughter is married and his second son has completed ITI and is at home without a job. Ilavarasan’s house presented an unkempt look with scattered articles and wailing women with the box from the Army in which he kept his things standing as the only testimony. Incidentally, the village Kannanthankudi Keelaiyur accounts for maximum number of servicemen and ex-servicemen in the district.
“Our boys love joining the Army and serve the nation. There are nearly 180 service and ex-servicemen in the village. Next to Katpadi (in Vellore district), our village has given the maximum number of soldiers. There was one death in the early 1960s’ during war. After that no one died and Ilavarasan is the second death in the village while in service in the last 55 years” said Sivagurunathan, an ex-serviceman of the village.
He identifies many as ex-servicemen who came to the house to express their condolences. Many youths presently serving the Army and who came to the village, are on leave.
Ilavarasan, an Economics graduate, joined the Army on his own interest, said his father. Rajesh, another youth of the village, who is serving as a soldier in the Army in Punjab, said that some of the youths have gone to countries like Singapore for work.
As ex-servicemen account for more in this village, they have been given the privilege of conducting a “Mandagapadi” in the village Mariamman temple during festive season. That is a day’s ritual done with money donated by them, said Sivagurunathan. Flex boards and posters condoling the death of Ilavarasan have sprung up at many places in the village, bringing out the intensity of the people’s grief at losing one of their sons.
“We are expecting the body as early as possible. We are in touch with Army officials,” the ex-servicemen said. However, officials here said that body was expected by Tuesday.