The home of Naik Neeraj Raghav who lost his life fighting infiltrators in Kupwara in North Kashmir.
The road narrows as it meanders to a large green gate with pink walls. Inside, a bright pink shamiana shelters people from the scorching sun. There is no chance of mistaking the large gathering for a celebration. The corners echo the cries of a young wife who has seen her husband come home in a body bag a fortnight after he left home, promising to be back soon.
This is the home of Naik Neeraj Raghav of 57 Rashtriya Rifles who lost his life fighting infiltrators in Kupwara in North Kashmir. His relative Abresh Raghav tells us, "The army men who accompanied Neeraj's remains told us that when the helicopter came to evacuate him, he was still alive. He had said to them that had he had shot at least four infiltrators and had he a little more life left in him, he would have killed more. We are very proud of him."
Naik Neeraj Raghav, 32, didn't make it alive to the army medical camp that he was flown to. Over a decade ago, he broke with the tradition of a family of farmers to join the army. His two sons are too young to understand why the whole village has descended on their home, or why their mother is inconsolable.
Ombir Singh, Naik Neeraj Raghav's father tells NDTV, "Is it too much to ask for some respect for the dead? Is it too much to ask for some leader to meet us, to give us some assurance that the government will not abandon us? My son died fighting for our country. He's not going to come back now, is he? It is up to me to make sure his family is taken care of," he says, his eyes bright with tears.
This morning he refused to cremate his son till Home Minister Rajnath Singh finally spoke to him assuring all help. 70 km away in Baahpur, in western UP, Grenadier Rahul Kumar's father also had some questions for the government. "We were promised achche din (good days). Where are they? We were promised tougher action along the border, where are the achche din we were promised?" asks Jai Kishen Singh whose 23-year-old son has also just died fighting militants in Kashmir.
In just this month, there have been 23 ceasefire violations by Pakistan along the Line of Control and over 75 from the beginning of the year. At the home of the martyrs, there is a sense of pride and betrayal. But most of all there is the searching question- "Will my son's sacrifice go in vain?"