Sahibganj (Jharkhand): Kundan Kumar Ojha, blessed with a daughter just 17 days ago, had promised his mother over the phone that he would be home as soon as he got leave from duty.
That was the last his family had heard from the 28-year-old soldier, who was among the 20 Army personnel killed in a fierce clash with Chinese troops in eastern Ladakh's Galwan Valley on Monday night.
The second of the four children of farmer Ravi Shankar Ojha and Bhawani Devi from Dihari village in Sahibganj district, he had joined the Army in 2011 in Danapur. The young man had tied the knot a year and a half ago.
"Abhi to Ladakh mein banni, aur chhuti mili taab betiki dekhe aai'' (I am in Ladakh now, will come as soon as I get leave)," were his final few words to Bhawani Devi on June 7, the braveheart's cousin Prabhat Kumar said.
Mr Ojha's parents were too overcome with emotion to even speak.
"He always had that ''junoon'' (passion) to join the Indian Army. He used to wake up at 3 am to start his daily exercises as part of his preparations," his cousin said in a choked voice.
Monday's clash, the biggest confrontation between the two militaries since the 1967 clashes in Nathu La, has significantly escalated the already-volatile border standoff in the Ladakh region.