Time is a healer they say, but for Laksmi Maske, who lost her husband, Lance Naik Bharath Baban Maske in the 1999 Kargil war, the process has not been easy. “It has been tough coping with my husband's death,” she confesses. What kept her going, however, were her children. And despite losing her husband in the war Lakshmi is hoping her two sons will join the armed forces too.
Bharath Meske died fighting the insurgents in the Pung sector on July 20, 1999, a week before the Indian armed forces flushed out the enemy soldiers. “Even today I remember the phonecall I received from my relatives telling me about my husband’s death. I had only prayed for his safe return during the war, but it was not to be. It was my children who gave me the strength to go on and today they are both doing well in their studies and I hope they will take up a career in the army like their father,” adds Lakshmi who now lives with her in-laws in Belgaum.
Her wish may come true as her older son, Deepak, who is in college, is keen on joining the armed forces like his father. Come Vijay Diwas and Lakshmi like other war widows visits the memorial built for her husband and the other soldiers who died fighting for their country in the Kargil war. “ I visit the memorial in Dharwad district every year. This year too I plan to visit it with my children. The memorial has been built in honour of my husband and 13 other soldiers who were martyred in the Kargil war from Karnataka. All the sadness that I felt on losing my husband comes rushing back on Vijay Diwas , but somewhere in my heart I feel proud that he died fighting the enemy,” she says.
Before she married Bharath she never thought she would have a husband serving in the armed forces, she admits. "But once he started on the job Bharath would tell me about his tasks on the border. I never dreamt , however, that I would be a war widow," the brave woman adds, grateful for the help she and her family have received from the army in the years since her husband's death.