Ganesh Kunjam, a resident of a nondescript village in Chhattisgarh’s Kanker district, last came home in January this year.
The parents of the 27-year-old Indian Army soldier had fixed his wedding during that visit to Kukurtola in Bastar region of the state.
He was among the 20 soldiers who lost their lives in the clash with Chinese troops in Galwan Valley of eastern Ladakh on Monday night.
“In January, his parents fixed his marriage… He was going to be married on his next visit,” Surya Nevendra, a childhood friend of Ganesh’s, said.
“His parents and his uncle live in a joint family. He had recently built a house and spent about Rs 10 lakh of his savings,” said Navendra.
Tiharu Ram Kunjam, Ganesh’s uncle, said he got a call from an army official who told him about his nephew’s death.
He was speaking from Kashmir and said that Ganesh had got martyred on the China border. He told us to watch TV and when I switched on the TV, I got to know about three deaths, which did not include Ganesh.
“Ganesh has two sisters. One of them is married and another sister lives in Pune,” Tiharu Ram said and added that Ganesh had joined the army in 2011.