A serpentine, potholed road leaves the highway to wind through the yellow fields of mustard. After travelling around 5km along this road, you reach a house in Rathdhana village in Haryana's Sonepat district. This is where the late Assistant Sub-Inspector Nanak Chand's family -- his wife Ganga Devi, their younger son Inder Jeet, and two younger daughters -- live. Their eldest daughter, Parmila, is married. Their eldest son, Dharam Veer, now works with the Delhi police.
Outside the house, which is under construction, there stands a half-built memorial to Chand. It is his 45 year-old wife's dream to complete the memorial.
Inder Jeet, 22, talks of life after December 13, 2001.
Inder Jeet: I was at home when the attack took place. We got a call in the evening and I went to the hospital with my brother [Dharam Veer]. Our father was dead. We didn't have the courage to tell our mother; we didn't know how to tell her. We told her the next day.
She has changed entirely after the incident. Earlier, it was my father who took care of the family. He was the one who took all the decisions. Suddenly, she was responsible for everything at a time when her world had shattered. But she didn't show it to us, though she still cries when she is alone.
It was a shock for us. We never thought something like this would happen to us. We don't even have any close relative here. But life has to move on.
My brother has joined the police force and is under training in Delhi. He got the job in place of my father. I stay here with my mother and sisters who would otherwise be alone.
At the moment, my mother has gone to attend my cousin's wedding in Gurgaon. I have to stay here since my sisters are alone. There is no guardian at home. We are also building this house. My father wanted to build a good house. We have invested some of the money we got after my father's death in this house. The rest of the money has been kept aside for the marriage of my sisters.
Though we got money from the police department, the government is yet to give us anything. The [Haryana] chief minister [Om Prakash Chautala] gave us a paper in which it was written that they would give us Rs 1,00,000. That was it. They announce these things so that it is published in the newspapers.
The government officials don't help us. They didn't allow my mother to meet the chief minister when she went to his office. The chief minister came to the neighbouring villages twice. My mother went to meet him and to tell him that she had not yet got the money. But the policemen pushed her way. She returned home in tears. Since then, we have stopped approaching the officials.
We were called to Parliament last year, where we were given papers that gave us permission to open a petrol station. That too was only on paper.
I am planning to appear for the Class X exams this year. I also want to join the police force.
Now, our only dream is to build a memorial for my father near our house. The last sarpanch [village headman] had allotted us the land, but the new sarpanch has stopped construction of the memorial. He is also a Dalit like us, so I don't understand why he is opposing the memorial. We want a small place for it. We want to put my father's statue there so that people will remember his sacrifice. That's my mother's dream. Now it looks like it will never come true.