Reportage: Archana Masih. Photograph: Seema Pant. Design: Dominic Xavier, Rajesh Karkera

Vikram Batra would have joined the Merchant Navy. He was to join the ship in Hong Kong. His uniform had been stitched, his tickets booked.

But he changed his mind.

A decade later, his decision would become the opening line of an Indian Oil print campaign. The public sector company paid tribute to the Kargil hero and lauded him for rejecting a lucrative career for the service of the nation.

'Sometimes an ordinary Indian can make a Rs 120,000 crore company feel humble. For every step we take, there's an inspired Indian leading the way,' read the ad copy, alongside a black-and-white etching of Captain Batra.

A framed picture of the text hangs in the petrol pump awarded in his honour to his parents. The advertising agency also sent the etching, which Mr Batra has kept carefully.

On the wall on the other side is a photo-copy of a magazine feature commemorating 'The Lives and Good Times of a Country.' Vikram heads the list of heroes.

In one entrance test for the Indian Administrative Service, says Mrs Batra, one of the questions was -- 'Name the peaks captured by Captain Vikram Batra?'

"It is very rare and our good fortune that we were given a son like him who put the country first."