Click for bigger image

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

A fortnight after he became the face of the Indian soldier in the Kargil war, Vikram Batra died.

He was mortally wounded on the morning of July 8 after fighting through the night while recapturing Peak 4875. He was ill but had insisted that he was fit for the mission and completed it in a manner that put him alongside some of India's greatest military heroes.

Vikram with his men had begun a tortuous climb to strengthen the flanks of the Indian troops fighting the invaders at 16,000 feet.

The conditions were extremely tough, the climb steep. At a gradient of 80 degrees, the thick fog made the advance even more precarious.

The enemy got wind of Batra's arrival. They knew who Sher Shah was, by now his military prowess had become the stuff of legend.