Reportage: Archana Masih| Photograph: Seema Pant

The Indian Army was engaged in one of its most important overseas missions when Sudhir Walia graduated from the Indian Military Academy as an officer of the 3 Jat Regiment in 1988.

The mission would later be referred to as India's Vietnam.

Seventy thousand Indian troops were sent to Sri Lanka to enforce peace between the Sri Lankan army and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

Lieutenant Sudhir Walia was one of them.

India withdrew its troops in 1990 and lost 1,157 soldiers on that peacekeeping mission.

Sudhir made a mark for himself with his skills in jungle warfare. On his return from Sri Lanka, he moved to the 9 Parachute Commando regiment, the Indian Army's unit for unconventional warfare.

9 Para is one of the Indian Army's four special forces and specialises in mountain operations.

He served two six month stints on the Siachen Glacier -- the highest and harshest of all battlefields at a height of 6,300 metres and excelled in high altitude warfare.

Two years before he was killed, he was selected from amongst the best of India's commandos and sent for a specialised course to the United States.

As a soldier, the farthest Rulia Ram had gone was standing watch over India's international borders.

But his son had travelled from his village to "The Pentagon -- he went and spoke over there," says his father swelling with pride.

Many times, while Sudhir was away at the front or in America, Rulia Ram sat on his verandah and thought of the days he had walked 15 miles to get to work.

His son had made it all worthwhile.