Reportage: Archana Masih. Photographs: Seema Pant. Design: Dominic Xavier

Eighty thousand e-mails.

Innumerable phone calls.

Letters delivered in sacks from the Palampur post office.

The support was heartening. "The respect and affection that we have received is unprecedented," says Dr Kalia. "There are so many martyrs in this country, but scarcely has anyone received so much."

When the second floor of his house was being built, he had a room dedicated to Saurabh and called it The Saurabh Kalia memorial room.

His uniforms, a black tin trunk, the only three photographs of his in uniform, his voter's card, 6 pairs of shoes, a bottle of Chelpark ink, an alarm clock with 'Kalia' written on it, Park Avenue after shave, a poster of Aishwarya Rai from his room at the Indian Military Academy, the wallet recovered from his body…

The room is a temple to a soldier's memory, every article preserved with the care that only parents can bring.

In the centre is a picture of him with his mother. His last at home. She is packing his bags for the Academy while he irons his clothes.

They are both laughing.

The most touching is a cancelled State Bank of India cheque book for his salaried account.

The officer had signed some blank cheques for his mother. Whatever money you need, withdraw it, he had told her.

She never did.

Neither did he, because Lt Kalia's first salary was transferred into his account after he died.