Naik R. Kamaraj, 34, of 117 Infantry Battalion

In his last letter to her, Kamaraj promised his wife Dhanalakshmi he'd be home by June 11, their sixth wedding anniversary. Little known to her, Death was notching up June 10 as an anniversary of another kind. "First it was the Northeast, then the north. I used to think the border he's serving is actually the border between life and death," recalls his father, M. Rajagopalan, an ex-teacher. His mother Krishnaveni admits it was his money that helped them marry off their three daughters; send their youngest son to Saudi Arabia. Now Kamaraj was looking forward to returning for good, after completing the mandatory service period on January 3, 2000. Fate willed otherwise.