How This Martyr’s Wife Chose To Carry On Her Husband’s Legacy & Join The Army Is A Tribute To Love
chaitra krishnanMA (Journalism & Mass Communication) Experience: 5 yearsChaitra has a triple main bachelor’s degree in journalism, communicative English, and economics from St. Aloysius College, Mangalore, and a master’s degree in journalism and mass communication from St... more
Image: gpm904 / Instagram
We often reduce patriotism to merely decorating our house and cars with the tricolor on Independence Day. How many times have you seen mini flags all over the streets right after the Independence Day?
No matter how religiously we watch the parade, take part in the celebration, or participate in singing the national anthem in movie theatres, all these gestures and emotions can only be considered as a very minuscule part of the deep feeling that is patriotism. As civilians, we lead a comfortable life going to work and coming back home to our family, knowing that we are safe. This feeling of safety is attained by putting another’s life at risk. It is earned for us by more than a million brave hearts of the Indian Armed Forces who guard the borders and lay down their lives to protect each one of us. When an army personnel is martyred, we, the people, for whom he gave up his life, often forget his sacrifice in just days. But for his family, it’s a lifetime of sorrow and inexplicable loss. One such family is that of Major Prasad Ganesh Mahadik’s.
Major Prasad Ganesh died in a fire accident in 2017 that happened near the India-China border. His wife, Gauri Mahadik’s world came crumbling down when she heard the news. However, she didn’t want to sit at home and cry because to her, that would be an insult to the memory of her late husband. So, she decided to take up his ideals as her own and embark on his journey that he couldn’t complete. Gauri, who was a qualified lawyer and company secretary at a firm decided to quit her job and prepare for the Services Selection Board (SSB) exam. Even though she couldn’t crack it in her first attempt, Gauri topped the exam in her second attempt among sixteen other candidates in the widow category. Here’s how Gauri Prasad Mahadikis converting her sorrow into strength by joining the army herself.
Gauri, at the age of 31 joined the Officers Training Academy (OTA), Chennai in April, earlier this year. She will officially join the army as a lieutenant after completing the mandatory training period of one year at the Academy. In an Instagram post by Humans of Bombay, Gauri narrated her love story with Major Prasad Mahadik:
“I met Prasad on a matrimonial site. The first time we spoke was on 22nd February 2014. He told me he was a Captain in the Indian army. It came as a shock, but he was sincere & down to earth–I loved that. After we met a few times, he proposed at Marine Drive. I said, ‘of course, Captain’. Still, he told me to think about it–being married to an army man wasn’t easy. Even his dad said, ‘Anything can happen, at any time’. But I said that anything can happen to a civilian & it’d be my privilege to be married to a man who was protecting civilians.”
She said that even though they met in 2014, their engagement got postponed three times because of the nature of her then fiancé’s job. They finally got married in 2015 after which Major Prasad stayed away from home for prolonged periods. “We were different; I was talkative & he, reserved. Still, we fit, even though he was away for long periods of time. It was difficult–we didn’t talk for days. But when he called, he always said ‘Everything’s fine’…even if it wasn’t. Once he hadn’t called for a week. I was terrified, but on the 7th day he got in touch–I craved his voice,” she said in the post.
Gauri used to miss her husband so much that she took around 36,000 photos of his and recorded their calls. These photographs and call recordings were the only things she had whenever he was away from home and she was worried about him. She said that whenever she wanted to listen to him say “I love you,” she would listen to those recordings. She recollects the day she got the phone call that brought her the most painful news of her life – her husband’s demise. “We’d just spoken the previous evening & even argued. I couldn’t believe it. For the next 3 days I kept thinking he’d come back. But I made my peace knowing that he died doing what he loved–serving our country,” she said.
Gauri describes Major Prasad Mahadik as a man who loved his country and who never complained about the toils that he went through to protect his motherland. She said that he was happy even if he was camping at a place where the temperature is -15 degrees. Gauri says that an army wife has to accept that her husband’s first love is the country.
After getting through the SSB exam with flying colors, she said, “For the first time since he passed, I’m not afraid. In fact, I feel strong and invincible, just like he was & just like that, my life is for our country & I’ll defend it until the day I die.” We salute Gauri’s spirit and her love for her husband. You are a true hero!
