India, May 11 -- Her son Lt Vinay Narwal, an officer in the Indian Navy, was shot dead by terrorists at Baisaran Valley in Pahalgam, Kashmir on April 22, just days after his wedding. Asha Narwal, still grappling with the weight of this loss says, "Vinay ki saari yaadein dil ke kareeb hain. Har cheez mein woh mujhe yaad aata hai."

"Bachpan mein Vinay bohot shararti tha," she recalls, adding, "One thing that keeps coming back to me is that whenever he would see soldiers, he would get very excited, run up to them and salute them. I often asked him why he did that. He used to say, 'Mujhe bohot achcha lagta hai'."

Vinay wanted to be in the armed forces from a young age, his mother says: "Jab woh bada hua, toh kabhi kabhi kehta tha ki 'mummy,...