It has been decades, and yet, Dr Ranjana Malik clearly remembers soldiers arriving at field hospitals from Kargil, injured and in a state of shock. “Many of us went around from person to person, speaking to them, and allaying their fears and anxieties. We were keen that they connect with their families, and began to reach out to civilians to visit hospitals with their phones, so that they could facilitate this,” she recalls, of her time as the former president of the Army Wives Welfare Association (AWWA).
Twenty-fve years on, Chennai played host to the commemoration of the Kargil War and its many stories of courage, valour, sacrifice and comradeship at the Radiant Wellness conclave, which brought together a host of speakers who reflected on the war and its aftermath. Speaking about the role of women in the Kargil war, Dr Ranjana was joined by Captain Yashika Hatwal Tyagi (retd) and Anitha Ravindranath in a fireside chat hosted by Dr Renuka David, founder, Radiant Wellness. “I still have wives of these soldiers and veer naris (war widows) come up to me and speak about the work AWWA did during the war on the sidelines.
When the bodies of soldiers started coming into the special airport in New Delhi, AWWA members stood by and supported many women who had lost their husbands and had no family there to rely on,” Dr Ranjana said. Recalling how they used to send cards to soldiers on the frontlines, she also said that they decided to send sweets to them, and many of the AWWA .