Reportage: Archana Masih. Photograph: Seema Pant. Design: Dominic Xavier, Rajesh Karkera

Vikram had met her at university and planned to marry her when he returned from the war.

'Make it a point to meet her whenever you are in Chandigarh,' Vikram had told Vishal when he left to join the army and Vishal had kept the promise.

Five days before Vikram's death, he was in Chandigarh and she came to see him at the station.

As Vishal stepped onto the platform, she called out his name and said, 'This time make sure to marry me off.'

'Pucca,' he replied.

When the news came, Vishal could not muster the courage to speak to her. At the funeral she stood with her parents and wept quietly.

Five years after she lost the only man she loved, his cards and the stuffed teddy he gave her still adorn her cupboard.

She is a teacher now and has sworn to never marry.

Vikram's parents tried to make her change her mind but it has all been in vain.

Like all mothers, Mrs Batra had hoped that her son would be married. He would have a wife, kids and she would see the next generation.

Last year, when Vishal was getting married in Chandigarh, she missed Vikram.

He should have been a groom alongside his identical twin, she thought.

As the band played merry wedding songs, as the shehnai boded the auspicious hour -- Kamal Batra cried for the son she had lost to the country.