Chapter 2: Chapter 2 — The Weight of the Uniform

Life among Indian border soldiers was simple and heavy.

Wake before the sun.
Patrol before breakfast.
Smile before fear.

Arjun learned fast. He learned the sound of snow shifting under distant boots. He learned how to read clouds for storms. He learned that silence was never empty.

One evening, they shared tea in steel cups while the temperature dropped below freezing.

“Miss home?”
Raghav asked.

“Every day.”

“Then why do you smile so much?”

Arjun looked at the tricolor flag flapping above their post.

“Because I know who I’m smiling for.”

That night, Arjun wrote to his sister in Delhi:

I guard your tomorrow.