Today is a red-letter day in rifleman Jigmet Orgyan’s life. The 35-year-old former Indian army rifleman will wake up in Ladakh and walk down to a Republic Day function in his town to salute the national flag. He won’t be able to see the flag. He’s completely blind now. But he says just the fact that he will be able to salute the flag again, makes him very happy. For Orgyan has just got his two hands back — 12 years after he lost both his limbs in a horrific landmine explosion as he prepared to fight for his country’s honour near the Indo-Pak border.

Jigmet Orgyan saluting the tricolour in Ladakh. Now, he works as a psychological counsellor

Speaking to Sunday Mid Day over the telephone from Ladakh, the former armyman said back then in 2002 he often thought death would be better than his condition — he had lost his eyesight and his arms in the blast as he was laying the mines during Operation Parakram — a massive military build up by the Indian army on the Indo-Pak border in retaliation against the cowardly terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament in December 2001.