I am a resident of Brahmavali village in Uttar Pradesh’s Sitapur. The story of my father Vivek Bhushan Trivedi’s extraordinary life was narrated to me by my grandmother on a day when I had been reprimanded by him. She shared with me that when my father had just reached adulthood, he left the house without informing anybody.

Entire village searched for him but he was nowhere to be found. My grandmother was worried that my father was the sole heir of the family’s fortunes and he had just disappeared.

Almost six months later, a letter was posted to my house by my mother who wrote to inform me that he was receiving army training at Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh’s Jabalpur. When he returned from his training, all the servants in my house gathered and asked him what was the need to join the army when he belongs to a rich family of zamindar [landlord].

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He replied that he had joined the army for the country, not for himself. After getting commissioned in the army, my father also fought the Indo-Pak war of 1971 and won many medals.

After retirement, he decided to teach the children in the village for free. The parents were keen to send their kids to my father as they wanted them to match my father’s discipline.

However, my father was always disappointed with me as he wanted me to join the armed forces but I wasn’t interested. I had seen my father’s life and had decided to serve my country by being a farmer.

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I had to flee to Hardoi and joined the Sugar Industry & Cane Development Department as a government servant. When I returned to my house, my father was still angry at me.

One day, while listening to news on his radio in 1999, he got to know about the Kargil war. He immediately got up in anger to reprimand me for not joining the army. I, however, explained to him that had I known that my country would be at war in two years, I would have surely joined the army in 1997.

Nevertheless, till his death in 2017, my father remained popular as ‘fauji teacher’ in the village and taught hundreds of children from the village, many of whom are doing great in life.