145;I can146;t believe it, it146;s only a matter of days146;

8216;8216;My father is coming home tomorrow.8217;8217; Kuldeep, the five-year-old daughter of Lance Naik Jagsir Singh, makes a song out ...

8216;8216;My father is coming home tomorrow.8217;8217; Kuldeep, the five-year-old daughter of Lance Naik Jagsir Singh, makes a song out of this sentence as she skips around the courtyard of her house waving her father8217;s photo like a trophy.

Actually, Jagsir is slated to return on August 9 but it8217;s the word 8216;8216;return8217;8217; that the child has latched on to.

8216;8216;I can8217;t believe it,8217;8217; her grandmother Chotto Kaur told The Indian Express today. And then, sinking into a broken cot, the old woman, whose husband died waiting for Jagsir, began to cry silently. 8216;8216;Are you sure?8217;8217; she sobbed, listing the empty assurances that have been come her way all these five years ever since Jagsir disappeared. An since his wife, unable to face the uncertainty, left for her family home soon after Kuldeep was born.

Within minutes, the courtyard begins to fill up. A curious neighbour passing by has spread the good news. And Jagsir8217;s maternal uncle Kulwant Singh is the first one to arrive. 8216;8216;But if this is true, why has the Army not called us up?8217;8217; he asks.

But Jagsir8217;s sister Melo lets her happiness brim over, hugging Kuldeep, and offering gur all around. But she also has her reservations. 8216;8216;I don8217;t think the Army will hand him over to us so soon. After all, first they will interrogate him,8217;8217; she says.

Regardless of this, the village elders are busy firming up plans for a warm reception. As Darshan Singh puts it: 8216;8216;We will first hold an akhand path and then a grand reception with bhangra.8217;8217; Kuldeep too pitches in with plans of her own. 8216;8216;I will give him tea, biscuits and barfi,8217;8217; she smiles.

Iqbal, Jagsir8217;s best friend, is besides himself with joy. 8216;8216;Last week, I got a call from Naresh Kumar of Rawalpindi. He introduced himself as Jagsir8217;s well-wisher and said all his paperwork was complete, and that he would come home soon.8217;8217;

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Jagsir also wrote another letter to him, asking him to send him scribblings by his daughter. 8216;8216;Besides this, he asked me to visit his colleague Arif Mohammad8217;s home in Meerut as his letters had not been answered.8217;8217;

But now, all that is in the past. It8217;s Jagsir himself that they are looking forward to. Chotto says it all as she murmurs: 8216;8216;Can you imagine, it8217;s only a matter of days.8217;8217;