The courtyard wore an air of desertion, even despair. On May 2, Naib Subedar Paramjit Singh of the Army's 22 Sikh infantry, who was killed in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district, lay here amid his loved ones, draped in the national flag. His last rites were attended by thousands from across the border district of Tarn Taran. Four days on, in Vein Poin village, his wife and three children sit in silence, holding each other. Khushdeep, the youngest of Paramjit Singh's daughters, only 12, holds a photo of her father close to her. A new ray of hope has now appeared for the family. A young, Muslim civil servant couple from Himachal Pradesh has decided to adopt Khushdeep, or Khushi, as she is known to her loved ones.
