A little over two years ago, Nitika Kaul blew a painful farewell kiss at her 'simple and sweet' love story. Standing besides a Tricolour-covered coffin in Dehradun one February day in 2019, she kept asking mourners to stay strong rather. Inside it lay her husband Major Vibhuti Shankar Dhoundiyal. Today, 25 months later, Lt Gen Y K Joshi, chief of the Indian Army's Northern Command, pipped the stars on Lieutenant Nitika Kaul's uniform as she passed out of the Officer's Training Academy, Chennai.