Ajmer, Rajasthan, Feb. 01, 2006 (SAR News):

Major James Thomas who lost his life fighting intruders along the Line of Control in the Poonch sector of Jammu and Kashmir in the wee hours of January 28 was laid to rest with full state honours in Bikaner, January 30.

Married three years ago, Major Thomas leaves behind wife Neeta, their one-and-a-half year-old daughter, mother, two brothers and two sisters.

Shops and business establishments in the north-western district of Rajasthan remained closed till noon as a mark of respect to the martyr. A pall of gloom laced with national pride hung over the entire desert town of Bikaner. Crowds of people from all walks of life paid condolences to the bereaved family and thronged the cemetery to bid a tearful farewell to a brave son of their motherland. The funeral was held amid tight security.

Incidentally, the funeral coincided with the commemoration of Martyrs’ Day in memory of Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination.

Retired schoolteacher, Marykutty, mother of 32-year-old Major Thomas, was inconsolable on hearing of the death of her youngest son. She said he was at home with the family in Bikaner barely a month ago but was busy visiting all his friends. Little did she know it would be his last goodbye.

Bishop Ignatius Menezes of Ajmer and Bishop Oswald Lewis of Jaipur undertook an arduous journey to Bikaner to pay their last respects and preside over the funeral rites of “an exemplary Catholic who lived not for himself but for others”.

Ajmer-based Preeti Kerketta remembers him as a “very confident youth”. She said he was part of the Rajasthan Catholic delegation at the National Youth Convention in Bangalore eight years ago. He was president of the Bikaner Youth Association then.

“Having graduated in science, Major Thomas had passed the tough entrance examination for a lucrative career in Business Management but had preferred to do something different. He had joined the army just four years ago,” she said.

Preeti recalls greeting him telephonically on the New Year’s Day when he had come to Bikaner. Ironically, he was quite optimistic of being decorated with a medal this Republic Day for “a successful encounter with terrorists two years ago”, she said.

Father Mathew Kumpuckal, Principal of Bikaner Boys School, Bikaner, held a condolence meeting the following day for Major Thomas, a past pupil of the school.

The district magistrate, municipal commissioner, defence personnel from the Army, Border Security Force and Air Force were among the dignitaries present on the occasion.