``The spirit is not willing to give up. So what if I am injured. I want to be there, fighting our country's enemy,'' he said, impatient with the doctors in attendance at the Kirkee Military Hospital here, wanting to get on with the more important things in life.

Pawar, who hails from Satara, has spent just three years in the army in the 6 Maratha Infantry Regiment. His parents? ``What about them'' he shoots back, ``they know I am with the army. These things are not unexpected,''. Dismissing his thigh injury which may take months to heal, Pawar feels he is among the fortunate ones.

Some of his comrades are yet to come to terms with their injuries - the battle scars they have carried back home from Operation Vijay.

Twenty-five-year-old Lance Naik Gurdeep Singh of 8 J&K LI unit has lost his eyesight and badly injured his legs. Hit by multiple splinters when a grenade went off his hands in the Poonch sector, he stares vacantly in space and replies in monosyllables to queries. Only his cousin who has come all the way from Punjab to be with him, succeeds in eliciting some response. Of the eight injured soldiers brought to Military Hospital (MH), Kirkee in the last fortnight, Commandant Brig P S R Aiyer admits to being worried about him. ``I make sure that I spend some time with him everyday. We just may be able to save the vision in his left eye,'' he said.

Havaldar Anil Nalawade got his legs splintered by an enemy shell while capturing 5041 point in the Drass sector. His parents from Satara now make frequent trips to the hospital to meet him. A war veteran, he participated in Operation Blue Star and was also part of the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) at Sri Lanka. ``My parents are grateful that I have come back alive. That is all they wanted.'' he said. Given an opportunity, he would definitely prefer to be back to action action. His colleagues Naik Balbir Singh, Sepoy T D Rathod, Havaldar Rajen Singh and Havaldar Kunwar Singh echo similar sentiments.

Located on an expanse of a 100-odd acres, this military hospital, established 50 years ago, has treated combat casualties during various wars on the frontiers in 1962, 1965, 1971 and the Sri Lanka operations. From a humble beginning of a convalescing hospital in World War II to its formal inception of a 400 bedded hospital in 1949, MH, Kirkee has the unique distinction of establishing the first and largest spinal cord injury centre not only in the country but in South and East Asia too.

Commandant Brig Aiyer is optimistic about the injured soldiers brought here for treatment from the Kargil operations. ``When they come back from a war, their morale is high and that takes care of a major portion of the treatment.'' The major challenge for him, however, is to nurture the recovery of the bed-ridden paraplegic and tetraplegic patients from total dependence on health support systems to excelling in a number of fields. Some of them have won laurels in national and international sports events. And that is just the beginning.