Captain Anshuman Singh's widow recalls their first meeting in college: ‘Love at first sight’

Smriti Singh, the widow of Captain Anshuman Singh, broke down as she remembered their last conversation before she received the news of his death.

Updated on: Jul 6, 2024, 17:38:23 IST

Edited by Sanya Jain

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Smriti Singh, the widow of Captain Anshuman Singh, broke down as she remembered their last conversation before she received the news of his death.

Capt Anshuman Singh's mother and widow receive his Kirti Chakra from President Droupadi Murmu.

Captain Anshuman Singh was on Friday awarded the Kirti Chakra, India's second-highest gallantry award, posthumously for his bravery during a fire incident in Siachen. His mother and his widow, Smriti Singh, accepted the Kirti Chakra from President Droupadi Murmu.

Smriti Singh spoke about their first meeting and their marriage as she recalled her husband’s heroic sacrifice.

Captain Anshuman Singh, a doctor with the Army Medical Corps, 26TH Battalion Punjab Regiment, was awarded for exhibiting “exceptional bravery and resolve to rescue many people in a major fire incident.” He rushed into a burning structure in the early hours of July 19, 2023, and managed to rescue four to five people trapped inside.

Unfortunately, Captain Singh succumbed to injuries he sustained in the fire.

“Love at first sight”

"He would tell me, 'I will die with the brass on my chest. I would not die an ordinary death,'" his widow Smriti Singh recalled.

She spoke about their first meeting at an engineering college, their eight-year-long love story and subsequent wedding and their last conversation. The young widow struggled to compose herself as she recalled how they planned their future over a phone call just one day before she received the tragic news.

“We met on the first day of college. I don't want to be dramatic but it was love at first sight,” she said. “After a month, he got selected into the Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC). We met at an engineering college but then he got selected in a medical college. Super intelligent guy.

“From then on, after just one month of meeting, it was a long-distance relationship for eight long years. Then we decided to get married. Unfortunately, within two months of our marriage, he got posted in Siachen,” she revealed.

“On July 18, we had a long conversation about how our life would be in the next 50 years. We were going to build a house, we were going to have kids…” a visibly emotional Smriti Singh recalled in a heart-wrenching video.

“On July 19 morning, I got a call that he is no more,” she added.

“Now that I have the Kirti Chakra in my hand, maybe it is true. But it's okay, he's a hero. We can manage a little of our lives. He has given all his life to save other families, his army family,” she concluded.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sanya Jain
Sanya Jain is an Assistant Editor with Hindustan Times Digital. She has nearly a decade of experience in covering offbeat stories that speak to the everyday experience - from viral videos to human interest copies that spark conversation. Her interests stretch across business, pop culture, social media trends, entertainment and global affairs. Before joining Hindustan Times, Sanya spent two years with Moneycontrol and five years with NDTV. She holds an undergraduate degree in English literature from St Stephen’s College, Delhi, and a master’s in journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications, Mumbai. Sanya has a sharp eye for spotting emerging trends and looking for newsworthy angles to elevate viral posts into meaningful narratives. She was the first one, for example, to cover Narayana Murthy’s remark on 70-hour work weeks that sparked a national conversation. She is equally at ease writing about business leaders as about the common man, about issues of national importance and memes that amuse social media. Sanya enjoys speaking with content creators, newsmakers and entrepreneurs to transform everyday moments into engaging, slice-of-life stories that resonate with readers. When she is not working, Sanya can be found curled up with a good book. Born and raised in Lucknow, she has spent the last several years in Delhi. She is deeply interested in animal welfare and now spends a lot of her time running after her destructive orange cat.Read More

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