This piece of fiction does not allude to any real incident and in no way portrays a real protagonist. THE FULL MOON He picked up one of two army medals from the briefcase and directed it with a steady, nonchalant motion of his hand to flames of the Amar Jawan Jyoti. The fabric of the medal caught fire and the flames ran with ease all over it. He held it till the flames burnt most of medal; it appeared as if a pain was retreating from his eyes as the flames turned the medal into black burnt flakes. In his impatience he left the remains of the nearly burnt medal near the foot of Amar Jawan Jyoti Column and reached for the other medal lying in the briefcase. This too, he torched and held the medal on flames with an insouciant equanimity and a relief settling on his visage. He looked at the tall column of concrete that was Amar Jawan Jyoti with numerous names of martyrs of Indian Military written all over it, and then looked at his burnt medals. The relief on his face could hardly be mistaken: it was the relief of having immersed two idols of worship, possessed and held long in great respect, in the sacred river of Amar Jawan Jyoti, as in the impending stretch of his years of 'renouncement and atheism', the idols could become an unmanageable burden to him.
