Retired Major General cycles through 29 states in honour of fallen soldiers

Major General Somnath Jha served the Indian Army for 37 years and when he retired, he wanted to honour all those soldiers who gave up their lives in the line of duty. He decided to cycle through all the states of India to pay tribute to the fallen soldiers. Jha was part of the 8th Jammu & Kashmir Light Infantry and just 18 days after his retirement, he began his journey from the Ambala Cantonment, where he had retired, on October 2016. Jha wanted to dedicate 2 minutes of his journey to each of the soldiers who lost their lives defending the country since independence. The number worked up to 21,000 and he decided that he will have to cycle for 7 months.  The only motivation that put Jha on this mission was his gratitude and respect for the fallen soldiers. He opines that the soldiers gave the supreme sacrifice of their life for the country and therefore, they deserved to be honoured and remembered. He cycled for 42,000 minutes across 29 states over a period of seven months. All the way he was greeted with great enthusiasm and he was touched by the response of all the people whom he met in the course of his journey as he realized that his countrymen have great reverence for soldiers. He concluded his journey by paying homage at the Amar Jawan Jyoti in New Delhi where he laid  a wreath in tribute to fallen comrades.