Captain Davinder Singh Jass

AT 23, Devinder Singh Jass had the world at his feet. Armed with an engineering degree and three months away from his MBA, Jass had already landed a job in one of the world's top accounting firms, Deloitte.

But fate, as they call it, had other ideas.

Ever since childhood, Jass had wanted to join the army. Having completed his schooling from Guru Har Kishan Public School near India Gate, he enrolled for a degree in computer engineering at IIIT, Allahabad.

While pursuing engineering, he applied for the army but could not clear the test.

He then enrolled for MBA at GLA, Mathura.

He tried once again to get into the army and a few months before getting his MBA degree, he joined the Indian Military Academy (IMA).

From there on he volunteered for the special forces and after three months of gruelling training, he was inducted into the 1 Parachute Regiment. He was posted in Kupwara.

On Tuesday, 26-year-old Captain Jass along with Naik Selva Kumar and paratrooper Imtiyaz Ahmad Thokar died fighting terrorists in Sopore's Chinkipora area, 54 kilometres from Srinagar.

The only son of Dalbir Kaur and Bhupinder Singh, Captain Jass was supposed to be home for Holi at their Mahagun Mansion in Indirapuram.

Instead, his father will be receiving the body on Thursday.

"I am a believer in fate. If something has to happen, you can't prevent it," Bhupinder said philosophically.

Captain Jass's mother is sick and bedridden while his elder sister Harpreet is a professor of education at Jamia Millia University.

"Very few people get to do what they want in life. That way, he was lucky to have achieved what he wanted," Bhupinder added.

"Since childhood he was very passionate about joining the Indian Army. We left the choice to him," he said.

A soft-spoken man, Captain Devender singh Jass was full of courage. "He was never afraid of taking risks. He opted to become a para-commando and went for training with 1 Para in J& K. He said he was very happy." Talking about his son, Bhupinder said, "He was so adamant to join the army that he took the entrance exam a second time and cleared it.

"He had three months to go for the completion of his MBA programme when a private firm selected him through campus placement." The last time his parents talked to him was on Saturday. He had also spoken to a friend of his on Monday before leaving for the operation to flush out terrorists hiding in a building in Chinkipora.

"Since Tuesday morning, we had this intuition that something was wrong. We even tried to contact him but failed.

"In the evening the Commanding Officer informed us about our son's death. What can we do, we have to accept the reality," Bhupinder said.

Captain Jass and his compatriots at 1 Para got information about the terrorists meeting in a building in Chinkipora. A search was launched and in the gunbattle, Jass, Kumar and Thokar died. Two militants were also killed in the encounter.