The confident brushstrokes belie the fact that this objet d’art was crafted by someone with always a finger on the trigger, ready to do or die for the country. Rifleman Padam Bahadur Thapa (21) from the 4th battalion of 3 Gorkha Rifles — who was killed in battle during the 1999 Kargil war — was the creator of this silhouette of a Gorkha soldier resplendent in his trademark Gorkha hat. On the occasion of the country’s 66th Independence Day, the Gorkha regiments adopted Thapa’s masterpiece as their emblem.