He was just 21 !?

Mid term breaks are something that everyone looks forward to at NDA,for we get a 5-day break from our routine :
5-days of continuous sleep, 5 days of liberty, 5 days of guests , 5 days of girls, 5 days of sleep (ok I mentioned sleep before but.. then…sleep……its divine for us)
During my fourth semester mid term break she had come over to Pune all the way from Bangalore just to see me. It was her first time in Pune. She wanted to see around the city, do her usual curios shopping , wanted to learn about some tribal painting [she took ‘Indian Culture’ Classes at a school in B’lore] and above all she wanted to see NDA for herself. The NDA about which I had vividly [ to be honest a bit too vividly] described to her.

She came over to NDA on that Saturday morning [beautiful she was as always] I received her at the gate and welcomed her to the cradle of military leadership. Since it was the fourth day of my break and she was to depart the next day to Bangalore I had to take her through a very speedy sight seeing around NDA. I took her to all the buildings and monuments,within the 8000+ acres, rich and vibrant in their grandness and splendid architecture.
I also took her to the Sudan block , the main building of the NDA. The central foyer of the Sudan block is a white marble floored, white marble walled, white marble pillared circular hall. On those shiny white marble walls hung huge portraits of those great alumnus of NDA who had laid down their lives for our nation, along with a description of their gallant deeds.
She went around the hall admiring those portraits and reading about each person with keen interest. All of a sudden she called me and pointed towards the portrait of a very young looking officer and said, "HE was just 21!! , He died so young, how can someone so young……" I acknowledged and said, "yes he was just 21".
But then I noticed something on her face. It was an expression that I had never seen before in those beautiful eyes. An expression I couldn’t understand. I got a very strange feeling. I could not make out what was wrong. I asked her about it. But she said "nothing". It was a kind of anxiety that I had never seen before……she immediately left the room….
After an hour or so she said goodbye and left me all alone…still pondering over that expression I had seen in her eyes…..
But then I finally came to a conclusion….
May be it was because a joker (she always said I was one) who by default was her brother…was standing right in front of her..and he just happened to be 20 years of age, with just a year left for his graduation from the same NDA.