When Bengaluru-based Wing commander M.A. Afraz hung up his boots after 25 years of service as an Indian Airforce engineer, he was committed to giving back to the defence community. He felt that India as a nation owes to the families of its martyrs, who lay down their lives for the country. After doing extensive research and studying different western models, he, along with his two former colleagues—Wg Cdr Rajendra Prasad and Wg Cdr L.K. Choubey—co-founded Honourpoint, an online war memorial named in memory of scores of Indian martyrs.
“Though there are many physical war memorials in the country there are none online. Moreover, physical war memorials have their limitations. They have only a few names on them or a few lines about the martyrs that are usually engraved on stones or other surfaces,” Afraz told THE WEEK. “If any additional information is required about a particular martyr, it cannot be scaled or added easily given the limitations of a physical war memorial. Hence, I came up with this idea to bring the forgotten stories about our brave martyrs online that would inspire the citizens of our country.”
Interestingly, Afraz comes from a defence family with his wife, father and co-brother having served in the Indian Armed Forces. His wife Wg Cdr Farah Afraz is a former IAF officer and his brother-in-law is currently serving in the Indian Army as a Brigadier.
Founders of Honourpoint, [left to right] Wg Cdr M A Afraz, Wg Cdr Rajendra Prasad and Wg Cdr L K Choubey.
Honourpoint, which was launched in April 2017, is basically an online memorial for all martyrs of the Indian Armed Forces from 1947 till date. It took its founders more than two years to collect information about the martyrs and then compile the information in a digital format. The comprehensive repository of information about martyrs can be easily scaled up with any new inputs from the family members, comrades and friends of the martyrs. “The aim of this initiative is to bring the inspirational stories of our martyrs in public domain and encourage all Indians to do something equally meaningful for the country in their own way,” says Afraz.
The memorial is already receiving healthy traction and now has more than 100,000 followers on Facebook. Till now, the project is completely bootstrapped and Afraz hopes that they should be able to get at least a few corporate sponsors who can do something more for the welfare of the families of the martyrs. The start-up has a head count of 11 people who are currently working in their Bengaluru office. Apart from researching on the martyrs, these professionals also help in data entry from the physical data collected about a particular braveheart.
