CHENNAI: It was a happy Women’s Day at the Officers Training Academy (OTA), with two women bagging top honours at the passing out parade, with two other widows of soldiers, stealing the limelight, on Saturday.
Academy Cadet Adjutant (ACA) Sandhya was awarded the Gold Medal and Battalion Under Officer (BUO) Noyonika Binda received the Bronze Medal by Lieutenant General Ranbir Singh, General Officer Commander-in-Chief, Northern Command.
Two army widows
Sangita Mal (30), a native of Dehradun in Uttarakhand, is a widow of war hero Rifleman Shisheer Mal, who was martyred in Operation Rakshak on 2 September 2015 during a counter insurgency operation at Kashmir.
“He died like a hero. He took down a terrorist and was killed later,” said Sangita, who hails from a family of army men, with her father, father-in-law and a few other relatives currently serving the nation.
“My husband’s death made me tough and the challenging training made me even tougher. Once I told my family about the decision, they were happy for me,” said Sangita, who will be posted in North East region.
Bhagyashree Patil (36) is the wife of Colonel Viswas Kumar, who died of a cardiac arrest a year ago. She decided to join the army a month after her husband passed away.
Leaving behind her son Vivaan (7) with her parents, she said, “Even though I belonged to the Army fraternity, I was unaware that a door of opportunity lies for the war widows. I took this examination, determining to clear it. The training gave me a confidence and the ability to see a whole new world. I only wish my husband was there to see my stars on the shoulder.”
Since it’s a tradition for families of the trainee officers to pin the stars on their shoulders, the 17 cadets from friendly foreign countries whose families could not make it to the parade, were taken care of by the families of Indian Army officers.
Foreign cadets
A total of six cadets from Bhutan underwent training at the OTA this year.A first generation officer, hailing from the family of a poor farmer, Second Lieutenant Ugyen Phuentsho (25) said, “The desire to serve the army grew during my engineering graduation at Gujarat. My family could not make it to the parade but the families of my friends accepted me as their own, during the pipping ceremony. They pinned the star for me first and then only for their daughter.”
Aifaaz Mohammad, Second Lieutenant of the Republic of Fiji Army, is a first generation army officer. His whole family flew from Fiji to witness the ceremony. “This was my childhood dream. I am overwhelmed with emotions. The training was very challenging as we faced language barrier, food and hostile weather here,” he said.
Second Lieutenant Mohammad Payez (26), one of the cadets from Afghanistan, said, “We learnt about war tactics and combating cyber attacks amongst others. Back in my country, the military training was oriented towards counter terrorism and surgical attacks. In the academy, we had learnt about conventional war tactics. My key learning is that we should do the right things even when nobody sees it.”
