SHIVAMOGGA: Despite hardship over the last three years, Shreeshma Hegde -- a Second PUC student of the Aditya Birla Junior College of Kumarapatnam, Haveri district -- has made the state proud by bagging the opportunity to lead the entire Indian NCC contingent at the Republic Day parade in New Delhi on January 26.
This is not the first time that Shreeshma is getting to be a part of the R-Day parade. Feeling proud about his daughter’s achievement, her father Dr Praveen Hegde told The New Indian Express that Shreeshma took part as a junior NCC cadet in the 2017 parade, when she was in the 9th Standard. During that time, an NCC cadet from Karnataka, Aishwarya, led the contingent, becoming the first from the state to lead the contingent after a gap of 19 years. “After returning from New Delhi, Shreeshma came up to me and said, ‘Pappa, I want to lead the Indian NCC contingent like Aishwarya Akka in the coming years’,” he father said.
Since 2017, she has been focused and never gave up. She worked hard for the past 6 months and her persistent effort and performance on the ground took her to the level of leading the Indian NCC contingent,” he added. Shreeshma continued her PUC education in Science at the Aditya Birla Junior College. As NCC activities were not available at this college, she was attached to AVK College, Davanagere. For the past two years, she was regularly attending NCC activities thrice a week and would communte between Harihar and Davanagere.
As a junior reserve best cadet in 2017, she had the opportunity to brief the Air Force Chief in the flag area and also held the placard of the NCC Karnataka team during the Prime Minister’s rally, said Dr Hegde. Shreeshma’s family owns a farm near Harihar, where she used to practise giving commands, build her stamina by regular exercise, run, and also practised running on a treadmill at home. Family members, and the main force behind her success, her father, provided her with all required facilities.
Answering to a question regarding his daughter’s career plans, Shreeshma’s father said, “She has decided to join defence services and to crack the entrance examinations for it. She will be joining a B.Sc course in any degree college either at Shivamogga or Davanagere that has NCC. On the direction given by the Air Force authorities in Bengaluru, Shreeshma will focus on her studies related to GK and other topics to crack the defence entrance exams.”