MANGALURU: The dream of Rohit Singh Rawat, a 24-year-old youth from Ajmer, Rajasthan, to serve the country as an Indian Air Force officer crash landed after his train was struck midway due to a landslip between Sakaleshpur and Ballupete stations on Saturday.
Rawat was travelling in the ill-fated Train 16511 KSR Bengaluru – Kannur Express to attend the IAF written test scheduled at 8.30 am in Mangaluru. The train was supposed to reach Mangaluru station at 6.30 am. But when he woke up at 5.30 am, he was shocked to see the train stranded at Alur in Hassan district.
When he enquired with the cops in the train, he was told that the train will leave in 15-30 minutes. He waited for sometime and when there were no signs of the train continuing its journey, he took a bus and returned to Bengaluru.
“Even if I had taken a bus, I would have not reached Mangaluru on time as it is 4-5 hours away from Alur,” said a distraught Rawat.
Rawat's father was in the Indian Navy while and his brother is in the Merchant Navy. Joining Air Force was Rawat's childhood dream and he was supposed to take up the exam for the last time on Saturday.
“It was my sixth and final attempt as I will be turning 24 soon which is the upper age limit. I had prepared well for the exam and was confident of cracking it this time,” said Rawat who is currently employed in a corporate industry in Bengaluru.
Out of the last five attempts, he had cleared the written test in three but could not clear SSB Exam.
Mangaluru was Rawat's third option to write the exam with the first two being Bengaluru and Mysuru. Rawat said apart from him, there were 5-6 aspirants who boarded the same train at Bengaluru for the same exam.
In a post on 'X' which is tagged PM Narendra Modi, railway minister Ashwini Vaishnav, IAF and others, Rawat pleaded to postpone the exam in view of the unforeseen development.
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