In a departure of sorts from the past, the award-winning GCs of regular course of the passing out contingent were not from an armed forces background. The father of Sword of Honour recipient lalit Thapliyal is a teacher, while Abhishek Kumar Singh, the gold medal winner for standing first the overall order of merit and Ravi Somanagouda Mulimani, who received Silver medal, belonged to humble families dependent on farming.
A beaming Saurabh Thapliyal said that being part of armed forces was somewhat his dreams were since his childhood. Father of Saurabh, D N Thapliyal is presently serving as Vice Principal of prestigious Rashtriya Indian Military College (RIMC) Dehradun. Incidentally elder sister of Saurabh, Swarnima Thapliyal too is a serving officer in Indian Army. It was a double delight to Thapliyal family as Saurabh apart from receiving Sword of honour also got the bronze medal for being the GC standing third in the overall order of merit in regular course. lalit attributed the inspiration of her sister as a motivating factor to don the olive green uniform. Ravi Mulimani the recipient of Gold medal becomes the first person to be an officer in Indian army from his village Yalavor in Bijapur district of Karnataka. He said that his father always insisted that he should do something big and it was his wish that he joined Sainik school of Bijapur. The family owns eight acres of land in the ancestral village. Umesh Singh a humble farmer of Sambhal in Uttar Pradesh always wanted that his son Abhishek should join Indian army as officer. The youngster did not disappoint him as after doing his schooling from Sainik School Ghorakhal natural choice was Indian Army. D S Gusain a senior manager in Punjab National bank in Dehradun proudly said that both of his sons Dhruv and Vaibhav are now officers of Indian Army. Mandeep Singh another young officer belonging to Dehradun said that he left a high paying job of software engineer after completing his B.Tec degree as he always wanted to be in Army.
A spectacular sight was witnessed at family of Anvesh Thapa, a FGC from Nepal performed ceremony of Dubhomala at Somnath stadium. The ritual is done when something auspicious happens and involves putting a garland of flowers and green grass and application of Tilak on the forehead of their loved one. Wearing a traditional Rajasthani headgear (Safa) Girwar Singh Shekhawat of Jaipur said that his son John Pal Singh has brought laurels for the family by becoming first officer of Indian army. Girwar works in hospitality industry.
