Tears rolled down from the eyes of Urmilla Devi, a resident of Meerut city, when she saw all three of her children standing in front of her and donning the olive green outfit of Indian Army with stars shinning on their shoulders. The occasion was a piping ceremony of her younger son, Vinod Kumar Mishra, who after passing out of IMA became the third Army officer in the family. Her elder son, Subodh, had passed out form IMA in June 2013, and is now posted as Captain in Mechanised infantry in Suratgarh, Rajasthan. The eldest of three siblings, Sangeeta Kumari, too is an officer in the Indian Army and is deployed as lieutenant in Military Nursing Services (MNS) at Military Hospital (MH) Silchar in Assam.
“My dreams are fulfilled today. I stayed with my children in Meerut for the sake of their studies while my husband was posted in different parts of the country. My hard work has paid off. I must thank God for it,” she said. All the three siblings had studied at Army School Meerut Cantonment. A beaming Sudeshwar Mishra, who retired as Naib Subedar from army, said that all the three kids were inspired by their uncles Baban Mishra and BB Mishra, who laid down their lives during army operations in Sri lanka and Jammu & Kashmir respectively.
Himanhu Thapa of Tapkeshwar area in Dehradun fulfilled the dream of his father Hemant to become an Army officer. Hemant, who retired as Havildar and worked as sports teacher in Doon International School (DIS) here, said that his son was exceptional in studies right from beginning as he did his Class VI from Military School Shimla and Class XII from prestigious Rashtriya Indian Military College (RIMC) Dehradun. “I am a graduate and appeared in five SSBs, but could not become an officer in the Army. Now my son has done what I could not,” a beaming Hemant said.
Rajbeer Singh Shekhawat of Jaipur who retired as sergeant from Indian Air Force (IAF) also realised his dream of becoming officer through his son Devendra Singh who passed out of Technical Graduate Course (TGC) on Saturday. Navneet Bahuguna of Dehradun did his family proud as he became first army officer in his family. His father Sanjay Bahuguna who works in Opto electronics factory in Dehradun said that Navneet was inspired by his maternal grandfather Ram Prakash Joshi who retired as artillerymen. Interestingly, Navneet too has opted for Artillery on the advice of Joshi who despite being very old and frail was present on the occasion.