The sprawling Somnath Stadium morphed into a sea of myriad emotions as the newly commissioned officers met their ecstatic family members and friends after their gruelling training ended in one of the best military training academies of the world. Manorath Bhatt of Champawat Uttarakhand was seen making a valiant attempt to hold back tears as the Bhatt family was engaged in celebrating the moment of joy as young Gaurav Bhatt realised his dream of becoming an officer in the Indian Army. For Manorath Bhatt, the last few months were not good after Sitarganj Sugar Mill where he worked as a steno was closed down. “Since the mill was closed, an uncertainty keeps looming over us. We are elated that Gaurav has got commissioned here at a time when the family has been passing through a grim crisis,” he told The Pioneer in an emotion-choked voice. Gaurav’s mother Kala Bhatt recalled with pride twinkling in her eyes that her son was an intelligent boy since his school days due to which he got admission in Sainik School Ghorakhal.
like other proud fathers, Mahavir Prasad who is now working as Commandant BSF Academy, Gwalior looked elated while viewing his second son Shubhram becoming a officer in the armed forces.
Pointing towards his three sons, he said, “ See my elder son Amit is a lieutenant in Navy, Shubhram has today became an officer in the Army and my youngest son Sanand is undergoing training in NDA following which he would join the Air Force.’’
H S Bist, a humble farmer from Talwadi in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand, said that by becoming an officer, his son Mayank Bisht has made the area he hails from proud. He attributed the success story to his wife Basanti Bisht, an Auxiliary Nurse Midwifery (ANM). “She is the guiding light behind the success. Mayank did his B.Sc in Information Technology (IT) and joined as an IT major. But he left the job when the opportunity to serve the nation by joining the armed forces came his way,” he recounted.
Clad in the olive green with epaulette of lieutenant sparkling on him, Vretesh Kulasari kept up his family tradition of serving in the engineering regiment of the army. His father Vijay Kumar is a serving lt Col in core of engineers and he is presently posted at Shillong. A beaming senior Kulasari shared that grandfather of Vretesh, Rajaram Kulasari also served in the engineering wing of the army. The family though originally hailing from Jili village near Devikhal in Pauri is now residing in Defence Colony in Dehradun.