The award winners of the passing-out contingent were unanimous in the view that these honours would act as inspiration throughout their career in the armed forces. A beaming Pratyush Kumar Mohanty, who was recipient of prestigious Sword of Honour said that the sword would always remind him to perform his duties in the best way possible.
He accepted that the responsibility on ones shoulders increases when a recipient of such an award joins his unit.
Mohanty has done his schooling from the prestigious Rashtriya Indian Military Academy (RIMC) Dehradun. His father PM Mohanty is a central government employee. Incidentally Mohanty also received the Kumaon regiment bronze medal for standing third in the regular course. The recipient of Gold Medal for standing first in order of merit, Malla Ram Gopal Naidu echoed the sentiments of Mohanty. He said that the expectation of the superiors increases from an award recipient. Coming from a humble family of farmers of Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh (AP), Naidu is the first person from the family to don olive green of army.
A product of Sainik School Korukonda in AP, Naidu is ex- NDA and believes that wishes of his parents and teachers helped in achieving success in academy.
The recipient of the Silver medal in the regular course, Suyash Gupta of Bhillai in Chhattisgarh also said that the memories of receiving the award would be etched for ever in his memory. His father Satish Kumar Gupta is a cloth merchant in Bhillai.
He said that his son had got admission in class VI in Sainik School Riwa but the family could not afford the fees of the school. later Suyash got admission in RIMC where fee was much less than that of Sainik School.
The recipient of Sliver medal for being best cadet from the technical graduate course, Deepak Singh said that the quality of life, status and challenges fascinated him from childhood.
A resident of Gazipur in Uttar Pradesh (UP), he did is B Tech from Ghaziabad and was selected as Probationary Officer (PO) in Syndicate bank but the charm of Army was such that he promptly left the job when selected in TGC.