On May 29, as the officer cadets of the Indian Army took their final step marching out from Officers Training Academy (OTA), Chennai, the announcer quoted an excerpt from Rudyard Kipling's famous poem 'If' to raise the morale of the budding soldiers of the Indian Army.
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'
Held amid restrictions adhering to the Covid-19 protocol, officer cadets - men and women - clad in their OG uniforms with white masks carried out the passing out parade with elan and elegance.
The parade that was broadcast on Doordarshan also witnessed the passing out of Lt Nitika Kaul Dhoundiyal, wife of Major Vibhuti Shankar Dhoundiyal who was martyred on February 17, 2019, in an encounter with terrorists in Pulwama. Major Dhoundiyal was awarded the Shaurya Chakra posthumously.
Nitika who worked with a corporate in Noida resolved to join the Armed Forces after the incident and cleared the Service Selection Board soon after to join the Officer's Training Academy in Chennai last year.
She told News18 in a 2020 interview, "I filled the SSC form six months after Vibhu's martyrdom. It was my way to heal. When I wrote the exam and gave the interview, I could feel what he would have felt when he wrote his SSC. I connected with him, his fears, and his anxiety. Somehow that gave me strength. I worked very hard to qualify. Now I want to excel in the one year of training. I want to be an officer who everyone can be proud of, Vibhu can be proud of."
It was indeed a proud moment for the lady officer as she got the stars on her shoulders pipped from Army Commander Northern Command Lt Gen YK Joshi himself, tweeted PRO Udhampur, Ministry of Defence.
Lt Nitika Kaul Dhoundiyal will be joining the AOC regiment of the South Western Command, informed Manish Prasad, Defence reporter India TV on his Twitter handle.
Every year, the Indian Army invites applications from unmarried male, female, and also widows of defence personnel to apply for the Short Service Commission Officer posts. Eligible candidates can apply for the posts through the official site of Join Indian Army on joinindianarmy.nic.in. For this year, the last date to apply for the post is June 23, 2021.
