“For someone who was born in the small town of Pattukottai, never in my life would I have imagined that one day I would be the first person in my entire town to get selected for the officer’s training in the army. When I completed my schooling, I had three avenues before me – Fashion technology, Architecture and Indian Army.

I was dissuaded from entering the Indian Army as expected. And I missed entering Fashion technology by a narrow range. So I enrolled for Architecture and started my college. However, life did have a different plan for me. In my final year of college, I chanced upon an instagram post which said ‘Do you have what it takes?’. Looking back at everything that transpired from that moment on, I can’t help but be amazed at the alignment of it all.

I started an in-depth research here. Until then, much like everyone else, I was under the assumption that anyone could enter the army and it was purely voluntary. But there were so many layers into this. Usually someone who is signing up voluntarily is put on the roles of Jawans. But I was applying for the officer cadre.

I took a week to ponder over it. I would once again be discouraged from applying so I sat with myself to ask if this is what I wanted to do. At the end of the week, I had made my decision – I wanted to give it a shot at it anyway. With the help of some of my friends, I got the required materials for the exams and set to prepare. There were some free online tools that also aided in my preparation. With a single minded motive, I prepared with all my heart for the exams.

I was one of the fortunate few because I came to know about a direct entry which would allow me to apply through the scores in my current course. I had crossed one big battle and then came the interview! This interview is considered to be one of the toughest interviews all over India and it is conducted over a week. Competing with over 300 participants all over India, myself and another member were selected. One can imagine the euphoric feeling of victory I felt here. My parents were overjoyed and I still consider it a proud accomplishment of mine to be one of the first persons from my hometown to enter the Indian Army.

I start my training on the 12th of December and after a year of training here, I will get into my official shoes as a lieutenant. I broke a lot of stereotypes here, the top one being how muslims are not recruited in the army. The journey from here is going to be long and filled with amazing adventures I am sure and I can’t wait to start.”