Two Pune women to live their dreams in army

Two women from the city have realised their dreams of serving the nation by joining the defence forces. While Maanasi Gajendragadkar is a post-graduate student of arts, Ishita Sood is a BTech working with an information technology (IT) company.

They made it to the 7th and 15 rank respectively at the Combined Defence Service (CDS) exam as declared by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).

They are amongst the 18 women candidates selected from all over the country for the seventh short service commission in the women (non-technical) course, which will commence at the Officers Training Academy (OTA) in Chennai in mid-April.

Both of them received extensive training at Apex Careers run by Lt Col (retd) Pradeep Brahmankar.

Maanasi is pursuing her masters in English at the University of Pune. Her father, the late Lt Col Shirish Gajendragadkar, who passed away in 2003 while in service, always wanted her to follow in his footsteps.

After completing her schooling from the Army Public School, she did her BCom from BMCC College. “It was my father’s dream that we click a picture together, wearing the uniform. He is my inspiration and always wanted me to serve the army. My mother was reluctant initially, but today she is proud of me,” said Maanasi.

Ishita (22), who originally hails from Shimla, worked as a project engineer in Wipro in Pune for the last eight months. After completing her BTech from Delhi, she started preparing for the CDS entrance.

“My grandfather was in the army. I was small when he passed away, but I used to hear about his bravery from my mom. The kind of respect and dignity you get in the forces is unmatched. I wanted to be an officers’ lady or a lady officer. I chose the latter.”

Both the girls will now proceed to the OTA for 49 weeks of military training, on successful completion of which they will be commissioned as lieutenants in the Indian Army.