Panvel journalist picks up life from where her husband left

From a journalist married to an Air Force pilot to successfully cracking the Service Selection Board (SSB) examinations, life has come full circle for Vinaya Patil.

Panvel-based Vinaya, 26, is set to brave all odds as she prepares herself for a gruelling 11-month training at the Air Force Academy, Dundigal, Hyderabad.

Life was at its best for Vinaya, who married her childhood sweetheart Shashikant Damgude in 2015. However, the future looked bleak when she heard the death of her Flight Lieutanant-husband in a road accident, a few months into the marriage.

Refusing to bow down to the turn of events, Vinaya decided to step into the shoes of her husband. "Shashikant loved challenges and he always encouraged me to challenge myself, and that is what I am doing by joining the IAF," Vinaya said.

In April, while working with dna's web desk, she applied for SSB examinations. What followed from there were endless, sleepless hours of not only preparing for the exams, but also managing her daily life as a scribe and a daughter-in-law.

"The preparation was pretty challenging -- from elementary to complex maths and more. Everything had to be revised to crack the test," she said. The exams were more a test of the person you are. So what was her strategy? "It's the way one thinks, analyse a situation and react. So being yourself is the best you can do...and that is what I did," she said.

For her family and friends, Vinaya's story is unprecedented.

"This is the biggest tribute she could pay to her husband and the greatest service she could render to our nation," said her father Vasudeo Patil.

Echoing the sentiments of her father was Vinaya's mother-in-law, who supported her decision. "I am proud of her. She has shown courage and determination after the tragedy. We are sure she will succeed in her objective of making a name in the Air Force," said Mangala Damgude.

Vinaya's journey into the armed forces runs close on the heels of the story of the Swati, widow of Col. Santosh Yashwant Mahadik. The death of the army man, while battling militants in the forests of Kupwara in Kashmir in November, instilled in 32-year-old Swati an iron-willed determination to take forward his work by donning the olive green uniform.

Like Swati, who cleared her SSB examination, Vinaya is also determined.

Vinaya holds a post-graduate degree in Journalism and Sociology. A light-hearted person and known for her cackle of laugh, friends and relatives now look upon her on becoming a symbol of hope and inspiration to many.