“It was instantaneous,” says Shanan Dhaka, 19, on her decision to apply for the Army. The Haryana resident came first among women candidates — and tenth overall — in the entrance examination for the National Defence Academy (NDA), which will admit women cadets for the first time this year.
“I took inspiration to join the armed forces from my grandfather, Chanderbhan Dhaka, who was a Subedar, and my father, Vijay Kumar Dhaka, who retired as a Naib Subedar from the Army Service Corps,” Dhaka told The Indian Express. “Growing up in cantonment areas, I saw the respect being accorded to Army officers. Plus the trust everybody has in Army personnel really motivated me to join the service. It’s an opportunity to serve the nation with unparalleled pride and honour.”
Dhaka, who studied in the Army Public Schools at Roorkee, Jaipur and Chandimandir (Panchkula), had enrolled for an undergraduate course at Lady Shri Ram College for Women in Delhi last year when she learnt of the opportunity at NDA. “I decided to apply at once,” she says.
