When almost all her friends from the engineering college were busy with their jobs in the plush rooms of corporate offices, 24-year-old Sanjana Prakash was on an action-packed outing handling rifles and rocket launchers!
A lieutenant in the Army, the slim girl got into the force via the technical stream of the Services Selection Board (SSB). A resident of Kunnukuzhi in Thiruvanathapuram, Sanjana is one of the two Malayalis to be selected as lieutenant in the Indian Army. She even stood first in the SSB’s electronics and communication engineering examination.
An army job was not a casual decision, but one she had been mulling over for quite some time with encouragement pouring in from all sides. Quite a chip off the old block, Sanjana’s achievement has thrilled her grandfather Gopakumar, a retired army brigadier. No less elated is her father Dr M Prakash, who over the years, saw nothing else but a career in the armed forces for his daughter. Hence, the IT job she got soon after her engineering was just a stopgap. The SSB exams over, Sanjana headed straight for the Officers Training Academy (OTA) in Chennai.
A year’s gruelling training at the OTA toughened her up. There were 200 men and 40 women in her batch. She cut her long tresses short to meet the demands of a very demanding training. Phone calls were a strict no-no. The only calls made were to her home for a few minutes on Sundays from her old Nokia handset. Hardy training like rock climbing and horse riding left her with swelling on the feet. The physical discomfort was temptation enough to call it quits and rush back home. But she persevered and hung on to the faith that she would turn up trumps.
Recalling her Chennai days, Sanjana says she was always on the 4.30 am to 10.15 pm “long-schedule” training. By 5.15 am, she had to be ready for physical training, followed by drill at 6.40 when the cadets were trained to use rifles and rocket launchers. The officer trainees were given just 10 minutes to get ready for drill.
No one was ever allowed to walk on the campus, they had to run. If the cycle they happened to ride suffered a burst tyre, they had to run with it. Classes were from 8.20 to 12.40, followed by games from 4 pm. Later, the seniors and juniors would join to put up the next day’s plans.
The one-hour study time was from 8 pm to 9 pm. From 9.30 to 10.15 it was physical training again. Though a technical officer, she had to undergo the rigorous physical training a soldier is put through. After all, the 14 years of service a lady officer has to put in should be well served.
Training over, Sanjana is all set to join as an officer in the Signals Division in Kashmir by April-end. Dr Prakash and wife Anjali Suseela can be proud of their daughter whose frail looks belie the physical power and mental calibre she is endowed with today.
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