Looking dapper in white shirts and black trousers, the 120 newly recruited soldiers were dispatched to their respective training centres on Thursday.
Beaming with pride at having achieved their dream of getting into the Army, the first batch of young recruits aged between 17 to 22, with some accompanied by their parents, gathered at the Army Recruitment Centre near Jagraon Bridge on Thursday.
Balwinder Singh, a mason, and Kamaljit Kaur, parents of Mandeep Singh, 18, of Lamma village, encouraged Mandeep, the first family member to join the Army, to persevere in all circumstances during the training.
Kamaljit said, “He told me about his dream of joining the Army only after clearing the physical test. This came as a surprise but I was proud of his choice.”
Since childhood, I have wanted to serve the country by joining the Army and had been preparing myself for the same for past several years, Mandeep said.
It was in the four attempt that Ramandeep Singh, 20, of Hans Kalan village, cleared all stages to get selected.
“I am happy that finally, I got selected. The joy of my mother, Swaranjit Kaur, had no bounds as she always wanted me to join the Army,” he said, adding that his father, who passed away six years back, was a Naik in the Army.
“I wanted to serve the country like my father and was preparing myself for the same for the past four years. I worked hard on my fitness by exercising for two hours in the morning and two hours in the evening every day,” he said.
Meanwhile, Parvinder Singh, 19, of Mansuha Kalan village, Rupnagar, said he got inspired from bollywood movies to join the Army.
“My parents had first opposed the idea when I told about my dream to them. It took me months to convince them. But, when I cleared the first stage–physical fitness test–they were proud of me,” said Parvinder, who is the son of a carpenter and has two younger sisters.
{{/usCountry}}“My parents had first opposed the idea when I told about my dream to them. It took me months to convince them. But, when I cleared the first stage–physical fitness test–they were proud of me,” said Parvinder, who is the son of a carpenter and has two younger sisters.
{{/usCountry}}Colonel Sajeev Narayanan, recruiting director, Army Recruitment Office, said 511 candidates from four districts including Ludhiana, Rupnagar, Moga and Mohali have cleared the physical, medical and written examinations.
“Today, a batch of 120 candidates was dispatched. The second batch will be dispatched on March 16, third on March 21 and the last batch, on March 28. The selected candidates are being dispatched for training to the Sikh Regiment Centre in Ramgarh (Jharkhand), Sikh Light Infantry Regiment in Fatehgarh (Uttar Pradesh), Bombay Engineers in Pune, Bengal Engineers in Roorkee and Artillery Centre in Hyderabad,” he said.
During the ceremony, Colonel Narayanan also sensitised the candidates about ways to save themselves from novel coronavirus (COVID 19).