For Lieutenant Shardendu Tiwari, 27, the Passing Out Parade (POP) at the Officers Training Academy (OTA), Gaya, was the destination of an eight-attempt journey. Watching his parents witness his commissioning, the weight of the moment shifted from the corporate boardrooms he once frequented to the disciplined reality of the Indian Army.
He tells HT City, “When my family arrived at the POP and saw me finally turning a new page in my life, it made my father, an ex-serviceman, and me very emotional.”
Despite a thriving career as a cloud engineer at Amazon with a ₹46 lakh package and offers from aerospace corporate, his focus remained on the uniform.
Hailing from Lucknow, with roots in Sultanpur’s Pipar Gaon, Lt. Shardendu is a second-generation defence personnel. “My father, Honorary Captain Raj Kumar Tiwari, served the Army Service Corps for 36 years, setting the standard for a legacy that I am determined to take forward.”
He says, “The army training is a mix of physical, mental, and endurance training along with weapon use; all these and more make a comprehensive and profound pattern that is of course strategically planned and works perfectly for all the new soldiers, turning us into gentlemen and Officer Commanding (OC) followed by the post of lieutenant.”
For Lt. Shardendu, the job shift was about values and love for his country. “The nation service, adventure and leadership roles that the Army offers are unmatched by any other job in the country,” he explains. “Serving the country is the most important aspect, as my father served for a long time, so continuing that legacy by joining the Army as an officer was a dream. Discipline, cheerfulness, and an ‘always in the game attitude’ motivated me to join the service to the fullest extent.”
{{/usCountry}}For Lt. Shardendu, the job shift was about values and love for his country. “The nation service, adventure and leadership roles that the Army offers are unmatched by any other job in the country,” he explains. “Serving the country is the most important aspect, as my father served for a long time, so continuing that legacy by joining the Army as an officer was a dream. Discipline, cheerfulness, and an ‘always in the game attitude’ motivated me to join the service to the fullest extent.”
{{/usCountry}}Facing the Services Selection Board (SSB) eight times, he considers rejections as lessons. “Failures are building blocks to get success in the next attempt,” he says.
He is now appointed as a Senior Under Officer (SUO) at OTA.‘Lucknow Cantonment taught me the way of life and resilience’
Speaking about his never-say-die spirit and how Lucknow shaped his life, he said, “I stayed in multiple cities, including Kalka, Chandimandir Cantt, New Delhi, and Lucknow; each city offered some learning. However, Lucknow Cantonment taught me the way of life and resilience. And the most important aspect of leadership—social adaptability—has been central to my early days in UP.”