Tezpur boy glitters at defence academy - Avinash Chhetry wins President's gold medal, sets heart on special forces of the army

Avinash Chhetry (in uniform) with his family at the National Defence Academy.
Picture by Pranab Kumar Das

PRANAB KUMAR DAS, TT, Tezpur, June 14: His early dream of joining the Indian Air Force and flying supersonic aircraft may have been revised, but Avinash Chhetry is on cloud nine.

Avinash, 20, basked in his moment of glory on the ground when he won the President's gold medal at the National Defence Academy and commanded the passing out parade of about 900 cadets on May 31.

Avinash is the first person from Assam and only the second from the Northeast, after Yumnam Romen Singh of Manipur in 2008, to bag the honour. "I am more than thrilled," he told The Telegraph over phone from New Delhi where he is staying with his family.

"It is a proud moment for me and my parents," he said. In fact, for the family, Chhetry's success is the second to have come in quick succession. His father, Purna Bahadur Chhetry, who is an officer with the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) but is on deputation as assistant director in the Bureau of Police Research and Development, New Delhi, also won the President's gold medal recently for "extraordinary service". As a little boy, Avinash, who is from the Chandmari area of this garrison town, would watch IAF fighter planes zip past overhead, the boom heralding the planes leaving white trails of smoke in their wake, or there would be the lower and slower flying but much bigger transport aircraft on their way to drop supplies at the army's forward posts in Arunachal Pradesh or returning to base here after such sorties.

Those were the sights and sounds that fired his dream. "I did dream of joining the IAF but changed my mind later and chose the army instead," Avinash said. He joined the Rashtriya Indian Military College (RIMC) in Dehradun in Class VIII and after completing Class X went on to join the NDA. "The RIMC stint helped me in adapting to the NDA," he added.

Avinash is now waiting for the pre-commission next month when he will get a choice to join any unit. "I would like to join the Gorkha Rifles or the special forces of the army... I would like to engage myself in a combat role," he said.

Given the grind the NDA puts its cadets through, it is no surprise that Avinash should be itching for a combat role. "The training is rigorous," he said. Running for 50km with 25kg of battle gear and a gun weighing another 4kg, and running through the night using navigational aid such as maps and compass and the stars and the moon to reach the finishing location are just some samples of the training.

"Our body has no limits and nothing is impossible for us," Avinash, who bagged two gold medals and a silver as the best all-round cadet, said proudly. He hopes that youngsters will seriously think of the army as a career option. "Yes, I really hope young people will join the NDA instead of only thinking about becoming doctors and engineers," he said.