Seeta Ashok Shelke has made her small village Gadilgaon with 600 population in Ahmednagar district proud. She has made it to the Indian Army and will join the Officers Training Academy (OTA) in Chennai next month. After 49 weeks of training at OTA, she will be a commissioned officer.
Seeta, a mechanical engineer, obtained a BE (Mech) degree from Pravara Rural Engineering College at Loni (Ahmednagar) securing 67 per cent marks in her final year exam.
Talking to Newsline, Seeta said, "I read about a lady officer when I was in Class 10. Prior to that, I wanted to be an IPS officer, but there was no guidance. It was after reading the article in the newspaper that I decided to join the Army."
Seeta's father Ashok Bhikaji Shelke, who has studied Law, is a farmer and practises law at Parner, a taluka place. Her mother is a homemaker and Seeta has three sisters, Geetanjali who has done MCS and is married, Anuradha, a student of final year Mechanical Engineering and Yogini whos is Class XI.
"Even though I am from a rural area, my parents supported me in realizing my dream. I was screened out twice in the SSB Interview but continued to follow my dream and finally made it in my third attempt," she said. Seeta has been trained for SSB.
Interviews at Apex Careers, where she received guidance from Lt Col (Retd) Pradeep Brahmankar, Cdr P K Banerjee and Hrishikesh Apte.