Meet Lt. Amit Gulia, Journey From A Soldier To An Officer
By Pankaj Negi
Personality Development by Pankaj Negi ‐ 0
Lt. Amit Gulia
Here is my brief interaction with Lt. Amit Gulia, he talks about his journey in Indian Army.
Lt. Amit Gulia who joined the Indian Army as a soldier and later through his hard work and dedication he cleared the SSB interview to join the OTA Chennai and got commissioned in the Indian Army last week. This is one of the most inspiring stories I have ever come across so far and I have leared a lot from him while covering this story.
I hope the defence aspirants, service candidates and others who are reading this, you will surely learn something from this story and it will help you to achieve success in your respective fields.
Pankaj: Congratulations Lt. Amit for the great achievement. How does it feel?
Lt. Amit: Thank you and it feels great and the journey has been long.
Pankaj: Would you tell us about your family and educational background?
Lt. Amit: I am the youngest in my family, my father is working in BSNL as a phone mechanic, my mother is a housewife. My elder sister and brother are professor and software engineer respectively. My grandmother is 106 years old. I was born on 23 March 1994 also knowns as martyrs day. I completed my 10th from Mid Fields High School, Badli and scored 83%. My father wanted me to join the Doon Public School in New Delhi because my elder brother studied there, but in an accident my father broke his leg, at that time, my sister was preparing for the IAS and brother was completing his BTech. Being the only child at home, I decided to stay at home and completed my study from a local school. I completed my 12th with commerce and got 70.2%. Later, I cleared the entrance examination of the Chartered Accountancy Course( CA CPT) in very first attempt and got the admission in Delhi University North Campus. I was good at sports and took part in many sports event, but soon I realised that CA is not my cup of tea. I decided to go back to Rohtak but it was too late to get the admission in a good college and finally I took admission in a govt college there. My elder sister guided me to join the NCC and I did my B certificate with A grading from 8 Haryana Battalion NCC, Rewari later I changed my NCC Bn to 1 Haryana Bn Rohtak and completed my C certificate with B grading from there. During college, I was the Volleyball and Chess team captain. I took part in National Service Scheme which is an Indian government-sponsored public service program conducted by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports of the Government of India.
Pankaj: What motivated you to join the Indian army and how did you do it?
Lt. Amit: One day my friend took me to an open recruitment rally of the Indian army, I was there to help him in running on 30th October 2014, we reached there by 0300 hours without eating anything. It was a huge crowd of candidates, around 36000 candidates were participating and only 249 were able to make it in the final selection. On that day, I passed the running test and my friend was not able to clear it. I also cleared the medical test and having NCC, I was not required to attempt the written exam, finally I got the date of joining and meanwhile, I managed to complete my Graduation before joining. During training, my batch was the part of training evaluation and we created history in JAT regiment by giving 100% results in BPET and 92% in firing. Finally, I got in 11 JAT, I feel lucky to come across such a good unit, officers there helped me a lot in my SSB interview preparation. I stopped going home and I took a rented place in Delhi and spent my study leaves there only to prepare more and more without any distractions. I cleared the CDS 2 2016 examination but got screened out at SSB, but my senior officers kept me motivated, I used to study whenever I get the time after duty, I took help from the internet as well while preparing. I was screened out 3 times at SSB and 3 times I was conference out, I cleared the SSB in my 7th attempt on 16 Dec 2017 through NCC entry. The same day on which Indian won the 1971 war also known as Vijay Diwas.
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Pankaj: How did you prepare for the SSB interview and what motivated you to apply for the officers entry?
Lt. Amit: The things which motivated me to join the Indian army as an officer are the stars, officers, rank, more participation in the decision making, helping other jawans to reach here and a better understanding of the equipment we use. There was no one in my family with any connection to the army and due to that I had no knowledge about this organisation, but one day I heard about the JAT regiment and later after learning about it more and more I realised that God has sent me to join this regiment and finally I got into the same. The thing which motivated me to join the Indian army was the uniform and I wanted to fire bullets on our enemies. I completed my initial soldier training and got some good officers who have helped me to appear for the SSB interview two times during my training, they might have seen some potential in me. In my first SSB attempt, I was screened out and in second attempt I was conference out. For SSB interview, I took help from the internet visiting SSBCrack website, I learned to speak in front of the mirror to improve my communication skills. My family supported me throughout this, my father’s life journey always motivated me to do something big. My sister’s struggle and journey from an ordinary Hindi village school and getting failed in 12th and then leaving study for 1 year and after that continuing in English medium and becoming the topper of school and university, clearing bank exam twice and many other exams, all these were the sources of my motivation.
Pankaj: What is your message for the defence aspirants?
Lt. Amit: I believe the theory of “BE YOURSELF” is the biggest mantra to get success in SSB. If you are fit for the organisation, they will surely take you in.
Second thing is “कोई लक्ष्य मनुष्य के साहस से बड़ा नहीं, हारा वही है जो लड़ा नहीं. ” When my mother asked me “Beta Khana Kha Liya”, my reply was “Indian Army” Jai Hind
Pankaj: Thank you for your time and best wishes for the future.
Lt. Amit: Thank you so much.
