Meet Major Aditi Mohan, a fighter and an inspiration

Life has been always a wonderful challenge for me and I have accepted it with all my heart and a wide smile…Born and brought up in the family of Olive greens with my father having served the Indian Army for 35 years as a Gunner ( Air defence Arty), it is perhaps only natural as it seemed to others that I ended up being an army officer myself… well that was perhaps not the first thought

I was a sportsperson in my school, pretty good at studies, did well in school with participation in all the co-curricular activities that took place be it be debates, extempore, dance, song, tournaments, beauty pageants and annual sports days etc., passing out from school as a Head Girl where I tried all of it even if I was doing it for the first time. To me it gave a sense of achievement and pride and most of all enjoyment. Such was the upbringing that whatever I did, I did with passion and took keen interest to do so... and that attitude still continues…

My parents instilled in me the qualities that any child would want to have. We were never made to feel any different. We did what all did and my father trained and played with me as anyone’s would and I ended up representing my state in Badminton till the national level.

Soon, I was out of college wanting to do my MBA when I knew that my older sibling had got commissioned from the forces. Until I went to receive her at the railway station that day, I didn’t realise that this was what I always wanted to do and was gearing to be. I worked and studied hard, trained myself well along with my schoolmates for my SSB. And yes, I did clear it out of hundreds of us who came there …just a handful chosen, in numbers merely just 5 of us.

The day came when I had to leave for my training to OTA, Chennai… a place not unknown to me since I had played my nationals (Badminton) there. But going there to come out as an officer was surely a challenge. 6 months of rigorous training where 33 of us trained hard, with our Platoon commander wanting to prove to other gentlemen cadets that we were no less and I thank him for making us so strong today and whenever I tried to fail a jump, my ustaad (instructor) pushed me even harder when he would shout, ”Aditya Mohini ( I remembered Madhuri Dixit at that time)…jump…like your sister did” ( my sister had passed out just an year back and the striking resemblance that we had ….wow that was some comparison. I would smile to myself…but it made me feel so proud of my own sibling and pushed me to do better.

Yes. Deep down I had to make a place of my own… every girl had to… and I won the debate competition amongst all 400 odd lady and gentlemen cadets …in the entire academy that year. One of the biggest achievement as it had never happened before. Badminton was always my game and won that title too.

Commissioned in 1997 as an officer in ASC (Army Service Corps). My first posting was a Staff appointment as ADC to the Commandant (General). Easy as it seemed but it had its own ups and down.

I served at varied parts of India…the best moments as I recollect were when I participated in the Kargil War and Op Parakram …with leading convoys in dire situations, staying in difficult terrains under tough conditions, ammunition dumping and your seniors only telling you to perform the task multiple times in a day and you never say no and then you end up being an inspiration to men you command each one looking up to you… real victory happens when a soldier of a different company in a Battalion wants to work under you and looks up to you for looking after his welfare. When I hung my uniform after 8 long years in 2004, joined the corporate but the OG attitude and its hard-core training and moral values remained within…and then made a mark in the civil world starting from a scratch as an Assistant Manager and today hold a position of a Vice President. Yes, there arenot many of us in the field that I am into which is handling the entire gamut of Facilities & Administration end –to – end , taking care of soft services, security, transport & travel, cafeteria, projects & real estate etc. and having grown up the ladder with no God Fathers or mothers around. Have worked with the best of the best firms and with best of the best people.

Indeed, as a woman you do end up proving yourself everywhere but anyone who has lived a life with complete honesty and integrity has nothing to fear. End of the day my belief is you should be able to face yourself in the mirror and feel proud of who you are…come what may!
And that is when you feel accomplished when the top man of your firm who has met you just the first time in life leaves you with a compliment on your persona and makes a statement, “I have never come across a woman like you ever in my life”. Though that is not just one time in my life but such wonderful remarks do give a boost to your morale and motivates to do better.

Being honest and exhibiting the right values with integrity in your work takes a lot of courage and if you are one, then you are surely doing something right!! Today I take pride that I try to live a life with no regrets contributing my time and life for those who need support and help…In this short span of life, I have lived a life of a Teacher before I joined forces taking classes for people of all ages in ‘Spoken English’, an academic counsellor while continuing my studies , then as an Army officer, later as a Politician where I had a small stint and enjoyed every bit of what I did flashed all across the media, meeting people in lanes, villages and jhugi-jhopadis of Bangalore, dancing on roads, carrying out rallies, participating in media shows etc , a Corporate player, handling critical and BCP situations of strikes or mishaps and Social service to the community and society in my own way… and my last wish before I hit the grave is to now act and prove my acting skills (I know I am very good at it.

Every day I challenge myself to look for opportunities where my life has a meaning be it be standing for a cause where innocent kids get raped or new borns need help to survive where recently I helped a family who had 2 little kids born in 5 months of pregnancy (triplets were born but one died in first few
weeks) battling for survival and were undergoing financial constraint to even get their family discharged for want of funds which was about 40 Lacs. I drove a campaign on social media (on my face book page) and each day updated every group the money that poured in. Met the hospital authorities too and they further discounted. I managed to collect 16 Lacs in 10 days as was desired by the hospital then and parallely also raised funds on Milaap and also my fraternity stepped forward and ran an initiative “Run with Charles” all the way up North in Delhi-NCR. End of the day, we gave back 22 Lacs to the hospital and rest of the amount which was approx. 3-4 Lacs was handed over to the family for their further treatment. Today, the family is back home after 6 long months in hospital with their two little kids.
Or be it be my own life that battled last year with some unknown disease that did not have any underlying cause…and then stood up to run and completed a 10k …and still continue to do so…

I have come to believe that only women get to wear several hats and have many role plays in their lives which we very beautifully demonstrate. We sure are the multitaskers. And I for one take a lot of pride in being a woman. I am blessed that I have two little angels in my life who think that I can do anything on this earth when they see what all I have done from the day they too stood along with me along with my community for a candle light peace protest against the rape cases that were on a high in my city Bangalore and how I stood for that cause selflessly to how Charles uncle, as they call him, had his babies discharged from the hospital and shared it with pride with their circle of friends.
For me I personally believe “winter always turns to spring” and it is always in your hands to “Change your poison into medicine”

Shared By : Rahul Lal who is employee of Dalmia Bharat Group. 

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