Rugby Player Girl from Pune set to join Army

A Rugby Player’s long-standing dream to join the Indian Army will finally come true. Annapurna Dattatraya Bothate is a Rugby Player from Pune, Maharastra. Her dream to join Indian Army will finally come true after she stood third in the all-India NCC merit list special entry (women).

The 25-year-old is a national-level Rugby player and has been playing the sport since 2010. Earlier, Annapurna has represented our country at the Asian Games from the year 2010 to 2014. She has also been part of the Rugby World Cup qualifiers team and was a silver medallist at the Kerala national games in 2015.

Annapurna said, “It has been my childhood dream to become an army officer. I could not clear the Services Selection Board (SSB) interview in the last two attempts but this time I made it.“

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The NCC merit constitutes 48 women from all over the country, whereas only five vacancies are there for this particular entry. Since her school days, Bothate was fascinated with the armed forces and joined the NCC while she was studying in the ninth standard. “The NCC training has helped me keep my spirit alive for so long. This was my last attempt and I had to clear it to achieve my goal, ” she added.

She will be joining the Officers Training Academy (OTA) Chennai on March 31 and her training will start from the first week of April.

Annapurna ‘s father worked as an office assistant with Tata Motors but passed away in January 2015. Her mother Bharti retired from the State Transport department last year. She said, “Annapurna’s father wanted to see her as an Army officer. Her selection would be a tribute to her father.”

Despite the fact that the Indian Army is mainly male-dominated, Annapurna prefers it over the Air Force and the Navy. “I am pretty confident that the Indian Army will give me the right opportunity in the future,” she added.

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