The Warrioress

-- Ashika Sara Alex, 12-C, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan

Tuesday, January 11, 2022

Shreya was in 9th grade when her school headmaster came to her class and informed her about her father’s death. Her father was her hero. He was a soldier who died while trying to protect his country . Since childhood, it was her dream to join the Indian army. He was her role model. But ever since childhood, people used to discourage her by saying that girls don’t fight, and instead she was asked to learn how to cook and clean rather than wasting her time thinking about the army.

Everyone around her discouraged her so much that she stopped believing in herself. When she was in 12th, their school had held an annual day function and the chief guest was Ms. Malini Verma, a very successful entrepreneur. While giving her speech she mentioned about her sister, Ms. Malavika Verma who was an army officer and unfortunately she was kidnapped by the rivals. Malini always found Malavika to be an inspiration and one of the strongest women who fought through every battle of her life, whenever Malavika came back for her short vacations she used to tell all the crazy stories that happened in the army, the sacrifices that Malavika made. As she was listening to Ms. Malini speaking about her sister’s disappearance, Shreya was questioning herself, if it was actually dangerous for a woman to be an army officer; she kept on asking herself if society was actually stating a point that maybe women are weak. But hearing about Malavika’s story, Shreya became more intrigued by the life of a woman in the army. She decided to go behind her dreams once again. From the next year she started preparing herself for her dreams. She finally attained her goal and proved everyone wrong by becoming a successful army officer.