Dreams take flight: Tea-seller daughter is IAF flying officer
The daredevil operation by the Indian Air Force to evacuate people stranded in flood and rain-hit Uttarakhand in 2013 had inspired Anchal Gangwal to set her goal to become an IAF pilot, her humble background notwithstanding.
Daughter of a tea-seller in an obscure town of Neemuch in Madhya Pradesh, 23-year-old Anchal had doggedly pursued her dream to become an IAF pilot and got recommended in Services Selection Board in sixth attempt.
“I owe it to my father who taught me to be tough in tough times. I followed the mantra ‘never give up’ taught by my father religiously to achieve my goal,” she was quoted as saying by a member of her family who watched the flying officer in her uniform on TV, bagging President's Plaque at the combined graduation parade held at the Indian Air Force Academy in Hyderabad on Saturday.
“Like her other two siblings, Anchal is very disciplined and determined,” her father Suresh Gangwal told this newspaper on Monday.
Mr Gangwal recounted how his three children used to watch him and his wife silently when they were doing business in their roadside tea stall and never demanded anything beyond their reach.
“Anchal had nurtured her dream to become an IAF fighter jet pilot after watching the rescue operation by the IAF to evacuate stranded people in flood-hit Uttarakhand in 2013,” he recalled.
A computer science graduate from a government degree college in Neemuch, Anchal was first selected as subinspector in Madhya Pradesh police. She later switched her job after she was selected as a labour inspector.