NDA Topper From Odisha’s Puri Aspires To Follow In General Bipin Rawat’s Footsteps

Puri: Omkar Ashutosh, who topped in the National Defence Academy (NDA) examination this year, attributes his success to mother’s persuasion and father’s defence service background.

A pass-out of Rashtriya Indian Military College, Dehradun, Omkar says he was expecting a good ranking in the Top-10 but AIR-1 came as a pleasant shock for him as well as the family.

So, what next? “My only target is to be a righteous officer in the Indian Navy and learn on the job,” says Omkar, a resident of Cantonment Road here.

Joining the NDA was a goal which he and his mother had set while he was still in Class VIII. A student of Blessed Sacrament High School Puri, he worked hard towards achieving the goal. Besides school, he used to spend at least 4 hours for self study and lead a disciplined life.

The path got clear and his dreams got sails when he got through RIMC, Dehradun, says his mother Tanima Tripathi. “It was the blessings of Lord Jagannath and hard work of Omkar that he could clear one of the toughest exams and come out as a topper.”

His father, a former defence personnel, Colonel Arun Rai credits the success of his son to wife, school and RIMC. Speaking to Odishabytes Colonel Rai said getting through RIMC was the big success for Omkar as the college only takes one student per state and then the environment and training there helped him in a big way towards achieving his dreams.”

Omkar also takes pride in the fact that he could meet General Bipin Rawat face to face during his studies in RIMC and that was also one of the major inspirations for him towards dedicating himself for the service to nation. “He aspires to be an officer like General Rawat.”