Farmer’s Son Hid IIT Success to Pursue NDA Dream, Emerged as Gold Medallist

A farmer's son from Jajor-Baas village in Rajasthan's Alwar district, Gaurav Yadav, hid his IIT entrance exam success from his family to get enrolled in a Delhi college while still pursuing his NDA dream.

Though he had passed the NDA entrance exam twice, but he failed the Services Selection Board (SSB) interview and was unable to get in to the prestigious programme.

While Yadav’s fixation with a career in the military never faded, he had pass through a number of hoops before enrolling in the National Defence Academy (NDA) at Khadakwasla.

Interestingly, these failures hardly deterred Yadav and hence his third attempt succeeded. And on Wednesday, he even won the President's gold medal for the NDA's 143rd course.

I used to stand in front of the wall in my room and see myself answering questions from an SSB panel, Yadav told the media on the occasion of the NDA's passing out parade celebration on November 30.

According to his brother Vineet, himself an Army officer, the family had been concerned about Yadav's mental space at one point. He told that when he had questioned to his brother about his IIT scores, Gaurav said that he was unable to pass the examination.

I therefore trusted his words. He didn't reveal to us that he had passed the IIT entrance exam until after getting accepted to NDA, he added.

Praising his younger brother, he said that Gaurav was successful on his third effort to get into the NDA, and he made his struggles count by dominating on every level and winning the most coveted gold medal. The cherry on top was being given the opportunity to command the parade.

As per the reports, Yadav attended the Kerala Public School in Rewari for his education, received an A+ in Std. X and finished first with 96 per cent of the possible points.

Balwant and Kamlesh Yadav, his parents, expressed their delight in their son, saying, "We were confident about his achievement and never stopped him from pursuing what he liked." Since elementary school, he has excelled in both sports and academics. We got goosebumps watching him lead the march in front of all of these folks.

Talking about his journey at the Defence Academy, Gaurav said, “I never considered it before enrolling in the academy. In fact, I originally found it difficult to keep up with the training requirements of the academy and I had reservations about the military training. But I persisted in pushing and inspiring myself.”