"My immediate goal is to complete mechanical engineering and join my unit at the earliest,” stated Lt Cyrus Govadia, the community’s newest entrant into the Indian army. He spoke to Parsiana on December 25, 2018. Govadia was commissioned at the Officers Training Academy (OTA) in Gaya, Bihar on December 9. As part of his defence training, the 22-year-old is currently pursuing his graduation in mechanical engineering at the College of Military Engineering (CME) in Poona.
Lt Cyrus Govadia (2nd from r), with, from l, Edul, Kashmin and Adil Govadia: "gift to the nation"
"Although the training at OTA and CME is tough, demanding and not for the weak-hearted, defining a typical day is difficult.... There is early morning fall-in and physical training exercise followed by academic classes, games, study hours etc,” said the officer. In June 2017 Govadia successfully completed para-jump training at the Army Airborne Training School, Agra.
The stimulus to join the armed forces came to Govadia when as a nine-year-old he visited his uncle Brig Dara Govadia, in Ranikhet. At 17, the lad ranked sixth out of 96 candidates shortlisted from several thousand who applied for the selection process at the Service Selection Board, Allahabad. While the cut-off to appear for the interview was 87% at class 12, the alumus of Bangalore’s CMR (Chikka Muniyappa Reddy) College was way ahead, having scored 93%.
Cyrus completed his navar-martab at age nine. Mother Kashmin, a doctoral gold medallist in clinical psychology from Gujarat University feels that "besides the vocations of nursing and teaching there is no other better profession than the armed forces.” Father Ervad Adil, who retired two years ago after a 40-year career in marketing, believes that "destiny has conjured up situations to enable Cyrus to join the armed forces...Cyrus remains a gift to the nation, to serve honestly, dedicatedly and fearlessly.” He added that three years of military training must be made compulsory in India for all political aspirants. Older brother Edul produces advertisement films. The family is based in Bangalore.