A Class IX student of Sacred Heart Convent Senior Secondary School in Sarabha Nagar, Narayani gives the credit of her achievement to her dedication, determination and support from her school.

She said, “Our school NCC officer Kiran Sharma always guided me to achieve this goal. I owe my gratitude to school principal Sister Chantel and other NCC officers of our directorate.”

It was a long journey of competitions for Narayani, who competed with 2,000-odd NCC cadets of junior wing from 17 directorates of the country, before bagging the honour.

She said, “This is the first time that an NCC cadet of a junior wing as well as from the Directorate of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pardesh and Chandigarh bagged this prestigious award.”

An aspiring astronaut, she said, “I attended pre-Republic Day camp from December 12 to December 30 and Republic Day Training camp from December 30 to January 30 in Delhi. It was a tough competition but I was determined to win a gold medal at the national level. I believe that if you work hard, anything is possible.

For best cadet competition, I had to compete in drill, firing, world of command, group discussion and then interview by Parkash S Chaudhary, Director General of NCC, written examination, extempore, etc.”

Indeed, it is a proud moment for her parents too, “Our daughter has been selected out of 7,80,000 junior NCC cadets and bagged the best cadet award from Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh,” said her father.

Narayani has been awarded with a gold medal, a Prime Minister’s batton, trophy and cash award of Rs 5,000 by the Prime Minister. She has also been awarded with Rs 5,000 by the directorate.