There is something in the army way of life that no other profession can ever offer. It has a lot to do with honour, respect and discipline, which is not just patriotic jingoism, it is something that you feel or experience only after being a part of this elite lifestyle,” says Sharad Ranade, who has been conducting lectures for students, motivating them to join the armed forces since 1990.

Ranade and his wife Late Mangala Ranade had been conducting lectures in colleges to inculcate the spirit of Army in youngsters. Now, with the better half gone, Ranade ‘s resolve do es suffer a setback but which the man claims is only temporary. “Both my wife and I used to conduct these lectures and classes for students all over the city ever since I retired in the year 1989. However in the recent years we had reduced the number of such lecturers owing to the fact that our health was failing us, and now with the demise of my wife few weeks back all activities as of now are on hold. But i assure you they are just on hold and will be executed soon.”

Sharad an engineer with the Akashwani Kendra in New Delhi has been fascinated by the armed forces ever since his childhood, he says, “Both my sons were in the army, whilst my elder son has retired from the services, my younger son is still in the army and works in New Delhi. Dilip, my elder son retired as a Lt. Col. from the aviation wing of the armed forces and my younger son Vijay is serving as a Colonel in Delhi.”

Sharad and his wife Mangala began conducting classes at their residence for students who were interested in joining the armed forces. They would conduct the classes for free. Speaking about it he says, “Monetary benefits was the last thing on our minds. We had students from varied backgrounds coming here, since the syllabus for the exam was the basic class twelfth syllabus we concentrated more on the personality development and interview part. Now close to 100 of our students have made it to institutes like the RIMC (Rashtriya Indian Military College), the NDA (National Defence Academy) and IMA (Indian Military Academy) Dehradun.”

When asked what is the reason as to why youngsters of today are not choosing the armed forces as a career option he says, “Parents are partly to be blamed for this. Today people gauge one’s success in life by the monetary aspects of the person, however people are ye to realise fully that there is another way of life, a life, which places monetary benefits below honour, satisfaction of work and dignity-it’s the life of an army officer. In the early nineties people were reluctant to let their children join the forces, but slowly however the scene is changing.”

“Another reason why youngsters are reluctant to join the armed forces is because they feel somewhere down the line if they have to quit their profession and come into the corporate world they would be totally lost, however this perspective is wrong, once a services officer, always a winner,” smiles his son retd. Lt. Col. Dilip Ranade. Dilip himself is an accomplished pilot and now works with Bharat Forge.

Speaking about what can be done to reverse this situation, Sharad says, “the most important thing is that the government should start giving due recognition to the army personnel and start giving more facilities. More than that the government should ensure that an officer in the Indian armed forces, doesn’t stagnate but evolves into a natural leader.”