Lt colonel, major and wing commander want to rediscover their feminity
Lt colonel, major and wing commander want to rediscover their feminity
It's the catwalk instead of combat as three women in India's armed forces are set to take part in the Gladrags Mrs India beauty pageant to be held at the Spring Mills, Bombay Dyeing compound in Wadala this evening. The contest is for married women only.
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GLAMOUR, NOT GUNFIRE: (From left) Lieutenant Colonel Ankita Srivastava, Wing Commander Manisha Rajput and Major Seema Dagar at the Gladgrags Mrs India beauty pageant at the Spring Mills, Bombay Dyeing compound, Wadala, yesterday. u00a0PIC/ SAMEER MARKANDE |
Major Seema Dagar, who served in the Indian army from 1997 to 2007, says, she is here, "Because I want to expand my horizons, have a different experience." Major Dagar, who now works as a manager at a corporate firm in New Delhi, adds, "Army life was so disciplined, so toughu00a0walk like a man, talk like a man. Sometimes, I thought I had lost my womanhood there I am here to reinvent myself and rediscover my femininity."
Her words find an echo in Wing Commander Manisha Rajput, who is posted in the Western Air Command of the IAF at New Delhi. Said Rajput, "I may be an air warrior as we are termed, but I am also a woman. I decided to enjoy the glamour, colour and femininity of this world during my annual leave."
Lieutenant Colonel Ankita Srivastava from Allahabad finished 14 years of service in the army last year, the maximum that women officers are allowed to serve in the Indian army. Srivastava says she had won a Mrs Allahabad contest earlier which motivated her to participate in this one.
She was part of Operation Kargil and Operation Parakram that took place after the attack on the Parliament. She is now working for lady officers getting pension for their service in the force. "I am walking the corridors of power for that, though today I will walk the ramp," she explains.
She laughs and adds, "Both my sons (9 and 6 years) are flying down to Mumbai to watch me in the pageant.
They used to say, "All the other mammas look like mammas. Only our mother is more like a papa. We have two papas in the house."
