Major Geetanjali Choudhary’s journey: From grief to glory

Guiding light: Major Geetanjali Choudhary with her daughter, Tanisha.

October 31, 1997. It was Diwali, and Geetanjali was waiting for a call from her husband, Major Sanjeet Choudhary of the 13 Garhwal Rifles. She was supposed to join him in Srinagar the next day. At around 10pm the phone rang and she rushed to pick it up. The caller was from a military hospital in Srinagar. He told her that Sanjeet and five others had died in an IED blast.

Earlier in the afternoon, Sanjeet had called Geetanjali with happy news: He had won the top spot in a Defence Services Staff College exam. She had proudly shared that news with friends and family. The same night saw her shattered with grief.

Geetanjali was born in Amritsar, when her father, Colonel Shyam Lal Dogra, was posted there. Her cousin’s husband, an officer in the 13 Garhwal Rifles, told the Dogras about Sanjeet, who was from Bihar. Geetanjali first met him on November 4, 1992; they were married exactly a month later, on December 4.

The young couple’s first station was Suratgarh, Rajasthan. Subsequently, he left for Congo on a United Nations Peacekeeping Mission. Once back in India, he was posted in Dalhousie. The couple was blessed with a daughter, Tanisha, in February 1996.

Towards the end of 1996, Sanjeet was posted to Srinagar. So Geetanjali and Tanisha moved to Tumsar, near Nagpur, where her parents were living.

Then came the phone call. Sanjeet’s last rites were done at Begusarai, Bihar. After completing the rituals, Geetanjali stayed with her parents for some time. For over a month, she did not leave her room. Such was her grief.

Sanjeet used to write letters to her daily. Some of them were delivered after his death, magnifying Geetanjali’s pain. To distract her from the pain, her parents insisted that she start working, and so she started teaching in a kindergarten.

Later, Geetanjali moved to Delhi to do an MBA. It was around this period that she thought of joining the Army. She then moved to Chandigarh to prepare for the Services Selection Board (SSB) exams.

In June 1998, she went to the SSB in Bangalore. Geetanjali was already over 25, but got an exemption. On clearing the SSB, she was asked to join the Officers Training Academy, Chennai. The OTA training reshaped her. A badminton player in school, she took to the physical training sessions well. The highest point of her OTA days was, she says, getting to meet president K.R. Narayanan.

Major Geetanjali Choudhary with her husband, Major Sanjeet Choudhary.

In March 1999, she was commissioned into the Ordnance Corps and posted to Pulgaon, Maharashtra. Being a single mother, it was difficult to keep Tanish with her. So, Tanisha stayed with the Dogras in Tumsar; Geetanjali would drive over every weekend.

After three years in Pulgaon, she was posted to Nagrota in Jammu. During this phase, Tanisha joined a boarding school in Dalhousie. A few years later, Geetanjali was posted in Delhi, and the mother-daughter duo started a new life together.

Geetanjali is today a major. Last year, she was granted a permanent commission and a commendation card from the Chief of Army Staff. She also gives motivational lectures to lady officers and Army wives.

Tanisha is currently doing an MBA from the Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi. “Joining the Army requires a lot of courage. My mother made a bold decision,” she says. “I respect her for that. It was not an easy decision.” She adds that Army life gave her mother respect and dignity.

However, she does not want to join the Army. “Army jobs are so demanding, and your personal and family life will always come second,” she says. “I think the Army is not the right place for me.”

The article is based on conversation with the officer's family and friends.