EZHIMALA (KANNUR): Darshita Babu is an exceptional girl who has crowned herself with glory at the Indian Naval Academy, Ezhimala. She has emerged as the best among the 330 outgoing cadets of the ninth batch of the five-month INA course, beating all others drawn from across the nation.
Darshita bagged both the Chief of the Naval Staff Gold Medal for best performance in overall order of merit and also the Flag Officer Commanding in-chief South Gold medal for the best woman trainee on Thursday.
Darshita, daughter of Dinesh Babu and Lissy Babu of Ulikkal, Kannur, became the star of the show when Chief of Naval Staff admiral R.K. Dhowan himself announced about her victory at a press meet.
Darshita told DC that she was filled with patriotic fervour right from her days as a cadet in the NCC. She had won the chief minister’s gold medal for the best NCC cadet and also participated in national camps.
“I dreamt about becoming the best outgoing cadet and strived for it from the very first day. Today my dream has come true,” she added.
On the five-month course at INA, Darshita said she learnt about better time management, physical training, fundamentals of maritime training and gained confidence.
“We only expected that she would be the best among the 22 women cadets. But she outsmarted them all,” said her father Dinesh. “She was different from childhood itself as she was interested in martial arts and also vowed to join the defence forces,” her mother said.
An engineering graduate of the 2011 batch from TKM College of Engineering, Kollam, Darshita loved classical dance, music and martial arts.
She is a ‘black belt’ in Karate and has won countless prizes for dance and music. The Navy plans to send her for higher studies in naval architecture. She has a sister Dayitha.
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