Newly commissioned as a Lieutenant in the Indian Army, Swati Mahadik stands straight in her olive green uniform. She looks proudly at it and says, "This is my husband's dream. I had other dreams - like being with my children - but I took up his dream."

Colonel Santosh Mahadik was killed while battling terrorists in Kashmir's Kupwara in 2015. Besides his distraught wife, he was survived by their two children, Karthikee and Swaraj.

When Swati decided to join the Army last year, she was 37. It wasn't an easy decision.

"My husband liked being in the Army. He fought against terrorism, so after he died, I decided to wear this olive green uniform," she says.

She is now a graduate of Chennai's Officers' Training Academy, and wants to follow in Col Mahadik's footsteps. If her children want to, so can they, she says.

Lt Swati Mahadik (Photo: @IRavindraShinde/Twitter) Lt Swati Mahadik (Photo: @IRavindraShinde/Twitter)

Lt Mahadik says she owes everything to her husband, who "liberated" a spouse who was told growing up that she had to be home by 7 pm.

"He was everything to me and my children. Since his death, this training and my children have filled every day. But his void can't be filled," she recalls. Her expression evinces strength.

And just how would he feel now, seeing her in this uniform?

Lt Mahadik smiles. "My husband loves dancing. He would have danced seeing me graduate today. I know we would all be dancing."

LT. NIDHI DUBEY

Nidhi Mishra Dubey was pregnant when her husband died of a cardiac arrest. Mukesh Dubey was a Naik in the Mahar regiment.

Nidhi wanted to wear the uniform to show her son Suyash what it meant to be in the Army.

It wasn't a cakewalk - her first five attempts to pass the exam ended in failure. But that's in the past now.

"Now I am ready to serve the nation," she says.

Lt Dubey says she missed her son during training, but also that her family has been "a pillar of support."

She now wants her son to join the Army too.

Lt Nidhi Dubey (Photo: ANI) Lt Nidhi Dubey (Photo: ANI)

ON INDIA'S NEW DEFENCE MINISTER

Last week, at Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's 2 Krishna Menon Marg residence in New Delhi, another woman learned she'd achieved a rather special feat.

Shortly after she was bestowed a Cabinet rank, Nirmala Sitharaman was told she could take charge of India's defence ministry that very evening, or wait till Jaitley - the interim minister - returned from Japan.

News of Sitharaman's appointment as India's first full woman defence minister - Indira Gandhi once held the portfolio when she was PM - was widely welcomed as a milestone.

And how does Lt Swati Mahadik feel about it?

Pat comes the reply. "We all are serving the nation. No distinction between women and men."

As for Lt Dubey, she says she's happy to graduate at a time "when a woman is the defence minister."

On Saturday, both women packed their bags and said goodbye to their fellow cadets, ready to begin a role they they never dreamed they would be in as young girls.

And they walked away briskly with their children towards their new future.

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