In a small town in Satna, Madhya Pradesh, a mother had a habit of repeating one sentence so often that it stopped sounding like a wish.
“One day my daughter will definitely become an officer,” Pratibha Jha would say.
Her daughter, Shivani, grew up hearing it the way other children hear their own names — as something that simply felt true.
Raised on the same terms as her brother
It helped that her parents never treated her differently from her younger brother, who now works with Reliance Industries.
In a town where families often sent their daughters to Hindi-medium schools to save money while enrolling their sons in English-medium ones, Sanjeev Jha, a factory supervisor, and Pratibha, a homemaker, chose differently.
Sanjeev and Pratibha Jha chose to give their daughter and son the same opportunities — including enrolling Shivani in Satna’s only ICSE school.
They enrolled Shivani in Satna’s only ICSE school, considered the best in the city. She ended up studying at a better school than her brother.
“They gave me wings to fly,” Shivani says. “They never held me back.”
There was no talk of marriage as a milestone to plan around, or of choosing a government job closer to home because it might be more practical. Both children were given the same freedom to dream.
“I wanted to do something big,” Shivani says. “I wanted to go out into the field and make a real difference.”
There were no officers in her family before her. The ambition, when it first took root, was entirely her own.
A stable job, and a dream running underneath it
Shivani completed her BE in Electronics from Madhav Institute of Technology and Science, Gwalior, in 2020. She joined TCS soon after through campus placement and worked there for nearly two years, largely from home during the pandemic.
“They gave me wings to fly. They never held me back,” Shivani says of her parents’ unwavering support.
She later moved to a cybersecurity firm, continuing to work remotely.
From the outside, she was building a stable career like many young engineers. But alongside her job, she was quietly pursuing another goal.
She first heard about the Services Selection Board (SSB) in 2019 through college friends.
“I didn’t really know what SSB was, or what the Army meant,” she recalls. “I was just taking things one step at a time — all I wanted at the time was a placement.”
Her friends encouraged her to give it a shot, telling her they thought she could clear it.
She appeared for her first SSB attempt in February 2020 and cleared the screening stage on her first try. She had prepared on her own, using borrowed books and without coaching.
In May 2023, a spinal injury left Shivani on bed rest for three months. Her parents became her caregivers through recovery.
For a moment, it seemed like the beginning of a quick journey.
It wasn’t.
A process with no partial credit
SSB is a five-day selection process that includes psychological tests, group tasks and a personal interview. Candidates are assessed independently by three assessors, and all three must recommend them for selection.
“It’s a complete personality test,” Shivani says. “It’s very subjective.”
She experienced that uncertainty across multiple attempts.
One attempt for the Air Force ended in a medical disqualification, after which she underwent eye surgery.
Other attempts ended at the first stage, with Shivani being screened out among dozens of candidates competing for a limited number of spots. In another round, she says her confidence faltered during the interview.
Multiple SSB attempts, a medical disqualification, and a health scare — Shivani never took a break or a drop year through it all.
During the pandemic, a health scare related to low oxygen levels in Kolkata forced her to cut short another attempt.
“It’s a very dynamic process,” she says. “It isn’t a machine judging you — it’s human, and that changes everything.”
She saw the same unpredictability among other candidates, too.
“Some of my friends were more capable than me, and even they couldn’t make it through,” she says.
Through every attempt, Shivani continued working full-time.
“I didn’t take a break. I didn’t take a drop year.”
She prepared in the hours before and after work, on weekends and whenever she could find the time. While her colleagues knew her as a diligent engineer who met her deadlines, few knew how much effort she was putting into a dream that kept slipping out of reach.
The test that came from within
In May 2023, during an SSB attempt in Bengaluru, Shivani faced her toughest setback yet.
Before her final attempt in Jalandhar, Shivani cut her hair short — a small change that made her feel like “a different person.”
An accident left her with fractures to her D12 and L5 vertebrae. She spent three months on complete bed rest. It took another six months before she could manage even a slow run.
For someone preparing for a selection process that involves physical fitness, the injury could have brought her journey to an end.
Instead, her parents became her caregivers.
“It felt like they were giving me a second life,” she says. “That’s how much they cared for me.”
There was no conversation about giving up. Her parents focused on helping her recover, reassuring her that recovery was simply another step before she could try again.
Through months of physiotherapy and slow progress, Shivani says she never seriously considered stopping.
“I was sure I wouldn’t stop trying until my very last attempt.”
A change in confidence
Before her final attempt, Shivani made a small change her father had been encouraging her to make for some time: she cut her hair short.
Lieutenant Shivani Jha, commissioned into the Indian Army in September 2025 — her mother’s old sentence, finally a rank and a uniform.
It wasn’t superstition. She simply wanted to feel different as she walked into a room that had rejected her before.
“After that, I felt more confident — like a different person,” she says. “I knew I had to make it. I was already in that headspace.”
Her final SSB attempt was held in Jalandhar, Punjab.
This time, she was selected.
The uniform her mother always spoke of
Shivani resigned from her corporate job the same night she received her joining letter.
She joined the Officers Training Academy in September 2024. After completing a year of training, she was commissioned as Lieutenant Shivani Jha of the Indian Army in September 2025.
It was the moment her mother’s old sentence became real.
“I always wanted to do something like this, and now I’m living it,” Shivani says. “I’m very happy.”
Looking back, she doesn’t credit a strategy or shortcut for getting there. Instead, she points to the decision she made early on — and her refusal to abandon it.
After fracturing her D12 and L5 vertebrae during an SSB attempt in May 2023, Shivani spent three months on bed rest, with her parents by her side as caregivers through every step of her recovery.
“I made up my mind that I wanted this — no matter how many failures it took, I stayed consistent,” she says. “I never stopped believing — in God, and in myself.”
Her message to anyone pursuing a dream that keeps ending in rejection is simple:
“Perseverance is everything. If you keep going, and you have faith — in yourself, and in something greater — that’s the way through.”
Somewhere in Satna, a mother’s old sentence no longer needs repeating.
It isn’t a hope anymore. It is a rank, a uniform and a daughter who refused to let a “no” decide how her story would end.
