Major

“Everything for me began at Matruchhaya, the orphanage in Goa. I was brought there when I was two, and no one knew who my parents were. I spent my growing up years there wanting answers but didn't know where to look for them,” she says.

Enrolled as Cadet no 001, Priya Jhingan became the first woman cadet to join the Indian Army alongside a batch of 25 other feisty women – the first batch of women who became trailblazers for women in the armed forces.