'Surprised Us All': 2 Boys From a Hyderabad Slum Get Inducted Into Indian Navy

The two students, aged 20 and 21, who struggled in the early stages of training, are now officially sailors.

Sailors of the Indian Navy marching.

(Photo: iStock)

The Yacht Club of Hyderabad (YCH) has inducted two economically backward students belonging to Hyderabad into the Indian Navy, Times of India reported.

The two students, Erra Durga Prasad, aged 20, and Gowtham Kankatla, aged 21, who grew up in Rasoolpura slum and struggled in the early stages of their training, are now officially sailors.

Their training got completed in Odisha and they received their first posting in Mumbai.

Prasad's father works at a xerox shop, while his mother works as a janitor at a motorbike showroom.

Gowtham's father, on the other hand, died due to liver cirrhosis in 2007, after which his mother engaged in odd jobs to look after the family, the TOI report added.

His mother also said that her son joined the YCH when he was only 10 years old, and also that his success was quite a pleasant surprise for her and the whole family.

"I had never agreed to his demand first because he was just a kid. He came to me asking that he wants to do dangerous stuff in the waters. We never expected that he would get through. But Gowtham surprised us all," she told the Times of India.

Prasad successfully attempted to get enlisted for junior fleet of the Navy in 2016.

Five years later, he made it to the senior fleet.

(With inputs from Times of India.)