Barnana Yadagiri’s life had been a struggle. His father worked as a daily wager earning Rs 100 per day in a cement factory in Hyderabad. His mother who is afflicted with polio would clean office tables to make ends meet.

He made his parents proud as with misty eyes, they watched him receive the IMA's (Indian Military Academy) prestigious silver medal for standing first in the order of merit in the Technical Graduate Course, which paves the way for cadets with a technical background to join the Army's engineering units.

His father Barnana Gunnaya’s eyes welled up with tears of joy when he saw his son in an Army officer's uniform at IMA’s passing out parade.

Earlier, Yadgiri overcame extreme financial difficulties and became a software engineer from the International Institute of Information Technology in Hyderabad. He had sustained his studies through government scholarships.

 He turned down a job offer from Union Pacific Rail Road which is a US-based company. He could easily have earned enough to pull his family out of poverty, but the lure of money could not diminish his desire to serve his country.

He scored  93.4 percent in the CAT exam and got a call from IIM Indore, where he had secured admission, yet he decided to follow his heart and join the army to serve his nation.

His father tried to dissuade him from doing so and told him that he was making a big mistake by leaving a highly-paid software job to join the Army. However, Yadagiri believes that no amount of money can replace the immense satisfaction that one derives from serving the motherland.

He had the option of doing a corporate job and earning lots of money, but he was never tempted by the same and decided to do the work in which his heart lay – serving the country.

Yadagiri loves public speaking and is an avid reader. Now that he has become a successful army officer, he wishes to fulfill his duties in a manner that makes the country proud by working in the defence research and development stream. His basic character of hard work and his technical background will certainly help him in achieving this dream.

Yadagiri is a rare precious gem who, though having endured extreme poverty turned down a corporate job with a fat paycheque in order to fulfil his dream of serving his motherland.