He wanted to join the National Defence Academy, but failed in the NDA interview, which his father felt was due to over-confidence. "He was always an over-confident boy," Radhakrishnan Nair recalls.
Tasting failure for the first time, Harshan was shattered.
He had no option but to obey his father and write the entrance exam for engineering colleges, in which he did well. He joined an engineering college in Kerala, but it was not possible for the youngster to abandon his dreams. Without his father's knowledge, he again appeared for the the NDA entrance exam, and was selected.
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After he secured admission to the NDA he broke the news to his father, who was insistent that Harshan finish his engineering course before joining the army.
But Harshan would have none of it. His dreams were more important than an engineering degree. His father requested a friend, a wing commander in the Indian Air Force, to persuade his son to first get an engineering degree. After speaking with Harshan for an hour, the IAF officer told Radhakrishnan Nair, 'If you want your son to be happy, let him join the NDA.'
Image: Captain Harshan's parents. Photograph: Shobha Warrier
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