Meet ‘A Fauji Girl (national gold medalist in swimming) and Her Dreams of Having more Kids Join the Indian Army’

Its always an honor to share such inspirational and motivational stories of young Indian women. Today we are going to share another inspirational story of a strong and bold girl.

Meet Rashmi Palande founder of ‘Fitness Regiment’

“India’s FIRST Military gym with retired soldiers as the training instructors.”

“As far as I can recollect, I was not more than 3 to 4 years old when I fell in love with the Indian Armed Forces as I used to see my father Col. Anil D Palande (Retd.) gather me in his arms in an Olive Green uniform and Peak Cap.

Whenever I heard the regimental music or the Indian National anthem play, my heart would fill with pride and I would stand up straight and watch the National Flag fly high and cultivated the wildest and most proud dream of serving the nation just like my father did.

With the advent of academic days as I grew, actively got engaged in sports.

Luckily got to be a national gold medalist in swimming and athletics and started preparing for the SSB interview for the pursuit of the dream. But fate had some other tales to say… I went through the final interview round but my name didn’t come up in the merit list.

Took it very hard, but as a Fauji kid I took it in stride and decided to uphold my love for fitness and sports and went ahead to study for one of the top Physical Trainer certifications globally and ranked first in it. The hunger for knowledge, skills and excellence helped me to pursue some more world class certifications with the best accolades.

Started my passion and profession through small steps.

First as a physical trainer in gyms, then got into personal training and eventually started managing bigger gyms in Pune.

But the zeal and dream of giving back to society with the skills and wisdom that I have acquired since childhood remained… I was always striving to have a fitness arena that will have the army discipline and culture – my dad taught me, along with the religion of fitness awareness that I am a disciple of.

Master-plan followed, one day, a guy showed up and said, “Will you start a gym in partnership with me,” and I was surprised.

He was open to any form of ideas and culture about the gym or the arena that I had.

I told him I would get back to him on this.

While at home, every moment of my dreams just got lightened with this opportunity and I never wanted to look back. In fact I had the name decided in my mind since so many days, I couldn’t control myself from making it a reality.

Finally met with him (now my business partner) and through rigorous discussions and agreements, we grounded upon my terms and designs of my dreams, nothing could be better than this.

And thus, Fitness Regiment right here in Pune was born, a fitness arena, which has the battle greetings of my father’s Assam Regiment, “Tagra Raho“!

The Indian youth and adults need to have a sense of patriotism instilled in them and respect the Indian Army personnel and their sacrifices.

Experiencing the military style of bonding, brotherhood and fitness will help people understand what the Indian Armed Forces stand for better and will help create awareness on more youth being encouraged to join the Indian Army.

More respect will be given to the soldiers and more people will learn a better route to fitness which is a self disciplined fauji way of life which instills lots of energy, kindred-ship, togetherness and positivity and I will be working day in and out for that proud moment when we will encourage and motivate more youth to join the Army and serve our nation.

At this moment, yes! A little girl’s dreams are finally coming to life and the tagline of Fitness Regiment enchants with my philosophy of life – Tagro Raho!”

— As told to Urvashi Patole by Rashmi Palande.

Follow ‘Fitness Regiment’ on Facebook | Instagram 

Rashmi also aims to give the retired soldiers especially from India’s Army Inst. of Physical Training a respectable source of livelihood doing what they loved the most as the soldiers retire only after 18 years of service. We salute her spirit.

VID Team Thanks ‘Urvashi Patole (Instagram), Founder of ‘The Bikerni – India’s  First and Largest all Female Motorcycle Association‘ for sharing this amazing motivational story with all of us.

The Indian Astronomical Observatory in #Hanle, the last village in SE Ladakh is on Mt. Saraswati, 4500 mt above sea level. This is the 3rd highest optical observatory in the world remotely operated from Bangalore. What a surreal experience. #Ladakh #IncredibleIndia @isro pic.twitter.com/rNIFrWbvc7

— Alpha Bikerni (@UrvashiPatole) December 30, 2019

We wish you ‘Rashmi and Urvashi’ all the very best for your future endeavors.