Ms. Sadaf Choudhary from Rourkee, Uttarakhand, became the topper among Muslim candidates in UPSC CSE 2020 with AIR 23. That year, 29 people from her community managed to clear the examination, a dip from the previous year, when 44 Muslim candidates made it to the prestigious list.
Ms. Choudhary not just topped the Muslim candidates list in 2020, she made it to the Top 25 in the general list, bringing focus to her native place and community, as people started looking up her background soon after the results were announced.
After her success, Ms. Choudhary revealed through media interviews that she firmly believes that improving the education rate of girls in India will bring great social changes and, hence, called for giving special attention to education of girls.
EARLY LIFE
Ms. Choudhary was a good student from the primary years and was very fond of reading books. She is the eldest daughter of Israr Ahmed and Shahbaz Bano. Her father was a former manager at Gramin Bank at the Deoband branch.
After completing her BTech from NIC Jalandhar, she joined an MNC where she used to get a decent paycheck. However, with the aim of having a bigger purpose in life, she started looking at Civil Services as a career option.
CLEARING UPSC CSE 2020
Ms. Choudhary said that she considered herself preparing for the UPSC exam since past 20 years, from the time she was being nurtured in school. While talking to media, she reminisced her time when she was in school and used to visit her grandparents’ place in Saharanpur during summer vacations. As her grandparents had a school there, she used to effectively utilise her summer vacations in studying literally everything.
After quitting her job, she dedicated her heart and soul into studying for the UPSC exam and chose self-study over coaching. After breakfast in the morning, she used to start her study session for as long as she could. She would also review and assess her preparations once a week.
In the first attempt, she did not manage to make it because of a few marks, but in UPSC CSE 2020, she was so satisfied with her performance that she already knew she had cracked the exam even before checking the results. Her confidence proved to be right, and when the result date came, she emerged as a topper.
It was a moment of pride not only for her and her parents, but for all people of her community.
CHOSING FOREIGN SERVICE
Before sitting for the exam, Ms. Choudhary was greatly inspired by IFS officer Sneha Dubey, who came into limelight for her fiery response to Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan at the UN General Assembly. She decided then that she would follow in Ms. Dubey’s footsteps and join the Indian Foreign Service.
With her high score, she could easily have joined Indian Administrative Service (IAS). However, she chose the Foreign Service over it, as her dream was to become a diplomat and represent her country abroad. And do it in style, leaving a mark. Just like Ms. Sneha Dubey did.
