Some stories don’t begin with comfort or convenience. They begin with loss. They begin with questions society throws at you before you are old enough to answer them. And from between those questions, a young woman quietly rises—not to prove the world wrong, but to honour the voice of a mother who isn’t around anymore.
This is the journey of Rupam Sonali, who secured 268th rank in the Jharkhand Public Service Commission (JPSC) examination, a rank earned not in ideal circumstances, but through a life shaped by responsibilities far too heavy for her age.
A CHILDHOOD THAT CHANGED TOO SOON
Rupam grew up in Khunti, Jharkhand, a quiet district where dreams usually stretch only as far as the resources available. She studied in local schools, lived a simple life, and believed her family would remain her biggest support forever.
But life had its own plans.
Her father passed away in 2011 after a sudden heart attack. Seven years later, in 2018, cancer took her mother too. “After my mother passed away, it felt like the world around us collapsed. My sister was only three years older than me, and suddenly we had no one else,” Rupam told Indian Masterminds.
The two sisters were left alone, at ages when most children depend entirely on their parents. From that day, survival became the first chapter of her adulthood.
THE WORDS THAT NEVER LEFT HER
Amid the pain of losing her mother, one memory stayed alive — her mother’s dream.
“She used to tell me even when she was very sick, ‘Beta, you have to do something big,’” Rupam recalls with a quiet certainty. Her mother, a Hindi teacher, believed fiercely in her daughter’s potential. She never let society’s comments shake her confidence.
But society never stopped commenting.
People around them said cruel things, not just after her parents passed away, but even before. “Our relatives used to say, ‘You have only two daughters? Who will take care of you?’” Rupam remembers.
After losing her parents, the taunts became more pointed — “They are girls… now orphans… what will they do?”
Instead of breaking her spirit, every comment settled in her mind like a promise she had to keep.
“I thank those people today,” she says without bitterness. “If they hadn’t spoken like that, maybe I wouldn’t have developed this fire to move forward.”
A STUDENT, A TEACHER, A BREADWINNER – ALL AT ONCE
Most students begin their preparation for competitive exams after college. Rupam began hers while she was still in her teens — because she didn’t have the luxury to wait.
At just 16 years old, right after her mother’s death, she started giving tuitions to sustain the household. She taught children from nursery to class 11, managing multiple batches while still in school herself.
Her days were long and exhausting. She lived in Khunti but studied at St. Xavier’s College in Ranchi — more than 40 km one way. That meant three hours of travel daily by bus.
“I used to wake up at 4 a.m.,” she shares. “I’d study for two hours, cook for myself and my cousin brother, travel 80 km for college, come back by 3:30 pm, and then teach tuitions till 7:30 pm.”
After a quick half-hour break to watch TV, she would study again late into the night. The schedule sounds unbelievable, but she followed it for years.
What helped her was the COVID lockdown. “COVID was like a chance to breathe,” she explains. “In that time, I finished almost the entire JPSC syllabus. Later, I only had to revise.”
She never took coaching. She never had a mentor at home. She didn’t have anyone to guide her through the maze of competitive exams. But she had something else — an unspoken commitment to herself.
THE RESULT THAT CAME AT 3AM
JPSC results are famously delayed. For Rupam, the wait stretched to 11 months after her mains exam. Those months were difficult. “I kept wondering if I’d made a mistake. Should I have gone into medicine instead? Was I on the right path at all?”
Then came a phone call that made the world slow down for a moment.
“The result came at 3 a.m. A senior officer from DSP ki Pathshala called me. I couldn’t believe a senior officer was calling at that hour. He said, ‘Rupam, check your result — you’ve made it.’”
She woke her sister, and the two of them cried together. Not out of shock — but out of the weight that finally lifted after years of shouldering everything alone.
HER SISTER: THE SILENT PARTNER IN HER STRUGGLE
All through her journey, Rupam’s elder sister, Rupali, stood by her side. She, too, became financially independent and recently secured a job as a nursing tutor. The two sisters built their lives step by step, refusing help from anyone who once doubted they could make it.
“We never wanted to be a burden on anyone,” Rupam says. “We had insurance money from our mother, but we never used it for daily needs. I told myself, ‘I will earn for myself.’”
They survived because they believed in effort, not sympathy.
Even today, some of the same people who ignored them after their parents’ death now call to ask how the sisters are doing.
“How can we forget?” Rupam says simply. “We remember everything.”
But there is no resentment in her voice — only clarity. Her achievement is her response. She doesn’t need to say anything else.
THE MOTHER WHOSE DREAM LIVES ON
When asked what she would tell her mother if she could, Rupam pauses. Then she smiles softly.
“I just want to say that I fulfilled her dream. Whatever she wished for me… I did it. I hope she is happy.”
This isn’t a daughter trying to impress the world. It is a daughter trying to keep a promise to the woman who shaped her.
ADVICE TO ASPIRANTS
Rupam believes studying more hours doesn’t mean studying better.
“Don’t count hours. Even if you study 3–4 hours with full attention, that is more than enough.”
Her journey proves this. With household work, long travel, and tuition teaching, she barely got a few hours to herself — yet she made every minute count.
She also believes young people must learn to handle money early. “Even if you have ₹1000 or ₹1500, start investing. That small habit makes a big difference later.”
LOOKING AHEAD
Rupam plans to appear for UPSC in 2027, once her training schedule stabilizes. She wants to grow, learn, and serve — not just because it’s her career path, but because it fulfills the purpose her mother left for her.
And she has one more belief her mother gave her — never become only a bookworm.
“My mother always said, ‘Be an all-rounder.’ Before my exam days, I was very active — debates, dance, competitions. Everything. You should know how to live, not just how to study.”
She didn’t simply clear an exam.
She restored the honour of her parents. She protected the dignity of two daughters who were once dismissed by the world. She carried forward a dream that should have belonged to her mother’s lifetime — but now lives through hers.
And for thousands of girls across small towns in India, she has left behind a message that shines with absolute clarity:
“Your circumstances may not be in your control. But what you choose to become is entirely in your hands.”
