Dreams have a way of coming true if one believes in them. We often hear of true-life stories where young people from small towns and tiny villages dream big and go on to make them come true through sheer hard work and consistency. Similar is the case of Himanshu Gupta, a resident of Uttarakhand, who once worked at a tea shop to help his father, but who also dared to dream big and, with hard work, fulfilled it, too. He cleared the UPSC CSE exam and joined his dream career: IAS.
EARLY LIFE
Born in Sitarganj in Udham Singh district of Uttarakhand, Mr. Gupta was very good in his studies since childhood.However, his childhood was very different from that of an ordinary child because the financial condition of his family was not good, and he spent his childhood in extreme poverty. His father used to work as a daily wage labourer and could barely make a living for the family.
SOLD TEA
The father later started a tea stall and a young Himanshu also used to work there after school. Mr. Gupta had once said to media, “I didn’t see my father much, as he was trying to find jobs in different places. It was very difficult for us financially and this was also one of the reasons why my family moved to Shivpuri in Bareilly, where my maternal grandparents lived. I got admission in the local government school there.”
In 2006, the family moved to Sirauli in the Bareilly district, where his father opened his own general store. “Till today, my father runs the same shop,” Mr. Gupta said.
After passing out of school, Mr. Gupta took admission in Hindu College in Delhi. This was the first time that he had stepped into a metro city. In Delhi, he gave tuitions and wrote paid blogs to earn some extra money. After graduation, he enrolled for a master’s degree in environmental science from Delhi University and became the topper in the final exam. After this,he got an opportunity to go abroad for Ph.D but decided not to go.
CRACKED CSE THRICE
He decided to stay on in India and made UPSC his goal. He worked hard and, in the year 2018,he cracked CSE and was selected for the Indian Railway Traffic Service (IRTS). Even after this, he continued his preparation and took the exam again in 2019. In this second attempt, he secured AIR 304 and was selected for the Indian Police Service (IPS). In the third attempt in 2020, he secured AIR 139 and joined the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), thus fulfilling a long-cherished dream!
