Year 2017. A 22-year-old civil engineer from Gargoti tehsil in Kolhapur district of Maharashtra applied for a government job in his home state. But, to his dismay, he was told flatly that he was not eligible for the post. Reason: 50 per cent vision loss in both his eyes. On further enquiry, he found out that there was no reservation for the differently abled in government jobs in the state. This was the turning point in his life. Feeling dejected, he decided to change tack and move to an altogether different field. That boy is Anand Ashok Patil, and in an exclusive interview to Indian Masterminds, he spoke in detail how that setback propelled him to a greater purpose in life: Civil Service.
TOPPER IN THE DIFFERENTLY ABLED CATEGORY
Anand Patil is all of 26 years now. And much water has flown under the bridge since the time his job application was rejected on ‘visually handicap’ ground. Today, he is about to set foot into the coveted world of Civil Services as an IAS officer. His name is among the 761 successful candidates of UPSC Civil Services Examination 2020. And with All India Rank 325, Anand is the topper in the ‘differently abled category’. The very reason for which he faced rejection in the past, has become a reason for celebration today! Such is the twist of fate.
“I didn’t lose hope when I was rejected for a government engineer’s post. If anything, it made me more determined to pave a way for myself by taking a different approach. I chose to make a career in civil services and, accordingly, started planning and preparing for the next phase of my life,” Anand says.
A STRATEGIC APPROACH TO UPSC PREPARATION
As Anand started his UPSC exam preparation, he came to realise that the road ahead was not going to be easy for him. He enrolled into a coaching institute in Pune but faced problems going there, as he could not read the bus numbers because of his poor vision. He had to rely on his friends to help him out, and it was difficult to find someone every day. Despite these glitches, he made it till the interview round in his first attempt in 2018 but could not go beyond it. His name was missing from the final list.
When the marks were out, he saw that he had scored very less in the interview round. He went home disappointed but decided he would try again next year.
By this time, his confidence level had plummeted because of the perceived failure in his mind of the previous year. And, in his second attempt, he failed to clear the Mains. Did his confidence level go down further?
“On the contrary, I felt somewhat assured this time after seeing my marks. I realised that I had done exceptionally well in Prelims and fell short by a few marks in the Mains. So, I started strategizing. I decided to focus more on Mains knowing that if I get good marks here, my overall percentage will go up, and automatically my position will move up the list,” he says.
FOCUSSED ON GETTING HIGH SCORE IN MAINS
This time Anand decided to work on a fixed plan. He didn’t hope much from the interview round, instead he decided to focus on getting very high marks in the Mains. Prelims was his forte, he scored very good marks in both his previous attempts. Hence, he was not particularly worried about it.
By this time, the pandemic had hit the world and India, too, like other countries, had closed down to restrict the virus. All coaching institutions had shut their doors. It was then that Anand heard of IQRA IAS in Pune and enrolled in their online classes. And this was the best thing that happened to him during the lockdown.
“I used to sit in my room and listen carefully to the lectures of the experts since I was not able to see clearly what was being flashed on the screen. It was the same in school classrooms. Even after sitting in the front row, I couldn’t make out what was written on the board. I used to borrow my classmates’ copies and copy their notes meticulously at home,” he reminisces.
MENTOR REMEMBERS THE SPECIAL BOY
Anand says those online classes during the lockdown helped him to prepare in a structured way. He believes that the crash course he had joined in IQRA went a long way in helping him crack the 2020 UPSC exam.
IQRA IAS Managing Director Shah Faisal remembers Anand as the boy who had an uncanny talent of remembering things:
“His mind stores anything and everything. He remembers every word from our first conversation. But what impressed me was that he never uses his visual impairment as an excuse to gain any advantage or sympathy. He is special.”
FIRST CIVIL SERVANT IN A FAMILY OF ENGINEERS
And special he is. This specially empowered boy not only cracked the UPSC CSE in his third attempt in 2020, but also topped in the differently abled category. He is confident that he will get IAS. And he will be the first in a family of engineers to join civil services.
His father Ashok Patil is an engineer (retd) and so are his sisters, Neha Patil and Shital Patil. Anand specially mentions younger sister Neha: “She provided financial and moral support to me during my preparation days. I am ever grateful to her.”
The only member of the family who is not an engineer is mother Sunanda Patil, the homemaker who has ensured that when her kids leave the nest, they are fully trained to spread their wings and fly.
STRONG VIEWS ON SOCIO-ECONOMIC ISSUES
Anand had chosen Political Science & International Relations as his optional. Maybe it’s because of his deep knowledge on this subject that he has strong views on governance:
“I believe in people-centric governance where people are at the centre of the administration work. As an officer, I will be taking inputs from the people for running the administration and bringing efficiency into it.”
He feels strongly about socio-economic issues as well, especially the ones plaguing the regions nearer home. His hobby is interacting with people from different domain. So, when a UPSC interview board panellist asked him who had he interacted with recently, Anand unhesitatingly replied that he had interacted with a person who was doing a study on the spate of farmers’ suicides in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra.
SUCCESSFULLY WALKED ON A DIFFERENT ROAD
Now that the exams are behind him, Anand is relieved. He is getting some time to relax and unwind with family before he heads for his service training in Mussoorie. Long hours of studying and writing had taken its toll on him.
“I didn’t study for 24 hours prior to the examination day. As I need to bend very low to be able to see, I get pain on my neck. The same happens when I write the exam. I have to bend and write, which causes great stress on my neck,” he informs.
Preparing for UPSC this way must have been quite difficult, literally a pain in the neck? Anand breaks into a smile as he says, “To overcome this, I had started using a magnifying glass to read the written notes and had downloaded @ Voice Reader app to read the PDF files. I managed very well.”
His IQRA IAS mentor was right. Anand never wants to show his visual impairment as some sort of a handicap. Rather, he wants to show that he draws strength from it. While people may refer to him as ‘the boy without 50 per cent vision’, Anand would prefer to introduce himself as the boy with 50 per cent vision who gives his 100 per cent in everything he does.
