In his childhood, Sachin Gupta had read stories about former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri. He was so inspired by his famous slogan, ‘Jai Jawan, Jai Kisaan’, that he had decided to either join army or become a farmer. His goal was to serve the nation and he felt that these two occupations would allow him to do that precisely.
However, destiny had other plans for him, and he ended up getting into civil services. Currently posted as SDM in Ambala, Mr. Gupta still considers not getting into army his saddest experience but is happy to serve the nation through a more extensive platform.
HARD FOR HIM TO ACCEPT FAILURE IN CAPF
Mr. Gupta is the youngest of six siblings. His passion for education comes from his mother who is a teacher in government school, while the exposure to agriculture has been a gift from his father. He was also greatly inspired by late PM Lal Bahadur Shastri. In an interview to media, he had mentioned, “Although my father is a farmer, he had always pushed me to get higher education and kept me away from farming for many years. He felt that exposing me to agriculture might derail me from education. But after I got into college, he started sending me to fields as well. Then I decided to either be a soldier or a farmer. Till college, I was very passionate about getting into army to serve my nation.”
One can imagine Mr Gupta’s passion for army, for he appeared eight times for SSB but couldn’t crack it. Still, he didn’t lose hope and explored other ways to get into defence forces.
He was shattered when he couldn’t get into CAPF (Central Armed Police Forces) in 2016. “I was confident about my efforts for the entrance and was sure about my selection. Then, due to medical exam, I couldn’t make it. I believe that was my weakest point. I couldn’t accept that fact. I was very sad and depressed. I was preparing for UPSC Mains also side by side but couldn’t focus. I used to talk to my parents for many hours and they gave me confidence for UPSC,” he recalled.
A CHILD SHOWED HIM THE RIGHT DIRECTION
Mr. Gupta was an engineer and had worked for Maruti. When he was in class 12, he first heard about UPSC. “During my college days, I was only focused on army. That was my passion. When I was in last year of my college, one of my friends forced me to teach under-privileged kids. There was an institution named Pratigya in my college which used to provide education to poor kids. In my first class, a student of class 5 asked me how two plus two became four. This was a shocker for me, and I decided to do something for them. UPSC provides the platform to work in that direction,” he said.
While working for Maruti, Mr. Gupta started his preparation for UPSC and was also appearing for defence services exam simultaneously. In his first attempt at UPSC CSE in 2015, he couldn’t qualify for Mains. Then in 2016, he got 575 rank and in 2017, he became a UPSC topper scoring AIR 3! Now, he aspires to work for the betterment of the people of the country.
