Clearing UPSC CSE can be quite cumbersome, especially if one has never been a fan of social sciences. Today, Indian Masterminds presents the story of 2019-batch IAS officer Khushboo Gupta, who was a science student all her life but managed to chalk out a strategy to fall in love with polity and history, too. Read on to know how she did it!
ONLY CIVIL SERVANT OF HER TOWN
Currently posted as SDO, Munger, Ms. Gupta cracked UPSC CSE in 2018 and secured AIR 80. She hails from a small town named Bhadaur in Punjab. She is the only civil servant of her town in last 40 years.
Talking about it in an interview to media, she says, “When you come from a small place, then dreaming too high feels risky. Due to lack of exposures, you aren’t confident enough to secure a place of high stature. Even when I decided to appear for CSE, I was still in doubt about my success. I used to think that I might crack prelims or even reach to interview stage but securing a rank in final list seemed far-fetched. Even then I thought to give this a try.”
HAVE PROPER REASON FOR CHOOSING
After completing her B.Tech and then M.Tech from IIT Delhi, Ms. Gupta had majorly three options for career. Either she could have chosen to do PhD from abroad or a job in MNC. The third and final option was to appear for Civil Services Exam.
She was confused and went to her father. “My father has always been supportive. He emphasised that I should do what I please but have a proper reason for doing or not doing it. On his advice, I took a pen and paper and made a list of why and why not I should be choosing one from the three. In that list, civil services featured out and I started my preparation from May 2016.”
Ms. Gupta also mentions that her personality traits matched with a civil servant, so that also weighed in. She has never been a fan of working in a cubicle and had always wanted to work to make changes on the ground.
STARTED FROM ZERO
Since the start, she was a science student and was never interested in social sciences as such. But, while preparing for civil services, one needs to have command over social sciences as well. There is no escape route.
Remembering the early days of her preparation, she said, “I started reading civics of Class 6. You’ll be surprised that I asked my cousin whether constituent assembly is another name for Parliament. You can imagine that I started from zero.”
HOW TO DO IT
According to her, anyone who has got hold of the inertia of not wasting time can make it in UPSC CSE. The only thing required for it is consistency, hard work and a positive attitude.
“You can be in box 1 or 2 or 100 but you can always make it if you’re constant with your process and strategy that you follow.”
