She was selected to IPS twice, yet Nidhi Bansal did not stop chasing her dream of becoming an IAS officer. She refused to join IPS and chose to keep preparing for another shot at IAS, instead. And she did right, as she made it to her dream service by securing AIR 23 in the Civil Services Exam of 2019.
No doubt, her journey to IAS was long and difficult. She made five attempts at CSE and cleared it three times. But every time, her dream service eluded her because her ranks did not make her eligible for IAS.
It was only in her fifth attempt that she managed to enter IAS, and that too convincingly, by coming in the list of toppers with AIR 23. Indian Masterminds presents her story today – the story of a small-town girl with big dreams.
NOT MEANT FOR CODING
Ms. Bansal is from Morena town in Madhya Pradesh. After completing 12th standard, she got selected to NIT Trichy and completed her B.Tech in Computer Science. She then got a placement in Texas Instrumental with a fat package in Bangalore.
While she was working there, she realised that she was not meant for coding. She was not able to connect with the work and was not satisfied with what she was doing with her life. Her father being a businessman and mother a homemaker, were unable to give her much advice about her career. But one of her uncles suggested to her to try for UPSC.
In an interview with media, she had said that until then, she didn’t know how many services would be available after clearing UPSC exam. When she researched about that, she made up her mind about becoming an IAS officer one day.
GOING FOR IAS
She quit her job and started preparation. First two attempts were futile, but she didn’t give up. “After the failures, I realised what I was doing wrong. Despite being good in Mathematics, I chose Sociology for my optional without any reasonable reason. I changed that and it really helped me.”
In 2016 and 2017, she made it to the IPS lists and was allotted Tripura and Jharkhand cadre, respectively. Normally one takes the services available, but Nidhi was different. This was not meant to be the culmination of her efforts. She wanted to become an IAS officer and didn’t want to give up after coming this close.
LUCK SMILES ON THE BRAVE
In 2019, she made another go at the Civil Services Exam, and this time, she cleared it with flying colours and secured the All India 23rd rank. She was finally selected for her dream service: IAS, thereby showing how the combined power of will and determination can work magic on our dreams.
However, her advice to UPSC aspirants is not to forfeit their selection to any service, unless they, like her, have absolute confidence in their capabilities.
