While most young people fulfill their own dreams by clearing UPSC CS exams, this year’s AIR 67 Vasu Jain fulfilled his mother’s dream of becoming a civil service officer. Talking to Indian Masterminds, he revealed that his mother herself dreamt of becoming a civil servant when she was younger, so the dream genetically got transferred to him, as well!

HIS MOTHER’S DREAM

Vasu said his mother used to tell him stories about the achievements of civil servants. She used to keep praising their hard work and their selfless service to the nation. All these talks motivated young Vasu to aspire for civil services himself. While reminiscing fondly about his mother’s stories, he says, “She herself dreamt of becoming a civil servant when she was younger, so the dream genetically got transferred to me, as well.”

AN OFFICER INSPIRED HIM

What put the final stamp on his aspiration to become a civil servant is an incident from his college days that involved a civil services officer. He shares the anecdote: “I was in the Leader Service community of Gujarat National University, and we were trying to get a ‘Pathshala’ constructed in a nearby village. We tried contacting various authorities but in vain. Somehow, we got the contact number of a civil servant and took our proposal to him. Within a week, the construction of the Pathshala began!”

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When the young aspirant saw the impact that a civil servant’s words have over people and how a single action of theirs can affect lives in a positive way, he made up his mind to become one, too.

THE LONG UPSC JOURNEY

And, thereby, began his journey to UPSC. Vasu started preparing for CSE during his final year of graduation in 2017. He received guidance from his friends and seniors and sat for the exam in 2018 but missed clearing Prelims by a small margin (2 marks). In his next attempt in 2019, he was able to reach the interview stage, but couldn’t clear it.

Analyzing what could possibly have gone wrong, Vasu told Indian Masterminds, “In Prelims, the answer is right in front of you; you just have to recognize the correct answer and go for it. However, sometimes all the options seem similar, and as an aspirant, one should be able to eliminate all the irrelevant options and pick the correct one. So, it’s very important to have detailed knowledge about everything.”

A wiser Vasu studied hard for the next attempt by focusing on all the necessary areas where he needed to improve and cleared his interview with flying colors in CSE 2020. So, finally, after three attempts, he emerged successfully! He scored AIR 67 and turned both his and his mother’s dream into a reality.

WISH TO USHER CHANGE IN VILLAGES

Now that he has made it to the civil services, Vasu divides his expectation into short-term and long-term. “My short-term expectation is to get trained according to the challenges that we would be facing, as right now, we just have a preliminary idea of the service. But, in long term, I am looking forward to opportunities to do what I had dreamt of, all along, for the people of my region. My inclination is towards the empowerment of a village at the grassroots level. I wish I could be even a little bit instrumental in this change,” he said.

A POSITVE ATTITUDE TO FAILURE

His message to all UPSC CS aspirants is: “Believe in yourself. Failures should not stop you in life. If you think you have that aptitude in you and you really wish to get into civil services, work as hard as you can.”

No doubt, Vasu practices what he preaches! Last year, when he could not crack UPSC CSE for the second time in a row, he took it positively and even tweeted about it, promising to the world and himself that he will surely crack the exam next year. And he did!

“I could have sat and cried that I failed because of just two marks, but no, I believed that it’s just a matter of two marks and I will easily clear it next year,” he said.

Indeed, true to his words, Vasu Jain has proved that with confidence, faith, and a positive attitude, one can achieve even the hardest of targets.