People who can overcome all the adversities that life throws on their way and still reach their goals on time are the true achievers. Similar is the story of All India Ranker 535 in UPSC CSE 2020, Niranjan Kumar, who grew up in an economically weak family supported by his father who ran a small tobacco shop. He went through hardships and crossed all hurdles to reach his UPSC goal, and today, he is an Indian Revenue Service officer and a pride to his family.
SON OF A TOBACCO SHOP OWNER
Hailing from the Pakribarawan block of Bihar’s Nawada district, Niranjan Kumar is the son of Arvind Kumar who used to own a small tobacco shop in the area,but the Covid-19 pandemic forced him to shut it down. He could not reopen his shop again as his health was slowly deteriorating day by day.
Despite the constraints and struggles, the family made sure Niranjan could continue his education.A meritorious student from the beginning, he passed his matriculation examination from Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya Rewar Nawada in the year 2004.
In 2006, he passed the Inter examination from Science College Patna, after which he studied at an IIT, and got a job as an assistant manager in Coal India Limited, Dhanbad. While on this job, he also started preparing on the side for his UPSC exams.
TWO SUCCESSFUL ATTEMPTS
While most aspirants study for years at a stretch to crack the UPSC examination, Niranjan did not have the leisure to spend such a lot of time on preparation only, given the financial condition of his family. Therefore, he gave his first attempt at UPSC in the same year of his preparation and his happiness knew no bounds when he received the result.
The young achiever had cleared the UPSC CSE 2016 in his very first attempt with All India Rank 728! Though, he was not very satisfied with his rank, he and his family were happy about the fact that Niranjan cleared the exam in the first attempt and that too with just a few months of preparation!
His rank bagged him a job in the Income Tax Department as the Deputy Commissioner of Income Tax in New Delhi.
Although, he was happy at his job, Niranjan wanted to give another try at CSE. Therefore, while still going to duty, he prepared for the examination by taking out time from his busy schedule. He gave another attempt in UPSC CSE 2020, and much to his pleasure, he cracked the toughest examination of India once again, this time with an even better rank! He scored AIR-535 IN CSE 2020, making his parents proud of him, more than ever.
No matter the struggles that the young officer had to sustain, his dream came true twice and he couldn’t be prouder. His story shows us that no matter the circumstances, it pays to never give up on your dreams.
