On 22 July, 2023, when the Department of Personnel and Training of Government of India allocated services to the candidates who cracked one of the toughest exams of India, UPSC CSE-2022, conducted by the Union Public Service Commission, it was the moment a Delhi Police constable was eagerly waiting for. In his 9 years of hard preparation and 8 attempts, Ram Bhajan Kumar always hoped to become a civil servant one day. His dream service was IPS, and, if not, IRS, but he was alloted IIS (Indian Information Services). But, the man who has had to struggle so much from childhood accepted it with so much grace.
Though he has much attachment towards the uniform, he is ready to move on to another service. He told Indian Masterminds in a video interview that he will work in this service with full dedication and integrity, because this is what he has learned in his life till now.
Mr. Bhajan had also given his 9th attempt this year in UPSC CSE, but couldn’t qualify Prelims 2023 because of the tough CSAT paper.
He had cracked UPSC CSE 2022 with the all India rank of 667 in his 8th attempt in Hindi medium. He was working in the Delhi Police cyber crime unit in the south district at that time.
Watch Video Interview Here-
INSPIRATION FROM SENIORS
Mr. Bhajan is the only one from his village to have cracked the civil services exam. Not only this, but he is also the first in his family to get a government job. He joined Delhi Police in 2009 as a constable and became a head constable in 2022.
After he joined Delhi Police, he used to get inspired by seeing the senior officers. Perhaps that is what motivated him to try for civil services.
From 2012, he started thinking about it seriously. Meanwhile, he also got married and became the father of a child.
PREPARING WITH A JOB
He started preparing for UPSC from 2015. He took admission in a coaching institute and started preparing together with his maternal cousin.
Preparing for an UPSC exam with a police job was not easy. He said, ‘It’s difficult, but not impossible. If you are a big officer, then managing time is not so difficult at times, but for a constable whose duty keeps changing frequently from one place to another, it is very difficult to follow a routine. After completing 12-14 hours continuous duty, I used to study in my room. However, my senior officers helped me a lot.”
Despite his hard work, he couldn’t clear Prelims for 3 consecutive years. After that, he started focusing on all his weaknesses.
He said, “Hindi medium candidate should focus more on writing practice. Otherwise, questions will be left out in Mains exam. Also, Hindi medium aspirants should show creativity in answer writing to get good marks. I practiced it a lot, gave 40 tests, and did a lot of answer-writing practice, almost 2000 pages.”
GUIDANCE FOR HINDI MEDIUM
He accepted that Hindi Medium aspirants do not get sufficient guidance. He said, “There is lack of guidance for Hindi Medium. In 2018, after I started talking to some people, I could make notes of what to study and what not. Apart from that, every aspirant should give his 100 percent.”
He suggests aspirants to adopt test series and PYQs from the starting of preparations. He said, “Test series is most essential part of preparation for Hindi medium aspirants. It boosts your mind and give you prowess to handle the exam pressure. Test series give 20 to 30 percent power boost to your exam preparation.”
He further said that IAS preparation does not mean that one has to have knowledge of every field.
“Aspirants think that they should know everything. This is wrong. That’s why many aspirants are flooded with content. They study with many resources. It is harmful for everyone. Same happened with me, too, in the early years. But, around 2018, I understood that we should go according to the syllabus only with limited source of content.”
