Incredible Achievers
Aspiring to scale new heights is the dream of most youngsters. But only a handful of them achieve it, some with all facilities made available to them and some in the face of tremendous adversities. Those who climb to the pinnacle of success despite all odds stacked against them are the real trailblazers – the incredible achievers, the material dreams are made of, clinching glory from virtually nowhere. They are the ones who become role models for the new generation of aspirers. Two of such achievers deserve special mention for lifting themselves from adverse conditions by dint of their determination, hard work and boundless confidence. There are of course many others and in due course they will find a mention in these columns.
Mr. Govind Jaiswal
Govind Jaiswal, an IAS officer of Union Territories cadre from 2007 batch grew up in a household where the sole bread winner was his father Shri Narain Jaiswal - a rickshaw puller. He lived with his parents and three elder sisters in a small 12’ by 8’ rented room, completed schooling from a government school in Usmanpura of Uttar Pradesh and graduated in Mathematics from the government degree college in Varanasi. The locality where he stayed used to suffer up to fourteen long hours of power cuts every day. The neighbouring households used generators as power backup leading to high decibels of noise, often of intolerable limits. Govind used to shut all the windows in his small tenement and close his ears with cotton balls to shut off the noise. But he was excellent in his studies and from an early age had given indications of his exceptional talent. Govind himself has disclosed in an interview that his determination to get into IAS came from an incident when as a school boy he had gone to a friend’s house to play and his friend’s father insulted him saying that boys of his background should not enter rich people’s houses. Govind says he was bewildered by this comment and asked someone what will it take to earn the stature to enter “rich people’s houses” and he was told to become an IAS officer to earn that stature.
After graduation Govind wanted to move to Delhi to prepare for the highly competitive Civil Services exams. His father obviously did not earn enough to support that venture, but went out of the way to fulfill his son’s dream. He sold off the only piece of small land he possessed for 40000 rupees and gave that amount to Govind to pursue his dream. Govind came to Delhi for coaching, started giving tuitions to students in Math to earn just enough to survive and prepared for the IAS exams. And he came out successful in his first attempt in 2006, securing the 48th rank in IAS. He recollects that for the interview when he wanted to buy a decent pair of clothes his elder sister sent the money to him without telling him that the amount was saved with lot of difficulty for operation of her eyes.
Govind says his success was as incredible to him as to the rest of the world,
“For the first few minutes I was shocked and shivering as my hands were not in my command when I tried to give this news to my father. He had sleepless nights for about ten days before the results came out.”
Govind is a great admirer of Late Dr. A.P.J. Kalam and believes that after Gandhiji this former President gave the Indians a dream and the power to dream. To Govind, Dr. Kalam is a symbol of many common people’s dreams.
Govind is married to an IPS officer and is presently posted as a Secretary to Government of Goa. The enclosed video clip is a standing testimony to the incredible courage, determination and struggle of a brilliant young man to overcome insurmountable odds and achieve spectacular success.
Ms. Megha Aurora
Ms. Megha Aurora, an Indian Economic Service (IES) officer of 2017 batch is a shining proof that if one has talent and determination nothing can stop her from achieving success. She hails from Agra, the city of Tajmahal, the monument of marble dreams. Megha’s dreams were, however, to scale the supreme heights of achievement and announce to the world with justifiable pride that no odds were serious enough to deter her from reaching the summit of success.
Megha’s father had studied only up to the eighth standard. He earns his livelihood by driving an auto-rickshaw. The family income is supplemented by the salary of Megha’s mother as a primary school teacher. Not coming from an affluent background Megha has fought great odds to pursue her dream. She was always a brilliant student and had secured 95 percent in her High School examination. This was the first significant step towards giving wings to her dreams. She came to Delhi to study in Hansraj College and completed her graduation in Commerce. The next stop was Delhi School of Economics and from there the highly competitive Indian Economic Service. Megha worked hard, putting in more than ten to twelve hours of preparation every day and in the 2017 exam for IES she came out with flying colours securing the All-India eighth rank.
Her father Shri Sunil Arora and mother Smt. Sunil Arora are extremely proud of her, since she is the only member among her relatives who has secured a government job. Times of India (Nov 13, 2017) discloses that of the sixteen students from Delhi School of Economics who had written the IES exam Megha is the only one who came out successful. That makes it all the more incredible!
Meanwhile Megha has joined the training program for IES but also simultaneously wants to pursue a Ph.D. research.
The accompanying video clip offers a glimpse into Megha’s spectacular success story.
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