Throughout the country, people prepare sternly for the UPSC exam. Every year, thousands of aspirants take UPSC civil service exams, but only a handful succeed. They dedicate their entire lives to clearing these three-tier exams by studying and coaching hard.
People from nooks and corners of the country knuckle down into stern preparations for the UPSC exam. Several lakh aspirants appear for civil services exams conducted by UPSC every year, while only a handful of them get to taste success. People spend their entire young years in the hope of clearing this three-tier exam and indulging in strict study and coaching schedules.
To clear it in the very first attempt takes un-describable efforts and only seldom are people able to nail that. Coaching, endless hours of studying, dedication, good health, and supportive parents are just a few of the things that a person usually requires to take this exam. Life can throw the worst at you when you expect it the least.
The news is full of unusual success stories of people who cleared the civil service exams but this exceptional story of a girl has left us spellbound and we feel, you too should know about her. So, a slum girl, Ummul Kher suffering from a rare bone disease wanted to study beyond 8th standard but her parents told her that she ‘couldn’t’. If she studied anymore, her parents would cut all ties with her or simply disown her.
Now, in such a complicated situation most of us would have chosen to live conveniently with parents. But the sheer determined girl bought her own ‘jhuggi’ and started earning at the tender age of 14 by taking tuition classes, day and night. Children from nearby slum areas flooded in to study and she took four batches of 2 hours each from 3pm to 11pm. She taught those kids and studied herself simultaneously while suffering from a rare bone disease as well.
After securing 91% in her 12th exams she did her Psychology (Hons) from Gargi College and then enrolled herself at JNU for an MA in international studies. While her dream of civil services simmered within she continued her long hours of tuition but the break came in when she got the Junior Fellow Researchship of Rs. 25000 and that was when she no longer had to endure long hours of tuition for survival and could fully focus on the UPSC exams.
After 16 fractures and 8 surgeries, here is this 28-year-old Ummul Kher, a pretty girl with a wide relaxed smile on her face for she has cracked the UPSC exam in the very first attempt and achieved 420 rank. And talking about her parents, she says, “I don’t blame them. It is not their fault.”
She hasn’t informed her parents about this success yet, who live in Rajasthan. Ummul Kher candidly shares that it was in the second standard that she had first heard of the Civil services when she learned about Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, and this inspired her to dream of civil services!
For once JNU is in the news for all right reasons demolishing the pseudo-mainstream propaganda that poverty and destitution drive youth into separatism, perhaps it is time for some headmaster's sons and jilted lovers to learn that it is not by pelting stones but by honest perseverance for a respectable life that can get even a street vendor’s child to hold top administrative positions by respecting the democratic system.
Ummul Kher dreams about making her dream contagious among many more not-so-privileged children, especially girls and India needs more such role models who genuinely qualify to be called PhD Scholars without the cacophony of pseudo-liberalism or the hunger for media glare! We are absolutely stunned and short of words to praise this superwoman who stayed determined throughout the 14 tough years of life with a disease and no parental support. We hope you have a better and easier life ahead with truckloads of happiness.
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