Every time you repeat an exam, you think you might be doing worse than before, but then this happened. K Meera’s voice was a mix of surprise and joy when she said that. She never thought she'd come out sixth in the rank list when she wrote the UPSC (Union Public Service Commission) exams for the fourth time. But there, she did. She told Asianet News how the desire to turn to civil service came to her when she worked at L & T in Bengaluru. She was not studying all the time but when the exams got closer, she had started putting in 12 hours a day for at least two months. Meera is happy that she could join the service at a time when the world is going through such a crisis as the COVID-19 pandemic.
Out of the 10 Malayalis who featured in the top 100, seven are women candidates. Karishma Nair came in 14th place, Aparna Ramesh was ranked 35, Aswathy Jiji 41, Nisha 51, Veena S Suthan 57 and Aparna MB, 62, according to a report by The New Indian Express.
The story of Minnu PM, who came in the 150th spot, was also printed in many papers. She had got into the police force as a clerk seven years earlier, getting the job on compassionate grounds after her father died in service. She wanted to become an officer by her own merit and began preparing for civil service. She says in interviews how she got support from seniors and other IPS officials in the service. She's a post graduate in biochemistry.
Watch: Meera on getting UPSC rank six
Another young woman who got the attention was Aswathy S who won the 481st rank. Her father is a construction worker, reported Asianet News, and had done everything he could to help his two children study well. Aswathy told the channel that this was her fourth attempt and she had not even cleared the prelims the previous three times. She would continue to write the exams until she qualifies for IAS (since it is not certain if she will make it this time with the rank). It has been a dream of 15 years and she had quit her engineering job in 2017 to prepare for the exam full time.