UPSC results: Small town dreams make it big in the civils

IN PICTURES | Meet UPSC toppers who fought all odds to crack civil services

After her schooling in Gurdaspur, Amritpal made it to the Punjab Engineering College from where she graduated with a degree in electrical engineering in 2013. ‘’I worked at Tata Power Distribution Ltd in Delhi for a year but my heart was in the services,’’ says Amritpal.

Nupur Goyal of Gidderbaha. She is ranked 246th.

Taking political science and international relations as her subjects, she started preparing for the civils in 2014. It was a long road uphill. As Amritpal says, ‘’I won’t say clearing the exam was a breeze. It was a personal choice and I stuck to it. I had to work hard, really, really hard.’’

Her elder brother is an engineer in Canada but Amritpal was never tempted to follow in his footsteps.

Nupur Goyal, 24, from Gidderbaha in Punjab, who bagged the 246th rank, was all smiles as she greeted the long line of well-wishers who queued up to congratulate her as the news of her success spread in the small town.

In Video| UPSC toppers

Nupur, who did her engineering from Giani Zail Singh Engineering College, Bathinda, says it was a dream of her father, a wholesale grocery shop owner in the dusty town. Nupur studied at DAV Public School in Gidderbaha before shifting to Bathinda. ‘’Since 2015, I have been camping in Delhi to prepare for the civils,’’ she says.

For the exams, she switched to sociology. The secret of her success, she says is hard work and support from parents.

For Jaskanwarpal Singh, an IRS officer from Lakhan Ke padda village near Kapurthala, it was an attempt to get into the IAS. Schooled at Dhilwan International Public School, Singh did his electrical engineering from NIT, Jalandhar.

His father is a homeopath and mother a homemaker. ‘“It is my fourth attempt,’’ says the gritty officer, who has improved his position to 609, and hopes to make it to the IPS.

Hansi boy makes it

Himanshu Nagpal, son of a journalist based in Hansi, Haryana, was placed 26th in the all India merit list of the civil services exam.