Mr. Govind Jaiswal IAS Officer ,NAGALAND,2007born on 08/08/1983, Varanasi , Uttar Pradesh spent his childhood in a 12x8 ft rented room shared among his parents and three sisters. But Govind Jaiswal, now 23 and expecting to be an IAS officer, still found room for dreams. And the will to realise them.
Govind has achieved 48th rank in this year’s civil services results.
Born in abject poverty to a rickshaw-puller father and housewife mother, Govind got a head start in life when his father made sure he sent his children to school in Varanasi’s Usmanpura area. But his father Narain Prasad had to stop pulling rickshaws when a leg injury restricted his mobility. He now repairs and rents out rickshaws, earning Rs 5,000. “A large part of what I earned went into educating the children,” he said over the phone.
Govind making it to the IAS has made Narain happy, but he can’t grasp what it means. “He believes one has to bribe his way into a Government job and I got one without paying anything,” Govind said.
Through school, Govind wanted to appear for the civil services exam but IAS seemed out of reach. And the financial back-up was thin. “So I told myself I had to clear the exam in the first attempt,” he said. And clear it he did. So how does he feel? “I want to tell all those youngsters living in deprivation that anything is possible if they h
ave the will.”
We will bring you some amazing success stories in this special series. Today, meet a rickshaw vendor's son from Varanasi who is one of the IAS toppers this year.
Tears ran down Govind Jaiswal's face and refused to stop. Staring him in the face was the only thing he had ever wanted, and now that he had achieved it, he couldn't even reach out for the keys on his cellphone. He waited till the tears dried up, till the news sunk in and made that one phone call on which depended the hopes of his entire family.
Govind, 24, the son of an uneducated rickshaw vendor in Varanasi , had grown up with cruel taunts like 'However much you study, you will still be a rickshawpuller. ' He had studied with cotton stuffed in his ears to drown the noise of printing machines and generators below his window in a poor neighbourhood where small workshops existed cheek by jowl with tiny residential quarters.
He had given Math tuitions to supplement the paltry sum his father could afford to send him each month. His ailing father had sold a small plot of land to give Govind about Rs 40,000 so that he could move to Delhi which would provide him a better place to study.Throughout his life, he had lived with only one dream -- to become an officer of the Indian Administrative Service. For him that was the only way. And when he broke the news to his family, that he was ranked 48 among 474 successful candidates in his first attempt at the exam -- it was the turn of his three sisters and father to weep with unbridled joy.I could not afford to have any other career goal. My life would have been absolutely futile had I not made it into the civil services," says Govind, just back from his medicals in New Delhi , mandatory for the IAS. "You must understand that my circumstances were such that besides the Civil Services, I had no option. I didn't have much of a chance with lower government jobs because they are mostly fixed, neither could I start a business because I had no money. The only thing I could do was work hard at my studies."It was almost impossible for him to study in the one room he shared with his family. To add to his woes was the power cut that extended between 10 and 14 hours every day. The moment the lights went out, he had to shut the window to block out the deafening noise of generators in the many workshops around his home.So in search for a quiet place to study, he briefly shared a friend's room at the Banaras Hindu University . Since that did not help him much, he did what many civil services aspirants in northern India do -- he moved to New Delhi . Outside his narrow lane, opposite the Varanasi City railway station, where Narayan Jaiswal parks his rickshaws and spends most of his waking hours, he still walks barefooted with a bandage, one end hanging loose and scraping the dirty road. "Beyond this year, my father could not have afforded to send Govind any more money. It was getting very tough for him. Govind was earning Rs 1,500 from tuitions, I don't know what he would have done if he didn't make it to the IAS this year. My father could not sleep for 10 days before the results came," says Govind's eldest sister Nirmala, whose son is almost the same age as her brother.Now that he will earn Rs 8,000 as his starting salary during his two-year training period in Mussoorie, Govind says his first priority is getting good treatment for his father's wound."I want to look after him, I don't know if he will leave Varanasi but I will definitely move him out of this rented room that we have lived for 35 years."If his son's new job dramatically changes things for the better, Narayan Jaiswal is quite unaffected by it. He is surprised by the scores of journalists and well wishers flocking to his house.Until now, courier delivery boys found his house with great difficulty but now even the fruit cart-wallah, one-and-a-half kilometers away, will tell you where the 'IAS' house is."I like my work. I haven't decided about the future -- what could be a better place than Kashi? As long as my son looks after me, what else can one want?" he says, visibly uncomfortable with the media spotlight.T he IAS stamp has catapulted Govind to the premier league in the wedding bazaar.There has been a flurry of wedding proposals since his selection for the IAS -- around 15 till late last week, "including one from a high court judge," says sister Mamta."All this will have to wait another 2-3 years, I am in no hurry," laughs Govind. He talks about relatives who have discovered the family after having spurned them in their hours of crisis."There is a kind of mental madness that has affected our society which values people with money and disregards those who are poor," says the future civil servant. "A person is known by his character, not by his economic status or social background. You can face your financial crises but it is the social failings that are our real problem."After literally spending all his time studying for the entrance examination, Govind took the test in Hindi. Unlike many aspirants who take professional coaching for years, he enrolled in an IAS coaching class for three months.Explaining the changing face of the Civil Services -- largely perceived as an English-dominated bureaucratic workforce -- he says between 10 to 15 per cent of the 474 successful candidates took the exam in Hindi.Until about five years ago books for IAS aspirants were only available in English, then they started getting published in Hindi and other Indian languages."Before that the best books were in English, there were no good coaching institutes in Hindi either. That has changed now," says Santosh Kushwaha, a Provincial Civil Services officer from Uttar Pradesh whose advice Govind sought several times and who has come to congratulate him with a box of sweets.
Mamta, left, and Nirmala, right, his sisters in the small room their family shared for 35 years.
Having lived his life in Varanasi , the holy city on the banks of the Ganga , Govind has given his home state Uttar Pradesh as his preferred region of posting. If he doesn't get UP, he is open to being sent to any state in India .
" Varanasi needs a tight administration. As for me, I want to be a good officer. We are the agents of change and I as an administrator would like to inform common people about their right to know, their right to information. The benefit should finally go to the people."His hero is President A P J Abdul Kalam. Govind is reading the Hindi translation of the President's best-selling book On Wings of Fire and takes out a nicely thumbed copy from a plastic bag."After Gandhiji, President Kalam has given us a dream and the power to dream. His dream is of a developed India and he is a symbol of many common people's dreams."In a time when the Indian bureaucracy has its drawbacks like a lack of accountability, corruption and perpetuating a system that was handed down by the British to rule a subordinate population Govind's thoughts are fired by the idealism of youth. He insists his idealism will not be watered down in future years, that he will not allow himself to be influenced."I am a product of my circumstances that has been wrought with hardships. When I go out as an officer my character will be put to the test, and then I want to see what a real man I am."
best ias coaching center in chennai
ReplyDeletewww.indianiasacademy.com