Cracking UPSC: Meet the Noida, Ghaziabad residents among top 100
Ghaziabad resident Chandra Mohan Garg was ranked 25 in the prestigious UPSC examinations, while Noida’s Garima Singh, a serving IPS officer, was ranked 65.
Ghaziabad resident Chandra Mohan Garg secured a rank of 25 in the prestigious The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) examinations, while Noida’s Garima Singh, already a serving Indian Police Service (IPS) officer in Jhansi, secured the 65th rank.
Garg, an engineer, had left his job in a multinational firm in Gurgaon in October 2013 to start preparing for the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) exam.
“I graduated from Netaji Subhash Institute of Technology in 2012 and was placed at an MNC with a package of `7 lakh per annum. However, I left the job after 16 months and started preparing for the IAS exam,” said the 28-year-old.
He added that he wanted to be an IAS officer since he was 15, but could never find time to prepare for the exam.
“I was one of the two toppers in my city in the Class 10 class board exams and that motivated me to do more. After I got into a good engineering college, I thought that I should first get a secure job and then prepare for the civil service exams. However, I realised that in order to achieve my goal, I will have to first leave my job and then prepare for the exam,” he said.
A resident of Nehru Nagar in Ghaziabad, Garg had ranked 617th in last year’s exams and was placed in Postal Telecom Services under IAS Allied Services when he again started preparing for the exam during his training itself.
“Working for money was never my ambition as I always wanted to work for society’s betterment. In a private job one only works for himself or the company, but I wanted to do more and work as an IAS officer because the job profile is diverse and dynamic,” he said.
Garg added that his father, a professor retired from MMH Degree College in Ghaziabad, and mother, a homemaker, have always supported him.
“My parents have been my sole pillar of support. Last year, when I did not get a good rank, I was shattered. However, they supported me and motivated me to get back up and start preparing for a second attempt,” he said.
While Garg was serving in the private sector when he started working towards his IAS dream, Noida’s Garima Singh had already been serving in the IPS for four years when she again cracked the civil services examination this year.
In 2010, Singh had secured the 109th rank and become the assistant superintendent of police (ASP) in Lucknow. After serving as ASP for two years, she was appointed as superintendent of police (SP city) in Jhansi in 2012.
Amidst her hectic schedule in the police force, Singh started preparing for the civil services exam for a second time.
“Serving in the IPS was a good and learning experience but I felt that I could not do anything for the society as a whole. The work is always confined to handling law and order. Hence, I wanted to become an IAS officer,” said the 29-year-old.
Her father, Omkar Nath Singh, an engineer living Noida’s Sector 62 was the one to first motivate her to become an IAS officer.
“I was a science student and was preparing for medical exams because I wanted to become a doctor. However, my father wanted me to be an IAS officer and gradually I too felt that it is an interesting field and I should give it a shot,” she said.