Success Stories of a Poor Village Girl (IAS Aspirant)

A Great Story by Mrityunjay Chaubey

Only a successful person knows how many obstacles lying in his/her way to success, he had to clear to accomplish his/her ultimate mission. Many would argue that success is an everlasting journey however, everyone of us would agree that turning the biggest dream into a reality is no less than success since it brings smile on face and happiness in life. All successful people across the globe share certain similarities. They are hard working people and self-disciplined. They do not have faith in fortune but they strongly believe in toil. Every accomplished person has to go through an acid test in his life. At the end when he achieves things, it becomes history for the coming generations.

We are about to go through the life of Yogita Thakur, a small town girl of Bihar whose ultimate dream was to become an IAS officer. She developed her passion to possess the highest administrative post of the country during her childhood. Her father Dipendra Thakur who had never been to school, obtained his livelihood by pulling a cycle-rickshaw and could earn some Rs. 80 a day. Ergo it was hard for him to meet family expenses. Mother Alka Thakur who could manage to read a couple of Hindi words, was the Home Minister of the family. She had two younger brothers namely Ratnesh Thakur and Ankur Thakur who would love to play Gilli-Danda, a popular outdoor game of Bihar, and hate to spend long tedious hours in school. As she grew older with her strong dream, she gradually realized how tough it was to acquire something, particularly for those who were economically weak.

Being a girl of an undeveloped village, it was never easy for her to lead the life of her choice. Mother wanted her to discontinue her education soon after she finished high school. Mother, however, had a longing to educate only her two sons since she believed daughter would no longer stay with her; daughter was not an aeonian member. For mother, spending money on a daughter was biting off more than her family could chew. Nevertheless she enjoyed the support of her father who had promised her to even do overtime work to meet expenses of her education. In dire straits, at the age of 21 she finally completed her graduation which was needed to pursue the dream of becoming an administrative officer.

Yogita was probably the only graduate girl in the village as well as the only unmarried girl at this age. People now embarked on flocking with marriage proposals to her home. Mother along with other relatives began to heap up pressures on her to get married. Nothing was going accordingly. She wanted to continue her further preparations for the UPSC examination. This could not be done in the village since there was no access to electricity; what was even worst was that there was just a single book stall in the entire town and that too did not have books on the shelves required for the preparation. In this deep darkness her farther was the only ray of hope who could keep the flame burning. She plucked up some courage and went up to poor father to ask him to send her Delhi for a better and supportable environment. yogita wanted to prepare for the UPSC exam as she knew she could not survive the highly competitive world in the village. Surprisingly her father agreed at once and promised to provide her with all basic requirements. She surely broke the back of the beast by overcoming these hurdles. But this had not to be done easily. Father was too poor to offer monetary assistance to his daughter he, therefore, sold a considerable chunk of his ancestral land and gave her a sum of 25 thousands to live her life.

She moved to Delhi thereafter. Because the budget was very minuscule in amount, she had to live in a small rented room in Rajendra Nagar of Delhi, with a partner, Bhavana Gaekwad, who hailed from Madhya Pradesh. Concordantly it was not a small deal for her to take a class. In lieu of taking a class she focused on self-preparation. Having a bee in her bonnet, she constantly buckled down and did some serious work. Sometimes her monetary condition prevented her from even having meals twice a day but it couldn’t hold her back from doing hard work. She dedicated herself for her ultimate goal during the preparation. Eventually the most awaited day approached to her when she was scheduled to go through the acid test.

Despite blood, sweat and tears all the way, she failed in her exam on the first attempt. The news buzzed the ears of father Dipendra. He failed to brook the news of her failure; as a consequence he became mentally challenged and family income broke down. Villagers and relatives held her responsible for all these misfortunes and exiled her from the village. By now she ran out of money because all money she had received from her father was spent. Luckily for her, she had amassed heaps of knowledge during preparation. She found a teaching job in a nearby coaching class which helped her to carry on the preparation. She left no stone unturned during the next year preparation. When she appeared for the examination once again, the sapient girl came out with flying colours securing the first rank on the merit list. All leading newspapers highlighted her story. The relatives and villagers regretted their rude action against her when they came to know about the news of her domination in the most highly competitive exam. They went to Delhi to bring the audacious girl back home. Now she is a role model of all girls in the town.

The long and the short of the write-up is that success does not happen by default but it is made happen. You have to remain under teeth of difficulties for a long span of time; you have to face all emerging challenges with patience; you have to cope with your milieu. Because world does not care about the teething prolems you face, world only cares about the outcome of what you are doing. When Yogita was expelled from her own village, she did not lose her morale but remained calm and composed and proved her worth at the end. As the famous English proverb clearly says “all’s well that ends well”.