Just imagine the moment when your childhood dreams are fulfilled with rigour and passion! It feels great. This is exactly what Tanu Priya is feeling since May 3 when Union Public Service Examination (UPSC) Civil Services 2012 results were declared.
The Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) girl from Government Dental College of Rohtak (Haryana) who cracked the Civil Services examination at first attempt shined Jharkhand’s name by being the 18th rank holder of this prestigious exam in India and state’s proud name to grab a position among the top 50.
Being a civil servant was her childhood dream. Presently, Tanu resides at Gumla where her father is posted as LIC manager and mother is a home maker.
She appeared for the UPSC prelims and mains while undergoing her BDS internship. She had to finish her internship project, manage clinical works and sideways boost herself that she ought to study for her dreams. “When you keep this desire in your heart, you always manage time no matter how many difficulties are there,” said Tanu.
Since her under graduation days, Tanu never felt the preparation phase difficult. Rather, the more she got involved to moot for her dreams, the more interesting it became. While sharing her ‘Dream Preparation Phase’ to The Pioneer, Tanu said, “Indian Administrative Service examination was a process of development for me.” Without any coaching institute’s support, she passed the exam by referring to books and spending 5 to 10 hours daily for her studies.
Adding further she said, “As a hostellor in Rohtak I used to Below Poverty Level people who are helpless and need government’s support besides medical facilities. I always wanted to do something socially beneficial for them. This made me more focussed towards my preparation.”
Despite hailing from a science background, she selected political science and sociology as optional subjects in the UPSC (Main) exam as a taste of trying ‘something different or new,’ irrespective of knowing that taking botany or zoology would be easier.
‘Humanities is easy compared to Science is a misconception,’ said Tanu.
When asked about the challenges she forecasts as a civil servant, she told, “Challenges are many and it depends on which field I am working. Indian diplomacy out of Pakistan and China is one important issue. Then there are issues like caste and women discrimination. As a civil servant my focus is to find a solution and not spotlight the problem.”
Tanu feels administration is not about domination. It is about cooperation and coordination. “As a civil servant if I am assigned as a boss, my subordinates have to follow me and if the case is vice-versa I will definitely obey my boss’s instructions,” Tanu said.
As hobby, Tanu loves creative writing. Some of her creative writing works include autobiography of a skull, being the vice chancellor- a student’s perspective, the virtue of forgiveness and some short stories in Hindi.
Tanu Priya, who was in the 18th position on the merit list that was published in 2013, said honets effort ought to bring the fruits of success.
Priya, who has opted for Indian Foreign Service after being inspired by former foreign secretary Nirupama Rao, was faced with a volley of questions from students.
Many students of classes IX and X, came up with queries about UPSC syllabus, method of preparation and skills required to crack the interview. Priya, also a doctor, spelt out her academic background and her preparation for the UPSC. She encouraged students exhorting them to be a good person first. and added that IAS, IFS IPS etc are a job and a part of our life only.
Priya, who has opted for Indian Foreign Service after being inspired by former foreign secretary Nirupama Rao, was faced with a volley of questions from students.
Many students of classes IX and X, came up with queries about UPSC syllabus, method of preparation and skills required to crack the interview. Priya, also a doctor, spelt out her academic background and her preparation for the UPSC. She encouraged students exhorting them to be a good person first. and added that IAS, IFS IPS etc are a job and a part of our life only.
Approach: Sociology
- I think you will see here that I have not read many books on sociology but the thing is I did not have the time. Socio also I had started after prelims. Only the Ram Ahuja book I had read before prelims. However my focus was that I should not leave any topic in the syllabus unread. It did not matter from where I had read it. Rest strategy was similar as mentioned above.
- If you are going for sociology I would advise you to develop a sociological viewpoint.
- Socio is a very interesting subject but it requires your power of observation and analysis much more than your reading of books. See for example. There was a question about French revolution this year, now who doesn’t know that, even a history student could write that.
- The difference lies in the way a socio student would analyze the social fabric of that time, the prevailing social conditions, the actual role of this revolution in the rise and development of sociology, the way this revolution was perceived by thinkers and the interconnecting links between revolution, thinkers and society.
- It’s not important that I can’t remember what was the exact date of which event, who killed whom as long as I understand the significance of that particular event and can explain it well.
Optional Subject in Mains 2013?
Q. Instead of two, now UPSC will have only one optional subject. So if you were to give Mains 2013, which optional would you keep and why?
- Sociology, because it’s a very dynamic subject. There is always something new to discover about the world we live in.
- Basically same except I would expand my booklist. There were so many books to read that I skipped due to the shortage of time. In fact after mains I bought this Haralambos and Holborn and read it, it’s a wonderful book.
Compulsory papers
Q. Your booklist/strategy for compulsory Regional language paper.
Nothing except I bought a Hindi newspaper on the day of exam and read it.
Q. Your booklist/strategy for compulsory English language paper.
Nothing special.
Essay
Q. How did you prepare yourself for the essay?
I did not prepare specially for essay but I wrote 2 essays that I posted on indianofficer.com. There various helpful members including Mrunal reviewed it and gave their suggestions. I understood my mistakes and avoided them in the final paper.
Q. Which Essay did you write in Mains-2012?
Working woman one.
Q.Provide some keypoints/highlights of your Essay.
I wrote on 4th in the following way
- intro with Marx and women’s position in the present world
- evolution of female sex thru various periods of history in about a page
- divided essay into two parts
- first part dealt with how has govt and society evolved to accommodate women’s interests as working and homemaker
- I divided it into subheadings of social change, legal change, economic change, specific schemes for women as Gayathri Krishnan (2011 topper) had suggested me that I could do
- concluded this section with a connecting para for second part with some examples
- brought out the other side by analysing the kind of problems that remain with a stress on class specific conditions.
- concluded the essay with a hopeful note combining both perspectives and the possible ways the present situation could evolve into.
- kept my sentences short and used less connectors as Mrunal had suggested.
hope i can get a respectful score. thanks to Mrunal and Gayathri for helping me improve. total 19 pages about 1900 to 2000 words.
एलआईसी एजेंट की इस बेटी ने कर दिया ऐसा काम कि सब हो गये हैरान!
पटना। दुनिया भर में खूब पढ़ी जाने वाली ‘द अलकेमस्टि’ में पावलो कोएल्हो लिखते हैं कि अगर आपके इरादे ठीक हैं और आप कुछ करना चाहते हैं तो पूरा कायनात आपके साथ होता है। यूपीएससी की परीक्षा में 18 वां रैंक लाने वाली तनु प्रिया जब इस चर्चित उपन्यास को पढ़ रही थी कि यह बात मन के किसी कोने में जज्ब हो गयी। जिंदगी चलने का नाम है तो तनु की जिंदगी भी चलती रही। 2004 में पटना के आरपीएस से दसवीं और उसके बाद दो साल बाद सीबीएसई की परीक्षा में चुने जाने के बाद डेंटल में एडमिशन लिया। रोहतक में नामांकन हुआ। मूल रूप से समस्तीपुर के कल्याणपुर की रहने वाली तनु के पैरेंट अब पटना से सटे दानापुर में रहते हैं।
पढ़ाई के बाद तनु अखबार वगैरह ही देख पाती थीं। चौथे साल में उन्हें लगा कि मुझे तो सिविल सर्विस की तैयारी करनी है। यहां आकर वह सीरियस हुईं। हर दिन तीन-चार घंटे का वक्त निकाला। खुद से तैयारी शुरू की। वह कहती हैं: आपको तय करना होता है कि क्या नहीं पढऩा है। एक साथ बहुत चीजें पढ़ेंगे तो आपका फोकस एरिया प्रभावित हो सकता है।
इसी बीच रोहतक में इंटर्नशीप करना पड़ा। सिविल सर्विस की तैयारी और इंटर्नशीप दोनों काम एक साथ करना पड़ा। पढ़ाई में क्रमबद्धता बनी रही। क्या किसी गाइड की जरूरत महसूस नहीं हुई? तनु ने कहा: नेट पर एक साइट के बारे में पता चला। वहां गयी। कोई मृणाल पटेल हैं जो तैयारी करने वालों को गाइड करते हैं। हमने भी उनसे संपर्क किया। उनका सहयोग मिला। लेकिन इसके पहले पिता का हमारी तैयारी में बड़ी भूमिका रही।