When Aruna cracked the 2021 UPSC Civil Affairs exam after five failed attempts, it was a bittersweet moment for her. Aruna M from the Tumkur district of Karnataka is the third of the five siblings and achieved rank 308 in her latest India-wide attempt. Unlike most candidates, cracking the civil service was not Aruna’s first goal. Initially, she planned to get an engineering degree and a regular job, but life had other plans for her.
Aruna’s father committed suicide in 2009, while she was studying engineering. Her father ended his life because he could not repay the mounting debt he had incurred to pay for the education of his five children. Her two older sisters agreed to work for a few years to support their family, but their father wanted his daughters to be independent and wanted them to sit the UPSC exam.
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Aruna, changed her plans to fulfill her father’s dreams. “I had no dreams of passing the UPSC exam. I just wanted to become an independent woman who could earn Rs 10,000 to 15,000. My father saw it as a challenge to make his daughters independent. But during my engineering education I lost my father because of the debts he incurred to educate us. After his death I wanted to give something back to society. I wanted to find my father’s lost smile by serving farmers in my country,” Aruna said.
Aruna, who started studying hard in 2014 and tried UPSC five times, had little chance of passing her last attempt. She was also afraid because of the regular failures, but she refused to stop serving the society.
Aruna founded her own UPSC coaching institute, Aruna Academy in Bangalore, where she encourages rural youth to apply for the UPSC exam.
“I had no hope of passing the UPSC exam and getting 308 grades. I made five attempts, but I couldn’t erase. So I started my own academy called Aruna Academy, where my focus was on helping rural aspirants. In the end I went away on my sixth attempt,” Aruna said.
My family had made me an independent woman by teaching so I wanted to clear the way for other farm kids who are more retarded than me to take advantage of reservation
Aruna, who comes from a retarded class, had the opportunity to use the reservation quota in most of her life events, but she declined and took the UPSC test under the unqualified category. After the loss of her father, she has set herself a new goal: to help the farmers of the land.
“My father’s dream has now come true, but my dream of serving the farmers of my land and not letting them commit suicide like my father did, is now beginning. My family had made me an independent woman by teaching, so I wanted to clear the way for other farm children who are more retarded than me to take advantage of the reservation,” Aruna said.
“It doesn’t matter which post I get, but all posts are equally powerful in this area. Right now I’m just celebrating these moments with my family and thanking my father for his hardships,” she said.
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