At 33, Mridul J. Prakash quit an IT job he had worked for over ten years, to start preparing for the civil services entrance examination. By then, he was no longer the student he was in his youth. His handwriting had degraded over years spent in front of a keyboard, and the IT world had cut him out of a feel for the current affairs of the times. He struggled to put his many thoughts to word, and after two attempts, at 35, he crossed the age threshold to be eligible for the exam.
Every year, millions like Mridul take competitive exams for the second, third, fourth (or so on) times – hoping that this attempt, unlike the last, will pan out differently.
“I do know people who have given up their jobs and careers and written six to seven attempts, and still haven’t made it. It hasn’t demotivated me at all, because there is an element of luck in all exams. That’s the nature of all competitive exams, so one person’s failure should not get you down,” says Niranjana, as she prepares for her second attempt.
Nor has Mridul lost his enthusiasm. Like any IAS aspirant with a hands-on approach, he says:
I have the fire and the motivation… [this] Motivation is a kind of spirit actually. The more we get into this, the more we get pulled into it. But we should learn to not burn ourselves in this.
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