25-year-old boy of Bihar’s Araria secured 17th rank after two successive failure | Education

The son of a retired government school teacher from nondescript village Badhuwa situated on Indo-Nepal border in Bihar’s Araria district, 25-year-old Avinash Kumar cracked the coveted civil services examinations securing 17th rank in his third attempt. In his two previous attempts he could not even qualify the preliminary test.

“In my school days I had faced floods while going to the Shri Rani Saraswati Vidya Mandir, Forbesganj from where I cleared my tenth with 10 CGPA (Cumulative Grade Point Average)” Avianash said while talking to HT over phone. “You can go ahead with your goal only when you have lived the painful situations” he said adding “One has to take risk in life and I too took the risk by quitting the job in 2020 but today I can say I can do at least something for my country.”

Stressing the importance of self-study he said, “Self study should always be given the first priority if a student wants to crack UPSC the highly competitive examination where you have to deal with brilliant students coming from every state.”

The village called Badhuwa is between Forbesganj and Jogbani on the Indo-Nepal border faced by floods every year which has caused immense loss to the farming community. “I have also experienced the pains and sufferings of my father who is now a farmer,” he said.

After matriculation, he cleared his XII from Chinmaya Vidyalaya Bokaro by obtaining over 93% marks and later pursued his engineering degree from Yadavpur University Kolkata and passed with flying colours and was awarded gold medal. Later he worked in the electricity department in West Bengal as an engineer till 2020.

“But something very special was in the store of Avinash and he decided to prepare for UPSC in Delhi,” the mother Pratima Devi, a house maker said adding “He never lost his heart even after two successive failures and this time he had done proud to all of us.”

The father Ajay Kumar Singh who is now practising farming in his village Badhuwa said, “My son has been honest to his work and what he has done today is the result of his honesty and dedication.”