Mumbai: Ashwini Bhide is an IAS officer whose accomplishments serve as an example to thousands of UPSC aspirants. An IAS officer who is best known for her work on the Aqua Line,or popularly known as Mumbai metro Line 3.
In an exclusive interaction with The Free Press Journal, Ashwini Bhide highlighted how she went from being a young woman from a tiny town to being an IAS official.
Nobody can stop one from achieving success once they make a decision and begin taking organized steps, Ashwini told the FPJ
What inspired you to become an IAS officer?
Although I joined the Indian Administrative Services 27 years ago, my journey began when I was a young child. I came from a very small town, studied in the vernacular rural medium school but dreaming of becoming an IAS officer was something completely out of bounds for the students in that area. But despite having no information about what the sector is, I chose to pursue a path that was not trodden by many. Following two or three years of preparation, I passed the UPSC exam in 1995. and took first place among the female candidates, something I had never anticipated. I believe that nobody can stop one from achieving success once they make a decision and begin taking organized steps.
How should one crack the most competitive exam of India?
Earlier, the Internet was not a thing and availability of information was the main restriction for us. The candidates only used information found in books or publications which also was very hard to get hold of.
However, in the present era, numerous online materials and support are available. There is no dearth of information or awareness. The only thing they have to do now is choose wisely and study the exam pattern properly and see where exactly the focus has to be. One needs to have their own specific approach and must work very hard as there is no rule to it. Understand the nature of the exam, understand the nature of the service.
How should an aspirant prepare to face the UPSC Interview?
The primary goal of that interview is to discover your true personality. Make no false statements. Instead, focus on your strengths. Consider going in-depth with them. Be prepared for any question. And if there are any flaws or problem areas, be honest about them. Your interview partner does not want you to provide a perfect response to every query, but they do want you to be open and honest. Your interviewer will judge you on a combination of your knowledge, mannerisms, and level of self-expression.
If a candidate doesn't crack UPSC, what next?
Be prepared for it and always have a Plan-B. Get a professional degree from a college of your choice, and create a backup plan in case, because despite your best efforts, you may fail the exam. However, this does not imply that you are incapable of passing the exam.
This is a really complex, truly competitive exam, so lakhs of people appear for that and the suits are very limited. So naturally only a few people will get selected. So it doesn't talk about your inability to clear it.
The second thing, which you need to emphasise is that the journey is more important than the outcome, because the journey of reaching your goal of preparing for your basic exam is so comprehensive, it actually changes your personality completely. You become a better person. And that is why, even if you fail in the exam, you haven’t actually failed. Instead, you have come shining out of that whole grilling process and that would take you to places.
