IFS officer Anisha Tomar achieved an All India Rank (AIR) 94 in the UPSC CSE in 2019. However, before this success, she faced failure twice. Anisha took to Quota to openly share her challenging journey.
Anisha said she started off her UPSC preparation with a lot of enthusiasm, but her confidence shook after her first prelim. She understood it was going to be an uphill task.
To make it worse, she was diagnosed with Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension (IIH) in February 2018, which is when she started preparing for her second attempt.
“With prelims just a few months away, I felt like my dream was slipping out of my hands. Somewhere in the midst of medicines, MRIs, and spinal taps, I gathered the courage to study through the pain,” she wrote on Quora.
Anisha lost two months in the whole medication process and thought she could never get back on track. Surprisingly, she cleared the prelims that year but failed the mains by six marks!
However, she wasn’t ready to give up on her dream.
Anisha cleared the prelims again and focused on the mains preparation. This time, she said, she devoted more time to ethics, essays, and optional subjects.
“To the point where the pinky finger of my right hand was completely swollen and bruised. I was pretty satisfied after the exams, and it seemed that an interview call was inevitable,” she mentioned.
After Anisha cleared the mains, she recalled being calm and collected all through the interview, but the delay in results made her restless.
“It was a mixture of dread, anxiety, fatigue and tiredness. The thought of preparing for prelims [again] was haunting me,” wrote Anisha.
After persistent efforts, she clinched an AIR 94 on her third try. She said tears welled up in her eyes upon seeing her rank.
Through her struggles, Anisha emphasised how important it is to take care of yourself come what may.
She ended the post by advising UPSC aspirants, “Growth is gradual, life is unpredictable, hope is all we have.”