Turning Setbacks into Stepping Stones: IAS Kushal Jain's UPSC Journey to AIR 40

February 28, 2024

5 Minutes

IAS Kushal Jain

Introduction

As Paulo Coelho truly said, “The secret of life is to fall seven times and to get up eight times.” Kushal Jain truly embraced the idea of not being afraid of failure. He gave four attempts, reaching the UPSC Bhawan for an interview every time, but never lost hope. IAS Kushal Jain scored All India Rank (AIR)-40 in the UPSC CSE 2021. His struggle to rank 40 is a testament to the significance of never giving up while walking down the lanes of tough journeys like UPSC.

Background

Kushal Jain hails from Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, and the place is well-versed with good facilities for studies as well as sports. His mother is a government school principal, and his father is a government engineer. Since both his parents were associated with government, he closely observed how government works for the lower strata of people.

DM: A Machine or a Human

There was a point when Kushal thought that the District Magistrate (DM) was a machine, not a human. Everyone around him used to say that the DM could do anything. Once, his mother took him to Independence Day celebrations, where he saw that the DM was a madam. That day, he got to know that DM is a position that can be attained.

From Engineering to UPSC

In 10th grade, Kushal scored good marks, and going by the convention, he took math and science in the 11th standard. He did engineering and landed a job with a good package at Microsoft. Around 2018, the urge to do UPSC struck him back, and after his job, he used to watch YouTube videos of successful aspirants and also some lectures. Through these videos, he got motivated to believe that if these people can do this, he can as well. There started his UPSC journey.

Also Read: Finding True Purpose Beyond the Exam: IAS Abhijeet Yadav's UPSC Journey

First Failure and Leaving the Job

In 2018, Kushal cleared his first prelims, along with his job. Later on, he also cleared the mains only by studying on YouTube. His optional was sociology, and he places emphasis on choosing sociology and any subject from an arts background due to the following reasons:

1. The syllabus of subjects in the humanities is limited.
2. Answer test series are widely available on the market.
3. Guidance is also available.
4. The subject is also related to society and has great significance for the services.

When he cleared the mains, he decided to leave his job. His parents supported him in these times and sent him to Delhi. However, unfortunately, he couldn’t pass the interview and missed the merit by 2 marks.

Two More Failures

Kushal Jain was also not selected in his second interview. This disappointed him a bit, but his parents supported him through these hopeless times. In his third attempt, when he failed again, he thought he needed to relook at his strategy. His fellow suggested that he change his optional. However, Kushal didn’t want to change his optional; therefore, he changed the way he made his optional notes. When he critically examined his notes, they were good for study purposes but not for answers. Then he learned to make answer-centric notes and to mold good answers.

Fourth and Final Attempt

When Kushal reached the UPSC Bhavan for his fourth interview, he was allotted the interview panel, which interviewed him in the 1st and 3rd interviews and awarded him very low marks. He was scared and went to the bhavan's washroom and thought that, from his past experiences, he wouldn’t say things that the panel didn’t like. When he got out of UPSC Bhavan, he was disappointed that he wouldn’t be selected and got a bit superstitious about the places for checking results. As a result, when the results came, he went to a park to check the result and played bhajans before checking the result. When he checked the result, his name was on the first page, and the feeling was more of satisfaction than happiness.

Conclusion

Throughout his journey, Kushal kept on learning from everyone and stayed miles away from being overconfident. He was not stagnant, even for a short period of time, and kept revising his strategy. His journey is an example of never losing hope against constant failures, and this attitude made him an IAS officer despite three failures. This was a journey full of roadblocks for IAS Kushal Jain.

Know more about Kushal Jain’s IAS success here.