From a Small Town in Kannauj to the IPS Uniform – Bushra Bano’s Story

Who is she? Just a girl from Saurikh in Kannauj who somehow kept going when most people would have stopped. Bushra Bano is a 2021-batch IPS officer of the West Bengal cadre. Mother of two, PhD holder, once an assistant professor drawing a solid salary in Saudi Arabia. She cleared UPSC twice while managing kids, surgeries and all the usual “ab mat karo” comments that come a woman’s way. That’s her in short. Early life and education She was born in Saurikh (some call it Sork Qaswa) in Kannauj district. Father Mohammad Arshad Hussain worked hard, mother Shama Bano looked after the house. From very small, people at home noticed she was different. At four and a half she was already put in Class 2 because she had picked up so much at home. She studied in the local schools – Nehru Nursery, Saraswati Montessori, Rishi Bhoomi – and stayed at the top every year. After Class 12 she went to Kanpur for B.Sc. Mathematics. Finished MBA before she even turned twenty. Then joined Aligarh Muslim University for PhD in Management (Human Resource side). Cleared NET-JRF in the first attempt and finished the doctorate in a little over two years. While still researching she used to teach at institutes in Agra. Studying was never a side thing for Biography table Family table Personal life Marriage took her to Saudi Arabia. Husband was teaching at Jazan University and she also got a job there as assistant professor. Good money, settled life. Still the old civil services dream kept coming back. In 2016 both of them left that comfortable life and returned to India so she could prepare properly. By then she was already a mother. Two kids, both caesarean, plus two more major surgeries later. Body took a beating. Relatives and neighbours said the usual things – two children, enough now, settle down. She heard it all and kept studying. In 2018 she cleared UPSC with rank 277 while heavily pregnant with the second child. Even went for the interview in the last stage of pregnancy. Got Indian Railway Traffic Service but couldn’t join because of the baby. Same year she also cleared UPPCS with a good rank and joined as SDM in Firozabad. Still not done. Appeared again, got rank 234 in 2020 and finally the IPS she always wanted. Husband had already left his Saudi job years earlier so the family could stay together. That kind of support is rare and she has spoken about it openly.   FAQs Is she really a mother of two who cleared UPSC twice? Rank 277 in 2018 and rank 234 in 2020 while raising two small children. Did she leave a high-paying job abroad? Both she and her husband left teaching positions in Saudi Arabia and came back so shecould focus on the exam. What is her educational background? B.Sc. Mathematics, MBA before twenty, PhD from AMU, NET-JRF. Which cadre? West Bengal, 2021 batch IPS. How did she manage everything? Early mornings, late nights, strong support from her husband, and a simple refusal to treatmotherhood as a full stop. Bushra’s story is not some dramatic overnight thing. It’s a girl who started school early, kept topping, got married, moved countries, became a mother, faced surgeries, heard all the discouraging talk, and still showed up for the exam again and again until the uniform fitted. Today she is an IPS officer. The fields of Kannauj are far behind, but that same quiet stubbornness is still what carries her. @Rohit Manral