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

From 12th Fail to Class-1 Officer: The Inspiring Journey of RAS Officer Brijesh Parmar

Not all success stories have a happy beginning. Some of them, in fact, have an entirely different and significantly darker start. The story of RAS officer Brijesh Parmar is one of those inspiring tales, where the main character started his journey to become a class-1 officer not from an impressive academic result, a reputable educational institution, or a well-defined career plan – but rather a solid failure of his academic performance and, more precisely, the failure of his class 12 exams. Failing Class 12 could be the end for Brijesh Parmar. The RAS examination twice cleared him a chance to make it to a Rajasthan Administrative Service officer. Parmar comes from a middle-class family in Rajasthan state. His father works as Assistant Sub-Inspector of the Central Industrial Security Force and his mother is a homemaker. In school, he did not stand out. After finishing Class 10, he decided to pursue the science stream as many of his friends did. However, it was not long before he knew that he took the wrong decision to choose science. The subject matter was getting tougher with each passing year. He failed his Class 12, eventually deciding to change his stream and complete his science education. After that, he also joined a BA course but got stuck in the first year since he was not confident what he really wanted to do.This was when something totally unexpected happened for Parmar. Parmar used to love dancing. Rather than waste his life in the BA course, he decided to get into dancing seriously. He joined The Danceworx , Delhi, to acquire professional dance skills. Therein, he trained himself in contemporary, jazz, ballet and modern dance. He soon became a part of the professional dance circuit interacting with renowned dancers and choreographers For a while, dancing seemed to be a settled profession for Parmar.The sudden COVID-19 pandemic, however, brought an end to dance performances. Being jobless, he returned to his home town. Since there were no jobs in view in Delhi, he decided to think what he really wanted to do with his life. It was in this phase that he discovered lectures on civil services examination. Preparing for the civil services examination became a new mission in life for Parmar.It was anything but straightforward for him to divert his attention from dancing to academics. Thereafter, to join the IAS or IPS cadre he had to face the challenge of a competitive examination. Moreover, he also needed to acquire a thorough knowledge of various subjects needed for the exam. It involved a long and tiring process. After failing in academics repeatedly, it was not surprising that Parmar was full of self-doubt while contemplating civil services examination. However, he was not to know then that a career in civil services was destined for him.He began studying for RAS in 2022. The initial phase of preparations was arduous. Parmar’s dance training provided him with a crucial lesson- to improve his performance one needs to practice after practice. In other words, there is no substitute for hard work. One does not prepare for examination, one practices for it. Just like a dancer, a candidate for IAS can also get success so long as they stick to their studies.Parmar practised more and more for the RAS exam. He worked hard on his weak points. This was when the results began to show. He succeeded in scoring high marks and cleared the RAS in 2023. He was given the position of a Cooperative Inspector. Such an achievement was quite an unprecedented one considering how it had happened given the kind of life he had lived so far. Yet, he was not satisfied with these achievements and wanted to do better. He prepared once again and this time he cleared the examination for the second time in 2024. For Parmar, the story of clearing RAS examination seems to be inspirational. What makes Parmar’s story inspirational is the fact that he did not always aim to enter the civil services.After he failed in science education, the next best thing he decided was to do BA. However, he failed again and took dancing as his profession. But this ended up in COVID-19. The final twist was that after completing such a long preparation, he faced the RAS examination and then got selected. His initial failures and the changes of career which could have been considered ridiculous were the major contributing factor for his selection in the civil services examination. In his own words, “I did not get success because I always wanted to join the civil services. Success came because I tried again and again.” Students often believe that the initial failure in their career determines their future career prospects. A student who fails in his examination believes that the world is going against him. The one who selects the wrong stream feels that their career is ruined. A student who finds his true passion late in life feels that there is no time to start over. Parmar’s story teaches young students that these feelings do not have to control their lives.A poor score in one’s academic record cannot decide who one is. A wrong career move cannot decide one’s future. Even getting engaged in some activities for a while cannot decide whether someone moves on to the civil services or not. After his Class XII Board exams, Parmar did not have clear ideas about his future. He did not fare well in graduation. He could not find good job opportunities. Yet, he eventually made it to the civil services because none of these setbacks decided what he would become. His journey is an important lesson for students in general and struggling students in particular. No matter what happens, one should always find a new path and attempt once again to see if things can change. There are times when one takes wrong steps in life, but these steps can always be retraced. One may stumble but must remember the fact that the fall