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 Taunts to Pride: How IPS Mohita Sharma Turned Pain into Purpose and Won ₹1 Crore on KBC

Mohita Sharma’s is an IPS officer now, serving in Jammu and Kashmir. But her journey didn’t start with the uniform or the stars on the shoulders. Born into a simple middle-class family with roots in Kangra, Himachal Pradesh, Mohita grew up as the only child. Her father worked in a factory, her mother looked after the home. Money was never plenty, yet somehow her parents managed to send her to Delhi Public School in Dwarka and later to Bharati Vidyapeeth College of Engineering for her B.Tech. Being the only daughter came with its own unwanted comments. Relatives and neighbours would say the usual things every Indian parent of a girl child has heard. Those words stuck with Mohita. She’s said in interviews that she decided early on she wouldn’t stay the reason for those taunts. She wanted to become the reason her parents could hold their heads high. That quiet resolve pushed her towards the civil services. After graduation she joined the Election Commission of India as an Assistant Section Officer. While doing a regular government job, she started preparing for the UPSC. It wasn’t smooth. She failed four times. Four full attempts, each one ending in disappointment. Most people would have given up by the second or third try. Society already expects women in their late twenties to focus on marriage and settle down. Mohita kept going. In her fifth attempt in 2016 she finally cracked it. All India Rank 262. She was allotted the Indian Police Service and joined the 2017 batch. Geography was her optional. She had taken coaching at Vajiram & Ravi while balancing her job. The years of struggle had taught her a kind of discipline no classroom could fully give. Once she became an IPS officer she was posted in the AGMUT cadre and has served in Jammu and Kashmir. She’s handled tough responsibilities, including law-and-order situations in sensitive areas. In one widely reported case she led the team that arrested the mastermind behind a terrorist attack on pilgrims in Reasi district. That’s the kind of work that rarely makes it into motivational posters, yet it defines real service. Then came an unexpected chapter that brought her national attention in a completely different way. In 2020 she appeared on Kaun Banega Crorepati Season 12. Interestingly, it wasn’t even her own long-held dream. Her husband, IFS officer Rushal Garg, had been trying to get on the show for nearly twenty years. He encouraged her to register. She got through Fastest Finger First and found herself sitting opposite Amitabh Bachchan. She played with calm confidence and eventually answered the ₹1 crore question correctly. The question was about which explosive was first patented in 1898 by a German chemist and used in World War II. The options were HMX, RDX, TNT and PETN. She used the expert lifeline and locked RDX. When Bachchan announced “Ek crore,” she said she had goosebumps. She later shared that she wasn’t on the show primarily for the money. It felt more like completing a long-pending family dream. She became the second crorepati of that season and the first female IPS officer to win that amount on the show. After the win she even joked on social media about finding two Maggi masala sachets in one packet, calling it extra luck from the universe. What makes Mohita’s story land so well is how ordinary the beginning was and how steady the climb remained. No overnight success, no viral shortcuts. Just repeated failures, a government job, late-night study sessions, and a clear personal reason that kept her moving. She’s spoken about wanting young girls to stop being seen as lesser. Her own life has become quiet proof that the taunts can be turned into fuel. Today she continues to serve as a senior police officer. The uniform sits easily on her, the name plate reading Mohita Sharma, the responsibility still heavy. The ₹1 crore win is a nice chapter, but it isn’t the main plot. The main plot remains the decision she made years earlier: she would not be the reason for anyone’s taunts. She would be the reason her parents felt pride. In a country full of UPSC aspirants who give up after two or three attempts, her five-attempt journey still travels quietly from one WhatsApp forward to another. It’s not flashy. It’s simply honest. And that’s why it continues to matter. Sources: Odisha TV, Times Now, India Today, The Indian Express, Navbharat Times, Live Hindustan, IPS Biography profiles, and multiple interviews given by Mohita Sharma around her KBC win and UPSC journey. @Rohit Manral