Nagpur: Success comes from a state of mind which delves on achieving it through surpassing all odds. This is precisely true in terms of our today’s achiever who made the cut in Indian Revenue Services despite many hardships.
Let us reintroduce Ramesh K Choubey, Additional Director General-I, of National Academy of Direct Taxes, IRS (Indian Revenue Services). In today’s part of ‘How I made It’, Nagpur Today takes you to the journey of his success.
Hailing from a remote tribal village which is 30 km away from the district headquarters in Dhanbad, he did his schooling from a government aided school in the village. He had a large family where his father used to support five daughters and two sons. Since he was the eldest, he used to get limited pocket money, which his father raised when his younger brother joined him in Patna to do his post-graduation in Science (M.Sc). He claimed that he received a lot of support and help from friends to whom he is eternally grateful. After finishing his High School studies in Dhanbad, he went to Ranchi where he did his Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) Honours in Physics. However, he went to Patna to do his Masters in Science (M.Sc.) from Patna University.
Flair for teaching
ADG Ramesh Choubey revealed that he wanted to become a Lecturer, since he liked to teach and the lifestyle suited him. He is a man of varied interest which can be seen in him quoting poems and couplets. Some of his juniors and office staff claimed that ADG Ramesh Choubey is a Hindi Poet. It was at that time that his peers and other prominent people claimed that you get some worth in the society only when you clear the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) Examination.
Art of reading
With a renewed vigour and enthusiasm, he decided to attempt and pass the UPSC exams at all costs. He realized right at the beginning that the UPSC examination is all about gathering and reproducing information. So in order to gather information, it will require one to read a lot of newspapers, magazines, books etc. Since his father used to send limited money in which he had to subsist, he used to live on frugal expenditure. He claimed that he never compromised on food since the food was pretty cheap in those days. He claimed that he befriended a few magazine vendors. He used to go and sit along with these vendors and read all the magazines and newspapers that were for sale. He used to collect information or articles of enduring importance or of current hot topics from Newspapers and magazines (purchased from second-hand book shops or scrap buyers). These cutting of articles news items, was then struck onto chart papers so that on one or two chart-papers all the latest news and articles about a particular hot topic was available.
His way of writing answers
He accumulated a lot of knowledge and information. He claimed that when you write an answer based on varied information and present a complete picture of the concept, all pervading answer, your answer will certainly appeal to the valuer or one who is correcting the answer papers. However, the candidate has a limited time-limit within which he has to answer the question. ADG Ramesh Choubey claimed that he preferred studying in the night, since he used to eat, meet friends, discuss the latest and hot topics thereby gaining knowledge and after his dinner, he used to sit and study.
A tough road to success…
His peers and friends suggested him to go to Delhi to appear in the UPSC examinations. So he went to Delhi. Because of financial constraints, he could afford a small room in a village near Delhi called Ber Sarai. Choubey told that Ber Sarai is a small neighborhood located between Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and IIT Delhi in the South West district of Delhi. He got a small room in Ber Sarai village which was near a cattle-shed. However, he fell ill and could not attempt a few papers and had to return back to his home town. At his hometown, he became an object of ridicule and everybody who had already deemed him useless and not fit to clear the UPSC started teasing him. This did not deter him. He claimed that he studied with renewed vigour and enthusiasm and went to Delhi to make the second attempt at UPSC exams. This time too he became sick, but he nevertheless stayed on and gave his papers. He was one of the two from his region to clear the UPSC and 17 others in India from the General Category.
ADG Ramesh Choubey said that that year was very lucky and he managed to clear the other competitive examinations of HP, NTPC, RBI and UPSC.
Cracking interview
ADG Ramesh Choubey said he could write very good English but his diction or pronunciation was not appealing. He said that some of his seniors who had already cleared the personal interview stage used to conduct mock interviews for the local candidates who have cleared the UPSC and are awaiting the personal interview rounds.
After one such mock interviews, the seniors had told him categorically that he might as well forget his dreams of becoming a bureaucrat. They advised him to listen to BBC and other news readers to improve his diction. However, that advice was useless to him since he had to travel the very next day to Delhi to appear for the personal interview. During his travel he was very much dejected and discouraged. He was too nervous when he entered the room. However, after 5-10 minutes of his interview, he became confident and answered all the questions with his diction. The interviewers could gather that he was good in his field and knew the concepts well.
Younger brother follows suit
After his success, his younger brother too appeared for UPSC and after clearing the exams, he is now an IPS officer.
Words of wisdom
In his message to the UPSC aspirants, he said that life is about finding out your area of interest or natural inclination and follow it with all your heart, mind and soul and the success is yours. ADG Ramesh Choubey added that, “Do not do things which your mind and soul says ‘No’ to”. He claimed that Success is no guarantee to happiness.
His tryst with Culture
He had also given his services to the Ministry of Culture. He has also received the President’s Gold Medal on behalf of the Institute (NADT) during the 47th Film Festival for producing the best cultural programme.
– By Samuel Gunasekharan
