Not once or twice, but 26-year-old Ravi Kumar Sihag has cleared the Union Public Service Commission’s Civil Services Examination (Main) thrice. But this time, the young man from Rajasthan’s Sri Ganganagar district has emerged topper in the Hindi medium, bagging the all-India rank (AIR) of 18 in the UPSC 2021 final result.
Sihag first appeared for the civil services exam in 2018. He got AIR 337 and was selected for the Indian Railway Traffic Service. But he decided to appear for the exam again in 2019. He managed to get AIR 317 and was also the second rank holder in the Hindi medium that year.
Eventually, he was selected for the Indian Defence Account Services and he is completing his training at the National Academy of Defence in Pune, Maharashtra.
The main reason for Sihag to choose Hindi as the medium for written exams and interviews is his Hindi-medium background. “School se college tak, sab Hindi me hi padha. Hindi me English se zyada sajag hoon isliye ye hi bhasha select ki. (From school to college, I studied in the Hindi medium. I am more comfortable in Hindi than English. So I chose Hindi),” he told indianexpress.com over a call on Monday.
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PremiumAsked why he continued to appear for the exam despite securing a reputable government job, he said, “Main IAS ko goal bana ke chala tha. Rank achi aa rahi thi par mera sapna poora nahi ho raha tha. Ab 18 rank ke sath main apna goal poora kar paunga. (I had started preparing with the goal of becoming an IAS officer. Though I was able to get good ranks that allowed me to get into government services, I was not satisfied. With AIR18, I will finally fulfil my dream,” Sihag said.
Sihag had prepared for the 1,000-mark general studies paper on his own but attended classes at Drishti IAS Coaching Centre for Hindi literature as his optional subject.
“Hindi me study material kam hota hai. Saara achcha material English me hi zyada bikta hai. Hindi me paper likhne me bhi zyada time lagta hai script ki wajah se. (Study materials in Hindi are scarce. The most useful and dependable materials are often produced and sold in English. Writing the answers in Hindi also takes more time as the script is more complex),” he said.
“Agar Hindi-medium ke students thodi bahut English samajh leta hai toh zyada problem nahi hai kyun ki vo notes ko samajh ke Hindi me translate kar sakte hain. Normal English toh aani hi chahiye. (If Hindi-medium students can understand basic English, it is not very difficult to crack the exam as they can translate the content into Hindi on their own. Functional fluency in English is a must,” Sihag added.
Asked about his future plans, he said, “Celebrate karenge (We will now celebrate),” and laughed.
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