‘How dare you come here and mix with my son; don’t you know who you are and where you belong?’,’What is your worth? You can only take your father’s business a bit further’,’However much you study, you will still be a rickshaw-puller!’ These are some of the cruel taunts this Varanasi lad had grown up with.
‘What to do so that people respect me?’, Govind Jaiswal, often asked his 11-year-old self.
Born on 8 August, 1983 in the holy city of Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, Govind Jaiswal had only one dream throughout his entire life and that was to become an officer of the Indian Administrative Services.
It was more than just a matter of prestige, for the young boy becoming an IAS officer was his way out of the poverty he was born into. He started focusing more on his studies with cotton jammed in his ears to stop the extreme clatter of printing machines and generators in the many workshops around his poor neighborhood.
As reported by AchhiKhabre, he was ranked #48 among 474 successful candidates in his first attempt at the IAS exam (2006) and topped the list of Hindi-medium candidates that year.
Govind Jaiswal, now 32, is a District Magistrate in the East Delhi area.
His father, Narayan Jaiswal, the uneducated rickshaw-puller with a hearing disability sold his only remaining plot of land to send his son to Delhi to pursue his dream of becoming an IAS officer. For the next 3 years, Govind gave maths tuition to supplement the meagre sum of money his father sent him every month. He studied 18 hours a day and often skipped his meals to save money.
“You must understand that my circumstances were such that besides the Civil Services, I had no option. I didn’t have much of a chance with lower government jobs because they are mostly fixed, neither could I start a business because I had no money. The only thing I could do was work hard at my studies”, he said.
His father hadn’t slept for days before the result was declared. When Govind broke the much awaited news to his family, tears ran down his face. He credits his success to his dad and his sisters, especially the elder one who gave up her studies to look after them when his mother died.
After the declaration of his result, he got many marriage proposals offering a dowry up to 4 crores but he refused.
“I thank my tough days. Life has no worth without struggle. It made me grow and smell the real world”, says Jaiswal.
Here’s Govind Jaiswal talking about his present, past and future in an interview with 9dreamsproject:
You are an inspiration, Govind! Good Luck!
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