SRK in his famous dialogue from the movie Om Shanti Om, says, “When you really want something with all your heart, the whole universe conspires to help you get it. But it took Om Prakash Makhija another birth to make the impossible happen for him.” Vijay Vardhan as waiting for 35 government exams also feels like a lifetime for anyone. But that life of effort gave him the opportunity for a life that most people only dream of.Government exams are an obsession in India. People give years and years to get a ‘sarkari naukri’, even if it means settling for a position much lower than their qualification.Vijay Vardhan’s story goes one step further. His is one that beats the combined perseverance of probably 10 such aspirants. He failed 35 government exams before finally clearing the UPSC, not once but twice, to make up for all the failures he had and become an IAS officer.Vijay, who hails from Sirsa, Haryana, did his Electronics Engineering and then moved to Delhi for his IAS preparation, a move that was not easy and required years of slogging and heartbreak. Like most aspirants, he applied for several government exams, the most famous being “Plan B” in UPSC circles. He wrote the Haryana Public Service Commission (HPSC), Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission (UPPSC), Staff Selection Commission Combined Graduate Level (SSC CGL), and Combined Defense Services (CDS) exams, and failed all of them.This would not only break anyone, but also tear it to pieces. But Vijay’s grain was the stuff of legends, that of people like Dashrath Manjhi, who carved a road out of a mountain with just a hammer and chisel.Vijay’s first UPSC attempt was in 2014, where he failed, but he didn’t give up. His breakthrough came in 2018 when he received AIR 104 and became an IPS officer. But as the famous saying goes, it didn’t come that far to come that far. Why what were all these years of grinding and failures for if he doesn’t try again for India’s top job, IAS? 2021 was the year when Vijay made Rank 70 and avenged every failure in every government exam, surpassing every possible success in a government exam in the country to become an IAS officer.What Vijay Vardhan has done breaks even the most persistent, hardworking because, let’s be honest, the UPSC journey can be quite lonely. You see your peers getting higher education, clearing exams, getting into professions, earning well, getting married and having children. There are friends and family waiting to settle down. And psychologically, so many failures can throw you into doubt that it can be very difficult to get out for years.A famous psychologist once said: “Give me a dozen healthy, well-educated children, and my own specific world to raise them in, and I guarantee that I will take someone at random and train him to become any kind of specialist that I could choose – doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant leader and, yes, even beggar and thief, regardless of his talents, vocations, abilities, race, his tendencies, his skills, the his race. ancestors”. Really, if you’re looking for something in your life, and whatever it takes, however long it takes, chances are you’ll get it.
