A GOAL ACHIEVED

MOHAMED NAZEER

Focus, dedication, determination and perseverance — these can sum up how S. Harikishore secured a top rank in the Civil Services Examination 2008.

S. Harikishore It has been his dream since school days, and he has worked hard for nearly two years to transform it into reality. For 27-year-old S. Harikishore, hailing from Cherukunnu, Kannur, who got the 14th rank in the Civil Services Examination 2008, a career in the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) had been a distant dream till he joined the Indian Institute of Technolo gy, Kanpur, for doing his M.Tech. He became motivated to aim for the IAS during those days.

He acknowledges the inspiration received from the success of six Malayali candidates figuring among the top 20 in the Civil Services Examination 2007. Their success instilled confidence in him and motivated him to set high goals.

Mr. Harikishore, son of K.H. Subramanian, former Registrar of Kannur University and former Head of the Department of Sanskrit, Payyanur College, and P.K. Sarala, Malayalam teacher at Durga Higher Secondary School, Kanhangad, has seen academic achievements come his way in the past. Winner of the first rank in B.Tech. mechanical engineering at the Government College of Engineering, Kannur, he secured a GE Foundation Scholarship at the IIT, Kanpur. He did his M.Tech. with specialisation in material science and metallurgy.

“Initially, the respect IAS officers get from society attracted me to this career, but later, when I learnt more about the IAS career, its variety, its ability to make a difference to the lives of people, scope for interacting with people, it became the driving force,” he says when asked why he has opted for the civil services.

After completing his M.Tech., he decided not to join any private company and became a lecturer at the Amrita School of Engineering, Amritapuri, Kollam, to get time for studies, in addition to money.

Later, he went on loss-of-pay leave for devoting time for preparing for the examinations. His optional subjects were mechanical engineering for the preliminary and geography and Malayalam literature for the main examination. Mechanical engineering was a natural option as it was his B.Tech. major. Passing the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering gave him confidence to choose the subject. For the mains (descriptive), he switched to geography and Malayalam.

“I have interest in both the subjects. I like travel because I have an inclination for geography. Also, my hobbies include reading Malayalam fiction, history of Malayalam literature and schools of thought,” says Mr. Harikishore adding that there is good scope for writing creatively in both these subjects. About his preparation for the Civil Services Examination, he says that he mostly studied on his own with minimal support from coaching institutions. He attended a five-month course at a coaching centre for the preliminary and a 20-day class on Malayalam literature for the mains. He attended mock interviews.

He prepared on his own using the library of the Kerala Civil Service Academy, Thiruvananthapuram. “Coaching classes were useful because I got an orientation and exposure about the IAS exam,” he says. Most important was the mental and financial support from his mother and father, who is now Director, Chinmaya International Foundation, Veliyanad, Ernakulam. His brother, S. Sreekiran, is a fourth year MBBS student at the Government Medical College, Kottayam.

“To succeed in the IAS exam one needs at least two years of preparation,” he says. The examination itself is a one-year process. Lack of proper guidance, orientation and support often discourages students to prepare for the IAS examination in which probability of success is less, he says. His message to future aspirants is that focus, dedication, determination and perseverance are essential for success. Equally important is priority-driven hard work, he says.