From Buxar to IIT to 4th rank in UPSC: A tale of steely determination

Cracking the UPSC exam was Atul Prakash's lifelong dream and it came true on his second attempt.

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New Delhi: When dreams are as high as the sky, no challenge is too big. That is perhaps what drives 26-year-old Atul Prakash from Mangraon village in Bihar's Buxar district who secured the fourth rank in the UPSC Civil Services exam results declared on Friday.

Cracking the UPSC exam was Atul's lifelong dream and it came true on his second attempt. Hindustan Times reported that Atul, son of a chief engineer in ECR, was always inclined towards serving the common man and it is this deep-rooted desire that led him towards UPSC after graduating from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (Delhi). Although he studied in a number of schools, Atul never wandered away from his goal of becoming an IAS officer and it is this, according to father Ashok Kumar Rai, that helped him achieve the fourth rank.

Atul is the eldest son and has a sister who has a B Tech degree and works with ITC in Bengaluru.

Each year, there are many such tales of hard work which come to light after UPSC results are declared. This year, Durishetty Anudeep from Telangana broke a record of sorts when he became the first man in three years to top the UPSC exam. Anu Kumari, a DU graduate and mother of a small child from Haryana, took the second spot while Sachin Gupta - a mechanical engineer from Sirsa - took the third spot.