KOTTAYAM: If anyone believes that civil services are beyond the reach of students studying in government schools, the experience of Sujith Das S, 27, proves otherwise.
As a government upper primary school student at Muttambalam, young Sujith Das used to gaze at the district collector’s vehicle passing in front of his school to the collector’s bungalow situated nearby.
The teachers of the school used to say to him and his friends that they could also achieve the coveted position one day if they studied well.
“The desire to become an IAS or IPS officer was ingrained in my mind from then onwards. That memory was with me ever since,” was the reaction of the civil services rank-holder Sujith, who visited his house at Madukkani near here for the first time after he was selected in the civil services examination.
He was with his mother at the rented house they are staying in Madukkani. The achievement of Sujith became something to be celebrated for the residents in the area.
Sujith Das got the 646th rank in the civil services exams and will be going for training on September 7.
Sujith tried for the civil services, after completing his BTech in mechanical engineering. It was his classmate Abhiram Sankar’s selection to the elite service that was an inspiration for him to try too.
He tried thrice for the services in 2012, 2013, and 2014 and although he was expecting selection in Indian Police Service (IPS), he had decided to once again appear for the exams to get into the Indian Administrative Service (IAS).
Sujith was raised by his mother B. Ambujam, a retired anganwadi teacher. “He was good in studies. I believed that he would qualify for the civil services one day,” says his mother, Ambujam.
Sujith is currently working at the Bangalore zone of the central excise and customs as an inspector and had also previously qualified for the Indian Forest Services (IFS).
However, his aim was IAS or IPS. He studied for the civil services after staying in Chennai, and he says he had a good group of friends preparing for the examinations in Chennai. His ambition is to be a bureaucrat who shows empathy towards the public.
