‘Brother, good samaritans helped me’

Ansar Shaikh, the son of an auto rickshaw driver who cracked the UPSC exams and secured the 361 All India rank in the recently declared results, credits his family and his elder brother for his success and feels that youngsters in the community need to stop cribbing about lost opportunities and chart a path of success for themselves.

After getting into civil services, Mr Shaikh says he wants to work on various issues for the upliftment of the poor, weak and the needy and promote communal harmony.

Being the youngest person to have cracked the UPSC exam at the age of 21, Mr Shaikh received a tumultuous welcome in his hometown Shedgaon in Jalna district where he reached on Friday, three days after the results were declared.

“Neighbours and some prominent personalities in our town visited me and lauded my achievements. Everyone is happy and appreciated the fact that I put the little known town in the limelight through my feat. The number of people visiting our home to wish me and my parents is unabated,” said Mr Shaikh.

When asked about the difficulties he faced in reaching the milestone, Mr Shaikh said that as he belonged to a poor economic background he had to fend for himself. “My father was too preoccupied with the responsibility of providing a square meal for the family regularly and hence he played no role in my academic progress. My elder brother provided the moral and financial support. Though it wasn’t much, I managed with the help of some good Samaritans who contributed to help me prepare for the UPSC exams when I was living in Pune,” said Mr Shaikh, adding that his tutor Rahul Pandve also played a major role in guiding him for the civil services exams. Incidentally, Mr Pandve also appeared for the UPSC exams and secured a 200 rank.

Speaking about his future plans, Mr Shaikh, who is sure to get a posting as an IAS officer due to his 361 rank said that he would like to promote communal harmony. “There is a lot of animosity among people on communal lines and I want to remove that. As an IAS officer, I also want to promote education and women empowerment and remove all notions of women being the weaker gender,” said Mr Shaikh.