THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Like any other student of his age, Aravind enrolled in a course in engineering years back. The course went sailing plain smooth but Aravind had his target settled elsewhere. IAS sounded quite snobbish for a student fighting to tackle engineering exams, but Aravind etched the three-letter word into his heart. Slowly with the passage of time, UPSC turned into a craze for him. For seven years he toiled preparing for IAS exams. For six years straight he wrote the exams but couldn’t make it into the prized list. 2017 was the closest of all when he cleared all exams to reach the summit of the interview, but alas went unselected. Desolated by continuous falls, IAS slowly started fading from his dream but IFS came in to fill the void.

This Saturday, when the results were published, Vanchiyoor native J Aravind gave a jubilant smile upon seeing the list; he grabbed 22nd rank across India and was the first in Kerala. This 29-year-old IFS rank holder is the son of Pushpa, who works in a private hospital in the city.

“ I failed many times. Each time it was not sadness but a feeling or maybe an urge to cross the hurdle. It was simply hard work. I never missed newspapers. It was like a ritual every day. Even while traveling, I used to recollect all that learned during the previous days” Aravind said.

Aravind completed engineering from SCT College Thiruvananthapuram in 2015. Later he joined an IAS academy in high spirits to clear UPSC. However, as time went by, Aravind took the role of faculty in the same academy finding some earnings to continue his studies. His wife Ganga is now preparing for IAS exams.