• ‘I had to take control of things that were in my control’
• Wasim Bhat, 23, has cracked the UPSC exam in the first attempt

SRINAGAR: At least nine candidates from Jammu and Kashmir have qualified the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) exam, the gateway to India’s highest grade of civil services. Among them is a 23-year- old who qualified the exam in the first go.

They include 22-year-old Suchiter Sharma (rank 146), Mohammad Aaquib (205), Waseem Ahmad Bhat (225), Shivia Hangloo (261), Sara Ashraf (316), Altaf Mohammad Shaikh (545), Iqbal Rasool Dar (611), Amir Bashir (625), and Majid Iqbal Khan (738).

Suchiter Sharma, son of Madan Lal Sharma, is a resident of Salehar village of Bishnah in district Jammu. He completed his graduation in 2020.

Iqbal Rasool Dar, resident of Jaggerpora village in Handwara in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district, is another in the list. This was his third attempt.

Wasim Ahmad Bhat, since yesterday when the results were declared, is joyous but not smug. He says his personality fitted the bill, so clearing the exam and interview was a cakewalk for him.

Wasim says no one forced him to choose this career path. Nor did his family background influence him. It was just the way of life he had adopted since childhood that made it easy for him, he said.

Wasim studied at a local school in Dooru in Anantnag’s district. He qualified an engineering exam and studied civil engineering at NIT Srinagar. In between he would pick books and read them, without any intent of becoming an IAS officer. At the last leg of his degree, he realised that he should sit in the UPSC exam.

“Just months after I was done with my degree, I moved to Delhi and started to prepare. I chose Anthropology. It worked,” he told Kashmir Reader. “I had this thought in mind that I have to take control of things that are in my control. Working for the exam was in my control, so I did it. I have reaped the results.”

Now Wasim is thinking about sitting for a second time in the exam to get a better rank.

Wasim has a thumb rule for youth to anchor their life. He says one should put oneself in things which fit one’s personality. Or else, mould their personality according to what they wish to become.

“Otherwise, the journey becomes difficult,” he says. “The identification of the process is the key, and the first step towards success. The efforts will follow later.”

Junaid Nabi Bazaz