As soon as you enter the room, you know. It is quite obvious. Half the room is taken up by piles of books and a desk, and the other half is divided between a bed and a mountain of The Hindu newspaper. The room belongs to a winner, somebody who does not think of losing or of plan B. It is 22-year-old Prince Dhawan, who aced this year's UPSC examinations, coming third among 2,43,003 candidates.
“I never had a second plan because if you do then that makes you comfortable with failure,” says Prince matter-of-factly. He has never let failure happen to him, ever. “I was a topper all my life, I topped the Central Board of Secondary Education, I got a gold medal in IIT for being an all-rounder.”
Prince from Chandigarh has made this city his home for several years now, IIT-Delhi being the place where he first thought he might actually make a good IAS officer. “When I was in third year, I first started thinking about it.”
The electrical engineer was finally able to act on his goals after graduation. “I got a house, I made a plan and I stuck to it religiously.”
Two of his best friends were his study companions. Combined studies more often than not turn into a party of sorts, but not for this serious trio. “We had, you know, certain rules,” he says.
Suddenly visible is a poster occupying centre stage on the blank wall in front of the bed. “Code of conduct in study hall,” it proclaims, before listing the holy commandments these young men have lived by for the past one year.
“Less talk, more study, no teasing remarks on each other's study habits and daily schedules, no use of laptop in study hall without headphones, no use of laptop during dinner,” are just a few of the commandments. The last one reads: “Maintain silence and peace of mind.”
“The only thing marring my complete happiness is that these friends have not made it through this year, we were together since school, then we went to IIT and then we started this also together.”
So what really clicked for Prince? “The personality test was the toughest. It is not something that can be learnt from a textbook, it is based on who you are and how you present yourself.”
So how did Prince manage?
“Well, reading newspapers like The Hindu everyday. I did not read it, I studied it thoroughly. I made notes and hated to miss even one page. The exams these days want people to come up with their own opinions, the news reports informed me and let me form my own opinions”
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