SRK in his famous dialogue from the movie Om Shanti Om, says, “When you truly desire something with all your heart, the entire universe conspires to help you achieve it.” But it took Om Prakash Makhija another birth to make the impossible happen for him. Vijay Vardhan like wait of 35 government exams would also feel like a lifetime to anyone. But that lifetime of effort got him the a lifetime opportunity that most people only dream of.Government exams are an obsession in India. People give years and years to get a ‘sarkari naukri’, even if it means settling for a post much lower than their qualification.The story of Vijay Vardhan goes a step further. His is one that beats the combined perseverance of probably 10 such aspirants. He failed 35 government exams before finally cracking UPSC, not once, but twice, to make up for all the failures he had and become an IAS officer.Vijay, who hails from Sirsa, Haryana, did his Electronics Engineering and then moved to Delhi for his IAS preparation, a move that was not going to be easy and would take years of slogging and heartbreak. Like most aspirants, he applied for many government exams, the most famous ‘Plan B’ in UPSC circles. He wrote the Haryana Public Service Commission (HPSC), Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission (UPPSC), Staff Selection Commission Combined Graduate Level (SSC CGL), and Combined Defence Services (CDS) exams, and failed every single one of them.This would have not just broken anyone but torn them into pieces. But Vijay’s grit was the stuff of legends, that of people like Dashrath Manjhi, who carved a road out of a mountain using only a hammer and a chisel.Vijay’s first UPSC attempt was in 2014, where he failed but did not give up. His breakthrough came in 2018 when he got AIR 104 and became an IPS officer. But as the famous saying goes, he did not come this far to come this far. For what were all these years of grinding and failures for if he would not try again for India’s top job, IAS? 2021 was the year when Vijay made it to Rank 70 and avenged every failure at every govt exam, surpassing every possible success at a government exam in the country to become an IAS officer.What Vijay Vardhan did would break even the most persistent, the most hard-working ones because, let’s be honest, the UPSC journey can be quite a lonely one. You see your peers getting higher education, clearing exams, getting into professions, earning well, getting married and having kids. There are friends and family who expect you to settle down. And psychologically, so many failures can throw you into self-doubt that can be very difficult to come out of for years.A famous psychologist once said, “Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I’ll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select- doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief and, yes, even beggar-man and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors.” Truly, if you are after something in your life, and whatever it takes, however long it takes, chances are you’ll get it.
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