Farms to Odd-Jobs, How This Man Realised His IAS Dream

1 May 2018

Emerging 101st out of 990 candidates in the UPSC examinations of 2017, M Sivaguru Prabakaran has come a long way from sleeping on railway stations to working part-time on the field as a farmer to earn his livelihood.

With an alcoholic father at home, his mother took on the responsibility of bringing in a daily wage. Realising his responsibility in having to help her earn bread for the family, Prabakaran made a sacrifice – he gave up studying once he finished Class 12 and with it, his dreams of being an engineer.

As reported by The Times of India, Prabakaran had a long-term goal. Whatever money he would make by taking on odd-jobs, he would save half of for his family’s expenses and the other, for his education.

I worked as a sawmill operator for two years and did a bit of farming. Whatever money I could collect, I spent some towards my family and saved some for my education. I wasn’t prepared to let go of my dreams.

Prabakaran, who hails from the Melaottankadu village in Pattukottai in Thanjavur district, funded his younger brother’s engineering studies and his older sister’s wedding, according to the report.

In 2008, he enrolled in the civil engineering stream at the Thanthai Periyar Government Institute of Technology in Vellore. Soon after, he kept frequenting Chennai to get tutored for UPSC exams.

He would travel to Chennai on the weekends and take shelter in the platforms of the St Thomas Mount railway station. During the week, he would travel back to Vellore to attend his college classes, and in his off-hours, he made some extra bucks by working at a mobile recharge shop, The Times of India reported.

Prabakaran went on to ace the IIT-M entrance and finished his MTech programme as a “top ranked student” in 2014, with a GPA of 9.0, the report states.

This was also his fourth attempt at clearing the UPSC exams.

Prabakaran’s role model, the one who inspired him to tackle whatever life threw at him, so he could become an IPS officer, was J Radhakrishnan, the Tamil Nadu government’s health department secretary.

The desire to become an IAS officer came upon me when I saw Radhakrishnan in 2004. He was the Thanjavur district collector at the time of Kumbakonam school fire tragedy. He was the first IAS officer I ever saw.

M Sivaguru Prabakaran,