TEDxKanke, has been organizing a Webinar Series titled ‘The Rise of a New World’ which started on May 2. The speaker of the event on August 8 was Sunil Barnwal, IAS 1997 Batch All India Topper, Jharkhand State Cadre while the talk was titled Decoding: Dreams, Aspirations, Success. The session was moderated by TEDx Kanke Curator Rajeev Gupta.
The series is slated to have speakers from the fields of technology, innovation, leadership, creativity and art and culture of national and international acclaim. The sessions are being streamed live on the Facebook page fb.me/tedxkanke20. This session had hundred percent on Zoom and also about 700 viewers o while being streamed live on Facebook.
“I started dreaming of becoming an IAS office in class 7 and understood the effort and hard work that it would require. I performed exceptionally well in class 10 and got an admission into the Patna Science College for intermediate studies. This transition increased my aspirations, but I also faced an immense challenge of shifting from Hindi medium to an English medium background,” said Barnwal.
“The next challenge was to prepare for engineering exams as that would set up a safer platform for preparing for civil services. I could not satisfy the minimum age required for IIT, JEE so I appeared for Roorkee and ISM and got in to Petroleum Engineering at ISM Dhanbad with an AIR 7. The resources I got at a premier institute like ISM immediately boosted my learning and knowledge,” added the speaker.
“Eventually, I completed my engineering degree with three gold medals including the best in class. I also got a job in GAIL, before passing out from ISM. I was only 19.5 years old when I passed engineering and was not eligible to meet the minimum age requirement at UPSC (which was 21 years at the time). I took the next two years as a golden opportunity to prepare for UPSC exams while working,” added
Barnwal.
“I did the job from 9 AM to 5 PM and studied from 6 PM to 11 PM. I again studied in the morning from 6 AM before leaving for work. In the first attempt, I qualified until the interview stage but did not make it through. I realized that I dreamt big and prepared continuously for this but that it was just not enough I had to prepare myself for what the exam required– personality and writing skills,” recalls Barnwal.
“My friends pushed me to give another attempt and I focused more on my weaknesses. After the interview, I was in fact preparing for my third attempt but when the results were announced on radio with the top three names, I went into disbelief before coming to terms that I had topped the exam,” he said.
“Chasing the dream meant having those aspirations, continuing the effort and avoiding all kinds of distractions to be able to achieve what I could. The biggest learning is to understand the distractions that come along the way and the internal distractions are the biggest challenge for us today. Getting into an IAS requires a certain set of qualities – hard work, skills and knowledge. But getting along requires a completely different set of qualities– integrity, attitude and the aspirations to contribute to the society,” said the speaker.
“Dream is imposed by you yourself and is not defined by families or society. In today’s competitive world, people have to be more consistent and patient in chasing their dreams. Choosing a career path and pursuing is the best way forward,” added the speaker.
