Ansari Sheikh

In his maiden attempt, Ansari Sheikh, a 21 year son of an auto-driver from Maharashtra secured rank 361 in IAS exam 2016.
Come, lets walk you through the inspiring story of this maverick and one of the youngest IAS officers of India.
His father was an auto-rickshaw driver in the drought-hit village of Shelgaon in Jalna district of Marathwada, struggling with alchohol addiction. He married thrice. Ansar was the child from his second wife, who worked in a farm.
Ansar grew up observing the social menaces of domestic violence and child marriage. While his sisters were married off at young ages of 15 and his younger brother dropped out of class six to work in uncle's garage, he reinstated his faith in education. At several instances, his parents wanted to drop him out of school but for his teacher's suggestions to continue him to study.
He remains greatly indebted towards his younger brother who dropped out of school to start working and financed Ansar's education throughout the bad weather.
When Ansar's parents gave him opportunity to study, he proved his merit by securing 91 percent in class 12 boards.
He jokes about the struggles of studying in the zila Parishad School. As he belonged to a home, where getting a square meal was difficult, It was a matter of luxury for him to get mid-day meal, although sometimes they would find worms in their food which turned their vegetarian food to a non-vegetarian one.
As far as his education is concerned, he studied until class 12 in Maratha medium and completed Bachelors degree in Political science from the renowned Fergusson College.
While his father would keep sending small amounts from his savings to help him survive in the city, his brother would deposit his entire monthly salary of Rs 6000 in Ansar's account to fund his academic dreams.
With poor attire and less resources but a faith and dream in education, Ansar started his education in Fergusson college in 2012. The fact that he came from a vernacular medium school and wasn't fluent in english also created an inferiority complex. But Ansar didn't give up.
It was during the first year that his teachers exposed him to UPSC. Alongside his regular academics, he approached Unique Academy's Tukaram Jadhav and requested him for admission to the course as the fees of 70,000 was pretty unaffordable for him.
Knowing his plight, Tukaram Sir was gracious enough to admit him with a concession of 50%. He studied with his elder friends who were in their late 20s or 30s, who had given two or three attempts by then. Ansar was only 19 years old.
He recalls " I was often mocked when I would ask silly questions. But I never really stopped asking questions. There were days when I would survive on Vada Pav and didn't have money to buy preparatory material. So I would borrow it from my friends and photocopy it. I pushed myself very hard . I would study for 13 hours a day because I knew that I could not afford failure. I wouldn't have the resources to give a second attempt.", he says.
After clearing the prelims examination, he returned to home. His sister's husband had died from alchohol overdose. Despite this, his grief stricken sister advised him to return to Pune and prepare for the mains.
The results came out and he had cleared them. He remembers his interview round with a panel where a retired IAS officer asked him about Muslim youth joining radical organisations. He was asked whether he belonged to the Shia sect or the Sunni sect, to which Ansar's quick reply was " I am an Indian Muslim".
He scored 199 out of 275, which is a remarkable achievement.
In a message to IAS aspirants, Ansar says "If you think your competition is with other lakhs of aspirants who give the exam, you are mistaken. Your only competition is you. So get rid of all your pessimistic thoughts and success will come your way.
Please remember, poverty and success have no correlation. All you need is hard work and determination. What background you come from, doesn't matter. Marks might not define your intelligence. But for some, it is the only way to pull themselves out of the abyss of poverty. It is not easy and requires rigorous hard work to arrive at those grades and shouldn't be disregarded".