{Motivation} Topper Story: Shubhra Saxena - “ziladhikari Shravasti zindabad”
- As we are getting closer to the New
Year, hopefully lucky 13, here is the tale of a young woman IAS, who was
recently welcomed at Uttar
Pradesh’s Shravasti district with slogans “ziladhikari Shravasti zindabad”. And this is how this 2009 batch IAS introduces
herself in her blog post: “Hi I am Shubhra Saxena. I am an
engineer from IIT Roorkee 2002 batch of
paper technology. I am currently posted as District Magistrate, Shravasti, UP.” Her favourite films: Chak De India, A beautiful Mind and Swades. And her favourite book: Atlas Shrugged, We the living.
- In her blog post
titled “First posting as District Collector”, Ms Shubhra writes how people have
such low expectations from administration that “even the most mundane thing I
would do here would be huge for them”.
- “After joining
Shravasti, I inspected a Block Resource Center of SSA where training of
teachers was going on. As expected, most teachers were absent. I took immediate
action against the teachers. When I came out... People there were shouting
slogans... "ziladhikari
Shravasti zindabad". I felt humbled
to my core…” Ms Shubhra writes.
- And she has a few
tips for civil service aspirants too. “All of you are aspiring for civil
services. Some of you will make it to IAS, some to IPS, some to IFS and so on.
On the way to these services, you face so many roadblocks in terms of failure,
loss of motivation and many other factors unaccounted for. You feel as if once
you get into the service, you would have all solutions. But from an
insider’s perspective, the day you enter a service, the real battle starts. It’s
not a cakewalk I assure you. But even despite many constraints, there’s so much
difference you can make just by being efficient, fair and honest…” she writes.