We all love to find excuses. Age, gender, marital status, financial background, lack of facilities, work-pressure – these are only some of the excuses one can make. But not Poonam Dalal. Her story is a story of hard work and willpower. It is a story which portrays up to what level ordinary Indian women can rise if she thinks she can. It’s a story which can inspire not only thousands of women but also men.
Now more into the life of Poonam Dalal, who is currently serving as the ACP Vigilance Gurgaon.
From a primary teacher to ACP
Poonam Dalal says she is slightly different from many others yet at the same time very similar to a lot of us. She has her ancestral roots at Chhara village in Jhajjar District, Haryana. But she was born and brought up in Delhi.
Poonam started her career as a primary teacher in a government school at Delhi. Along with the job she did her graduation as an external student from Delhi University.
After completing her graduation she appeared for different Bank PO Exams and SSC Graduate Level Exam and cleared all of them. SBI PO, SBI Associates PO, Union Bank Of India PO, SSC Graduate Level 2005 etc are some of them.
She finally chose SBI PO. She regrets that there was nobody to guide me about UPSC Exam. (Had there been somebody at that time to guide her about UPSC Exam, you would have been reading this interview much earlier!)
She also shares the fact that at that stage she used to be very under-confident about her chances at CS Examination. She says, “I am sharing these thoughts so that all of those who are somehow feeling the same as I had once been, can come out of it and not repeat the mistake which I did”.
After 3 years in SBI, she joined the Income Tax Department securing a very decent rank (7) at all India level in SSC graduate level Examination 2006 which gave her the confidence of writing UPSC. This is also a time she realised that being a General Category candidate her attempts were going to be wasted anyhow because of her age (Poonam was around 28 by then, and 30 was then the upper age limit for General Category candidates.)
She gave her first attempt at UPSC CSE in 2009 at the age of 28 and got Railways (RPF).
She didn’t join that service and sat for CSE 2010. She again got Railways, but a different service (IRPS).
Meanwhile, she had cleared Haryana PSC and joined as Dy.SP in Haryana Police in 2011.
Wait; the story is not over yet!
In 2011, she couldn’t qualify Prelims. She thought her tryst with UPSC was over due to the age-limit. (As hinted before it was only 30 years for general category candidates then, and even now it’s only 32 years).
‘Fortune favors the brave’ – many say. Life has kept more surprises for her. In 2015, because of agitations and petitions from candidates who were affected by pattern change in 2011, the government gave an extra attempt to all those who wrote for Civil Services Exam in 2011. Thus, Poonam got an opportunity to appear again for UPSC.
9 months pregnant at the time of Prelims; had to take care a 3 months old baby while writing mains!
This attempt came as a great challenge as Poonam was out of touch with preparation, being working 24*7 in police force. Much more than that she was 9 months pregnant at the time of prelims. She cleared UPSC prelims in flying colors by self-study. While preparing for mains she had also to take care of her son who was just 3 months old. It was never easy. But as Poonam puts it, she got her best rank in her most challenging circumstances – all India rank 308! CSE 2015 Roll number: 0506094.
(In Her Own Words) Preparation Strategy :
Because of my special circumstances I could study only for 2-3 months for Prelims and for Mains I could hardly get a month before mains (since my baby was born in Sept.) So, could not prepare the whole syllabus nor could study for long time. Whatever little I used to study I concentrated on focusing on the traditional areas like Polity, History, Geography, and my optional Sociology. Also, I used to make notes of certain key areas in every paper for quick reference n revision.
During this attempt I focused exclusively on Self Study, Online material sp. Mrunal youtube lectures on Geography and Economics ,Selfstudyias, Clearias, ,Iasbaba, InsightsonIndia Secure Initiative on Current Events. Also, I was fortunate to have regular mentoring of Pavan Sir for GS and Ethics Papers. I relied on the standard books of polity like M.Laxmikanth, Rajiv Ahir Spectrum for modern history, Shankar’s Environment Notes, Culture of Nitin Singhania n of course the tried and tested old NCERT Books.The detailed list is as follows:
| Topic | strategy/booklist/comment |
| History Ancient | Old Ncert Book,Own Notes. |
| History Medieval | Old Ncert Book,Own Notes. |
| History Modern (Freedom Struggle) | Bipin Chandra, Rajiv Ahir. |
| World History | Old NCERT Book |
| Culture and society | Old Ncert Book,Nitin Singhania Notes and Newspaper. |
| Polity (theory + current) | M.laxmikanth. |
| Economy (theory + current) | Mrunal youtube lectures,Economic Survey. |
| Science (theory + current) | Old Ncert book. |
| Environment (theory + current) | Shankar Ias Notes. |
| geography physical | Mrunal Rajtanil Mam youtube lectures ,Oxford Atlas,NCERT. |
| geography India | Mrunal Rajtanil Mam youtube lectures,Oxford Atlas,NCERT. |
| geography world | Mrunal Rajtanil Mam youtube lectures,NCERT,Oxford Atlas. |
| other national/international current affairs | Newspapers like Hindu and Indian Express,RSTv,InsightsonIndia. |
| Schemes, Policy & Filler Stuff | Websites like Mrunal,InsightsonIndia, iasbaba |
| General Studies 4: Ethics, Integrity, Case studies | Pavan Sir Ethics Class Notes and 2 nd ARC Report and any book on lexicon . |
Since a lot is dependent on Mains, and considering the lengthy papers I think one need to maintain the speed as I suffered a lot because of lack of speed and time management. In every paper I was not able to maintain speed and thus have to leave 20-30 marks paper unattempted. I sincerely believe I could have gained at least 40 marks had I done that practice as I would have been much better in my speed and time management.
Learnings from the Journey :
As I Look back now, I feel that lack of confidence in myself actually costed me a lot. We all need to remember the fact that it is Just an Exam like many others and can be cracked with dedication and a strategic preparation. We should not be scared of this Exam. Many of us write our first attempt to be able to just clear prelims (as happened with me in my first attempt CSE 2009, I could clear Prelims but since was focus was only on clearing prelims I had not prepared enough for Mains and thus though qualified Mains but got just above Cut Off Score and thus even getting good marks in Interview (208) I could get only Railways. This attitude of not taking the holistic view of all stages of Exam Prelims, Mains and interview costed me my first Attempt.
Secondly, I feel that this Exam actually requires Consistent Efforts. There should be more regularity in the Preparation. It is more beneficial to study for 6 hours each rather than studying one day for 18 hours and not studying another day at all. Also, study schedule should be properly planned and should be followed religiously. Prepare a monthly planner, weekly planner and daily planner based on the syllabus and time at one’s disposal. Every morning plan your day (what is your target today) and every night audit your output.
Thirdly, never let stress take over you. All of us have d same anxiety and pressure of this exam but handle dis nervousness effectively otherwise it will result in more problems. Be an optimist always. (I am sharing this fact because of the personal experience of the failure in Prelims in my third attempt. I was almost confident of getting a very good rank in my second attempt but unfortunately even though obtaining a very good score in mains of CSE 2010 I got a very bad score in Interview n could again get Railways (IRPS) and this threw me into depression. I could not prepare for the Changed pattern of CSAT of 2011 Attempt and the stress n pressure of last attempt made me lose in the first round itself. Now, I realize that had I taken the failure of obtaining good rank in CSE 2010 in a positive stride and not taken stress of last attempt I could have easily managed the changed pattern of CSE 2011 and would have easily qualified Prelims. (I have earlier qualified Bank P.O exams and CSAT was not that difficult thing for me but the stress I took in the last attempt ruined my Third Chance).
Fourthly, we need to take into account the factor of luck also in this exam. One need to understand that to be in the list or not is also dependent on so many permutation and combination and one should also factor in the handwork of one’s destiny in it. Give your best shot at UPSC but also have a backup plan to fall back on as life goes on with or without UPSC.
Been through this momentous journey of struggle and success ,I would only say have a positive thinking ,take both success and failure in your stride comfortably, learn from your failures but learn more from your success as it allows you to respect the struggle of all those who couldn’t succeed.Thank God, family, friends for their role in your success and support in your failure. Whatever be the case try to move forward in your life, give your best and leave the rest to the almighty. I would only say this is just an exam, Life is a much bigger canvas and it is having both bright and dark shades in it and both have their beauty. Explore Life and yourself. May be you are meant for other bigger things and for doing great things in life one don’t need to be a civil servant only, Being a great human being is enough and that is wat really matters.
Source : Various Online Websites.
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