Sopore is not a name that appears in most UPSC success narratives. A small town in Baramulla district of Kashmir, it has spent decades in the shadow of conflict and instability.

Barabanki is a small district in Uttar Pradesh that most people outside the state would struggle to locate on a map. Pratibha Verma grew up there, studied Zoology at Lucknow University,

Buxar is a small district in Bihar. It is not a name that appears frequently in lists of cities producing national civil services toppers. It does not have a coaching culture.

Most IIT graduates appearing for UPSC gravitate toward Mathematics, Physics, or Public Administration as their optional subject. Jatin Kishore did none of that.

An IIT Bombay graduate in Civil Engineering sitting down to study medieval Indian history for hours every day sounds like an odd picture.

An electronics engineer from Bhopal picks Sociology as her optional subject. She sits for UPSC twice. In her second attempt, she lands All India Rank 2

An IIT Bombay Civil Engineering graduate. Three attempts. Anthropology as an optional subject. And an interview score of 182 out of 275, one of the highest recorded in recent UPSC history.

A Computer Science engineer with a JP Morgan offer in hand chose Sociology and civil services instead. She was 22 years old.

One year, she could not clear the CSAT. The very next attempt, she secured All India Rank 4 in one of the world’s toughest examinations.