A STORY OF SHEER DETERMINATION

“लहरों से डर कर नौका कभी पार नही होती,

कोशिश करने वालो की कभी हार नही होती”

This is the story of Safin Hasan, an ordinary boy who did something extraordinary.

He was born and brought up in the small village of Gujrat, in a financial deficit household, bereft of any facility. There were days when Safin went to sleep empty stomach due to the non-availability of food.

His father initially worked as a labourer (carried bricks) in a diamond factory and later he started working as an electrician. In winter, he used to sell food items on a food cart. As a child, Safin used to help his father with the food cart.

His mother also worked in the diamond factory but she quit her job later due to the recession and started making roti's for various events like marriages in the village and for restaurants to make the ends meet.

His mother also used to work in the homes of others to teach her son till the 10th. He was a bright student since childhood but the poor financial condition of his family inspired him to study even harder. And apart from his studies, he was also involved in other extracurricular activities.

He did his initial schooling in a Gujarat medium government school in his village itself and scored 92% in the 10th grade. He wanted to study science in his intermediate from a private school but he was not in a position to afford the fees. Luckily, the teachers of the ascent school of Palampur (district) knew his talent and they waived his fees for his higher secondary education.

As Safin had to travel from his village to Palampur to study, his mother started working as a cook in Anganwadi to cover his bus travel expenses.

While studying in primary school one day a district collector visited his school. Safin was amazed by his status and the way people were admiring him. Since then he started dreaming of becoming a civil servant when he grow up. After completing his intermediate, Safin cleared an all-India engineering entrance examination with 99.37% and joined an engineering college. There his friends used to make fun of his english speaking skills, therefore he decided to work on it as well.

In order to be self-reliant, on his vacations, Safin used to teach the children in his village, and with this income, he used to manage his hostel expenses but it was not was not sufficient to pay his college fees, so there he was financially helped by other people. He was also engaged in community services while being in college.

He completed his engineering in May 2016 and got a placement for a job but he decided to go to Delhi to prepare for the civil service exam. His parents also supported his decision. But he became disappointed when he learned that the coaching fee is around 1.5 lakhs and would add up to 3 lakh with his living expenses in New Delhi. During that time, the total savings in Hasan’s home was not even 10,000.

Fortunately, during that time, Huseinbhai Polara and his wife, Jarinaten Polara came forward to sponsor his coaching completely. This couple hails from his village and they knew Safin and believed in him because of his social service and NGO.

He prepared, gave the prelims, and got through. And finally, the day came for main exam. It was at 9 am. He was riding a scooter toward his way for an exam center, but unfortunately, he fell as his scooter slipped.

This accident was severe as his ligament and left hand got injured and he was also bleeding from his head. After getting up, he noticed that his right hand was uninjured and so, he took a painkiller and proceeded to attend the exam.

He did not take a chance because he desperately wanted to clear an exam in his first attempt itself. After finishing the exams, he took bed rest for a month and a half.

But bad luck strikes again. Just before an interview test, he got a bad attack of tonsilitis and also suffered from urinary tract infection along with high fever. Thus, he was again hospitalized for a month

Despite being in very bad health condition, he gathered all the courage and appeared for an interview. And when the results came out, surprisingly, he got the highest marks in the interview round

With the grace of god and his persistent hard work and determination just at the age of 22, he cracked UPSE CSE 2017 with rank 570 and became the youngest IPS officer in India. Later he also cleared the Gujarat public service commission exam in the very first attempt without preparing for it separately.

‘It is impossible to succeed without facing difficulties’ - this is what IPS Safin Hasan believes in.

He is a living example of the fact that it is not the favorable circumstances or luck that matters but it is the ‘never give up attitude and the ‘positive mindset’ that one needs in order to succeed.

सच कहते है ……….

“कि अगर किसी चीज को पूरी शिद्दत से

चाहो तो पूरी काइनात उसे तुमसे मिलाने

की कोशिश में लग जाती है“