The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : A long, steep climb for this IAS ranker

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Monday, May 10, 2010
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Tamil Nadu

A long, steep climb for this IAS ranker

A.V.Ragunathan

K. Sivasubramani emerges successful on sixth attempt

VILLUPURAM: K. Sivasubramani (28), a native of Nemur village in Villupuram district and currently serving as a Revenue Assistant in the Vriddhachalam taluk office, has successfully got through the civil services examinations held in 2009.

Hailing from a farmer's family, he has scored 311th rank among the 875 candidates selected. It is a long and steep climb, and yet a dream come true for Mr. Sivasubramani who has emerged successful on the sixth attempt.

Mr. Sivasubramani told The Hindu that he had been nurturing the ambition of clearing the civil services examination from 1999 when his cousin E. Ramesh got selected. All along, Mr. Ramesh had been his inspiration.

Mr. Sivasubramani does not have any formal education. He did his schooling, up to Class V, at Nemur in Tamil medium and later completed his Class X at Wyckoff Higher Secondary School at Muttathur.

Since his father Kalirathinam could not afford his educational expenses, as his elder brother K.Ilayaraja had then joined the Alagappa University at Karaikudi, Mr. Sivasubramani had to join the Industrial Training Institute in Cuddalore during 1995-1997.

Later, he served as an apprentice at Ashok Leyland, Chennai, during 1998-1999. After his cousin's success at the UPSC examination in 1999, he was determined enough to emulate him.

He completed Plus Two as a private candidate and then studied B.A. (History) through distance education mode offered by Annamalai University. Later, he enrolled himself in the Self Study Circle at Villupuram and started preparing for the UPSC examinations.

As there was a provision for even candidates in the final year of the undergraduate courses to take up the UPSC examination, he tried his hand first time in 2006. It taught him a lesson that private study would not suffice and hence got admission through an entrance test at the government civil services coaching centre at Anna Nagar in Chennai.

He realised that geography, and not history, was close to his heart and hence chose the subject as first option and Tamil literature as the second option. He found climatography and cartography quite tough but Professor Napoli, whom he considers as a guru, helped put things in right perspective.

Meanwhile, he took up a technical job at a Central railway workshop at Tiruchi in 2006. In the two successive years, in 2007 and 2008, he cleared both the preliminary and main examinations but could not make it in the interview. Mr. Sivasubramani said that he would like to become an IPS officer and has opted for Tamil Nadu cadre as the first choice.

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