THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Sreedhanya Suresh was on Cloud 9 as she sat surrounded by microphones and cameras from early morning on Saturday at the private civil services academy at Kuravankonam where she underwent coaching.
In between the interviews, the first tribal girl in the state to crack the civil services examination kept receiving phone calls showering praises on her for her proud achievement. One such call surprised her. It was none other than Congress president Rahul Gandhi. “I am elated as Rahulji is contesting from my native place,” she said.
What’s her first priority? Pat came to the answer from the Kurichiya tribal girl: ‘’To uplift the downtrodden sections from my community in Wayanad.’’ There are school dropouts in the majority of tribal families, one of the reasons why the 25-year-old is keen on making a change in the community.
‘’I want to improve the prospects of the tribal people so that they will come to know about the education system and the vast career opportunities out there. Tribal students often discontinue their studies midway owing to peer pressure and family circumstances. Most of the people are alcoholic and awareness needs to be generated. Only then will more people from tribal communities shine in the public sphere,’’ she said.
Three years ago, Sreedhanya met present Kozhikode Collector Seeram Sambasiva Rao when she was working on a project as part of her PG at Calicut University. She was impressed by the way officers showed respect to the Collector. That ‘respect’ was the ‘spark’ that made her an IAS aspirant. “I came to Thiruvananthapuram in 2016 for coaching and attempted UPSC for the first time. I did not take it seriously then. Again in 2017, I partially dedicated my time for coaching. It was in the third attempt I became serious and studied well, thanks to the coaching centre here. Finally, I cracked the examination with the 410th rank. I expected a rank within 100. My choice is to opt for IAS. If I don’t get IAS, I will surely reattempt the examination,” she said.
Love for Malayalam
Unlike many others, Sreedhanya took Malayalam history as the elective subject because of her love for the language. A voracious reader, she is a great fan of MT Vasudevan Nair.“MT sir’s ‘Randamoozham’ is my favourite book. Similarly, I have read many books in Malayalam. Hence I decided to take Malayalam history as the subject. Though history was initially tough, I studied well before the examination,” she said.
According to Sreedhanya, she decided to write the UPSC examination with her family’s support. Her parents are National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme workers. Her elder sister Sushitha is in Thiruvananthapuram for her child’s treatment at RCC. Sreedhanya’s younger brother Sreerag is a polytechnic student.
“My parents greatly supported me. So there was no problem in pursuing higher studies. They were ready to send me to any place to study. Besides, it is an opportunity to show our community in Wayanad that even people from the lower strata of society can crack the civil services examination.’’
What would she have done had she not been able to crack the UPSC test? "I would have been a police constable as I have been selected in the police service," she said.
For civil services aspirants, Sreedhanya has only one advice: Work hard work with dedication. “Civil services examination is not tough and it can be cracked through hard work. Coaching centres give a framework to study. We have to systematically study the materials. I used to study for six hours a day,’’ she said.
Sreedhanya, who completed her degree from St Joseph’s College, Devagiri in Kozhikode, and PG from Calicut University, did her schooling from Nirmala High School and Government HSS, Thariyode.