COIMBATORE: Failure is the stepping stone to success, Thomas Edison said. M Logaeshwaran, a 26-year-old from Sulur, is a shining example of this. His perseverance enabled him to crack the qualifying examination in the eighth attempt and get selected to the Indian Coast Guard. Having failed to clear the examination seven consecutive times in five years, he left no stone unturned to pursue his goal.
Recruited as an assistant commandant, equivalent to the assistant superintendent of police (ASP) post, Logaeshwaran will begin training in the Indian Naval Academy at Ezhimala in Kerala soon. He told TNIE, "After completing BE Mechanical Engineering in 2016, I attended a lecture by an army personnel, Captain Rahul Siddharth, which gave insights into job opportunities for engineering graduates in Defence services."
He then joined the Delta Squad, a disaster rescue team headed by Lieutenant S Esan, where he attended several rescue operations including the one in Manapparai where a toddler fell into a borewell. "Even though I began attempting to clear the Indian Coast Guard examination, I realised I wanted to be a part of this field when I toured a ship in 2019. The job as an Indian Coast Guard is multi-dimensional and the personnel takes care of coast security, ecology, animal and people welfare at sea," he added.
About his preparations, having been unsuccessful in seven attempts, Logaeshwaran said he concentrated on areas where he lacked focus. "I was weak in psychology and writing skills. I overcame it with hard work. I made sure I did not repeat the same mistakes.” An avid rekla racer, Logaeshwaran rears two Kangayam bulls.
Esan, commander of Delta Squad said, "Logaeshwaran will be trained on heading a team, weapon training, weather reading, navigation, scaling. The job is challenging as even infiltration by unidentified persons at sea will be handled by the Indian Coast Guard."
Logaeshwaran quit his job as an aptitude trainer in a Bengaluru-based institute and will be embarking on a new journey soon.