UTTAR PRADESH: If sharing knowledge is the greatest joy, IPS officer Akash Tomar must be the happiest person. He has offered his dearest possession for public sharing -- his civil services notes. There is a virtual beeline to download from his Twitter account the document which helped him get through India’s toughest exam in his first attempt in 2013.
Tomar, posted as the police chief of Etawah, wants to simplify the aspirants’ tedious journey. Anybody preparing for the civil services can check Twitter handle @akashtomarips to find out what content it takes to crack the exam. In a post that has been tagged along, Tomar says: “If anyone needs my 2012 UPSC notes (in typed form) in order to get an idea about how notes should be made during preparation for civil services, please reply to the post with your email ID. I’ll mail you my notes.”
The response to his December 12 offer, says Tomar, was overwhelming. “On the very next day, that is, December 13, I was inundated with over 3,500 requests. As I realized that it was not possible for me to mail the notes to so many seekers, I decided to share the links of the notes in PDF format on my account,” he said. Tomar says he has been sharing his notes with the aspirants who would approach him personally. This is, however, for the first time that he has gone with a “public offer”.
“I had prepared all my notes on the computer in a PDF format. So it was easy to share the links,” he says, adding that he thought the notes could come in handy for the aspirants in giving them an idea of the road ahead.“I thought that my notes can help those who are vying for the prestigious services and are devoid of costly resources. Even during the pandemic when all the coaching institutes were shut, I could feel the level of stress of the civil service aspirants.
So I thought of helping them,” says the 31-year-old, who is about to get married to a medico on January 14 next. He has also been receiving requests to organise webinars and online tutorials to give important tips for the interview as well. He offers important tips on how to prepare for current affairs and general knowledge.
There are celebrities requesting for his notes: shooter Manu Bhakar, the winner of youth Olympics 2018, and Madhu Kishwar, the founder of Centre for the Study of Developing Societies and a veteran journalist have got in touch with Tomar to get enlightened. Tomar, a B Tech in computer sciences from IIIT Prayagraj, secured 138th rank in UPSC in 2012. He had won the DG’s Commendation Card in 2019.