By PNS News Agency Guwahati
Year 2013 is a delightful year and has given a new fame to the gateway city of Northeast – Guwahati, especially to the Muslim Assamese community as it was able to produce the first Muslim woman IAS officer – Umme Fardina Adil. The later became the first Muslim woman from India’s northeastern region to clear the UPSC exam since the country became independent.
Fardina studied engineering from MIT, Rajasthan in Computer Science before taking up the job with the Accenture firm. In the list of 998 successful candidates in the year 2012, Fardina got 319 rank. “This time my ranking is 319, would attempt again to improve the rank”, said Fardina.
Fardina, a former student of Disneyland School and Cotton College of Guwahati, cleared the IAS in her first attempt. You will be amazed to know that she has accomplished this rare feat without coaching. She studied for nine to ten hours for 9 months and was very regular. She depended on newspapers and Wikipedia for gathering knowledge and never referred to any guide books. Google was her guide as she prefer red to clear her doubts visiting the sites very often.
Fardina is daughter of Mr. Adil Gazanfar, a BDO, now posted in Hailakandi Dist. of Assam, originally form Mangaldai Dist. presently settled in Hatigaon locality of Guwahati.
Fardina’s aim is to make India free of open defecation. “I have already on the job for my pet project Low Cost Sanitation Technologies”, she said. She is confident of making an impact. “I want to become an IAS as I want to follow my father and want to work for the nation.” She is quite worried about corruption, drug and alcohol abuse, and she simply hates bandh culture and increasing atrocities on women in India.
Fardina is very fond of music, travelling, cooking and reading books. Study regularly, have faith on oneself, ‘no subject become anew if studied systematically and regularly’, Fardina said, when she was asked about the story of her great success.
She encouraged the aspiring candidates to dream of the service as an opportunity to take up a dynamic career that empowers them to touch lives, and to change them. “Practice writing time bound answers while preparing for the mains, prepare in true spirit and success is just across the road”, are her tips to aspiring candidates.
Following the footsteps of Mrs Yasmin Ahmad, who holds the distinction of being the first Muslim IAS officer of India belonging to the 1974 batch cadre (TN) and after a distinguished service of over 32 years retired recently, many have fulfilled their dreams. This time Fardina’s remarkable achievement made her a youth icon and many believe that budding youth of India will follow her like the youth had done in the seventies.
AKSHAT JAIN