Shahensha KS from Thrissur, Kerala has secured All India Rank 142 Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) Civil Services Examination (CSE) 2020. The son of a shopkeeper father and school teacher mother, he is also a professional athlete and trained with Sports Authority of India (SAI).
A professional sprinter, Shahensha has run several 100m, 200m and 400m races. As an athlete, Shahensha has won many victories over the years, but success in the civil services came after six unsuccessful attempts.
He has participated in 80-85 national level competitions and claims to have won more than 30 state medals and 14 national medals. The 30-year-old was also the captain of the athletics state team at the University of Calicut. He also won gold medals in the 400 meters race at the All India Inter-University Athletics Championships 2011 and 2013, the National Junior Athletics Championships and the All India School Athletics Championships.
In UPSC Civil Services, he cleared the preliminary exam in all his seven attempts and even appeared in the interview thrice. Belonging to the OBC category, he was allowed nine changes in the civil services.
“Failure is part of athletics, so I know how to persevere. Same formula applies to UPSC. There is no particular strategy to crack the exam. Only hard work and perseverance is the key,” says Shahansha. Huh.
While he kept trying in CSE, he cracked other government recruitment exams. Shahensha has already served as an Assistant Commander in the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and is currently the Divisional Security Commissioner in the Indian Railway Police Force Service (IPFS).
For UPSC, he has undergone training in several institutes in Delhi and other states. Since his training for CISF was in Hyderabad and IPFS was in Lucknow, he also stayed at locations in both the cities for some time.
In the initial stages of his preparation, he used to study for 10-12 hours a day, but due to his job, the number of hours gradually reduced to 4-6 hours a day. “Before going to office in the morning, I would wake up at 7 am and study for 2-3 hours and after returning from office around 7.30 pm, I would study again for 2-3 hours,” he says.
For the first six attempts Shahensha’s optional paper was Geography but for the last attempt he changed it to Political Science and Internal Relations.
Recalling his personality test phase, he says that it was an opinion based interview. “Since my name is Shahensha, he asked me what are the cases in which you are not Shahenshah. Since I am from Kerala, he also asked me about the politics of Kerala and the tourism sector of the state – what new initiatives I would like to take.”
“Since I also have a sports background, I was asked some questions on sports like India having 1.2 billion people, which is the country which is not doing well in sports. I was also asked about sports genetics and if I am selected as an IPS officer, what would I expect?” he says.
His love for sports was ignited in his childhood. His maternal grandfather was an army man and seeing him in the train, he fell in love with sports since childhood. “My love for sports started from childhood with my maternal grandfather being in the army. Also, I have worked in sports and uniform service, so I have always wanted to be an IPS officer,” Shahensha told News18.
He completed his graduation in Mechanical Engineering from Government Engineering College, Thrissur in 2013.
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