‘I will try again’: Kajal Raju, born without a forearm, secures IAS rank in fourth attempt

Kasaragod: In 2022, during her first interview with the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), the panel posed a blunt question to Kajal Raju: How hard will it be if you don't clear the test?

For Kajal, born without her right forearm due to a rare congenital condition called phocomelia syndrome, it was perhaps the easiest question of the interview. "I will try again," she replied.

That year, she secured 910th rank and was selected for the Indian Railway Management Service. But that was not her destination. Three years and three more attempts later, she has kept that promise. Kajal, 27, from Nileshwar in Kasaragod district, has secured 167th rank in the Civil Services Examination, placing her within reach of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS).

The news reached her far from home. Kajal was in Jammu as part of her training in the Indian Railway Services, travelling by bus to visit military sites, when a friend broke the news. Her own phone connection had failed in the region. "My SIM was not working in Jammu,” she said over WhatsApp call late in the night.

Her journey to the IAS had been anything but straightforward. After getting through the Indian Railway Management Service in the first attempt, she was attached to the Eastern Railway in Kolkata. She was supposed to complete the training and be posted as an assistant operations manager in August.

But the goal she had carried since childhood was elsewhere. "When I was a little schoolgirl, I wanted to become the district collector," Kajal had said earlier. "At first it was just a childhood fascination.”

She appeared again for the exam in 2023, but her rank slipped to 956. In 2024, she failed to clear the preliminary examination. "Every year, I used to prepare," she said. "This year, the preparation was not easy because of my 9 am to 5 pm classes and training." But the years of effort paid off this time.

Kajal grew up in Pallikkara near Nileshwar. Her mother, Sheeba M, is a teacher at Divine Providence School, while her father, Raju P, once an expatriate, now tends rubber and other crops.

She studied at Divine Providence CBSE School, barely a ten-minute walk from her home. Kajal excelled in academics early on, securing A grade in all subjects in Class 10. She then joined Government Higher Secondary School, Hosdurg, about 10 km away, choosing Humanities for Plus Two because she had already set her sights on the civil services. She completed the course with 99 per cent marks.

School life, however, was not confined to textbooks. Kajal trained in classical music, painted, and even sang in a small band that performed film songs at local ganamela concerts. "That was my school life," she once recalled with a smile. She still sings.

Her academic path then took her to Indian Institute of Technology Madras, where she pursued an integrated MA in Development Studies at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences. It was here, surrounded by an ecosystem of civil service aspirants, that her childhood ambition began to take a more definite shape.

After completing the course in June 2021, she moved to Thiruvananthapuram and immersed herself in preparation. She did not rest. Her interviews have often taken unexpected turns. In 2022, the panel picked up Theyyam.

They asked her whether she performed Theyyam. Coming from Nileshwar, the heartland of the ritual performance tradition, she explained that it is rarely performed by women.

This year's interview ranged wider: the Israel-Palestine conflict, the Indian Railways, and shortcomings in India's research sector. The panel also discussed her master's dissertation, which examined marital rape. One of them asked whether criminalising marital rape would trigger the collapse of marriage as an institution. "I took five to six minutes to respond. I told them that marriage is built on respect and dignity. If there is marital rape, it has already collapsed."

The interviewers were also curious about her experience in the railway service and her travels during training. Kajal has already fallen in love with the northeast and its food. "Especially, fish tenga from Assam."

For now, Kajal will return from Jammu and continue her training in Lucknow. Once the formalities are completed, she expects to move to the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration in Mussoorie, the academy where India's civil servants begin their journey. It has been a long road from the small town of Nileshwar. But she would not have taken any other road.