NELLORE: It was an occasion most school students from the local zilla parishad and municipal schools did not want to miss considering the fact that they would be having a special interaction with district Collector R. Mutyala Raju, who brought laurels to Andhra Pradesh by standing first in the 2007 civil services examination.
Accompanied by their parents, hundreds of students attended the interaction held at the Ravindranath Tagore auditorium here on Sunday. The aspirants came prepared with their questions on topics like ‘success in studies and planning for careers right from school and intermediate levels’.
The two-hour programme turned to be a lively and invigorating experience for the budding enthusiasts who got insights into what would it take to set the goal, take the aim, spare no effort, survive anxieties and finally hit the target in the top competitive examinations.
It also gave them an opportunity to have a glimpse into the exceptional journey of an underperforming schoolboy from a coastal, island village named Chinagollapalem, 50 km from Gudivada in Krishna district, becoming a confident engineer who went on to top the civils’ exam eventually.
“When in school, I asked my mother once how to study hard when I cannot understand lessons like English. She advised me to write entire chapters again and again. I did it. Though I did not do greatly in 10th class examinations but this writing habit became my biggest asset afterwards. I got first rank in diploma and also in the Common Entrance Test and this success did not stop there,” said Mr. Mutyala Raju.
Pointing out that the strongest of motivations was needed to win big in life, Mr. Raju said right intentions should propel these motivations to reach the goal.
Saying their village was cut off from the nearby towns of Gudivada and Bhimavaram, Mr. Raju recalled they could not save his sister who died young due to lack of immediate medical help. He wished he had enough influence to get a bridge to connect his village and he came to know it could be possible if he became an IAS officer.
In the first attempt, Mr. Raju could not succeed in the civils but got into IPS in the second. He knew that to get Andhra Pradesh cadre, he must top it. It happened in the third attempt. Soon, he was able to get two bridges for his village.
Mr. Raju told the future aspirants not to lose heart and give up when their goal was not fulfilled in the initial attempts despite their best efforts. “If the hardest efforts meet with a series of failures initially, it means that something bigger is in waiting,” he said.
