She did not allow herself any other option. “If I do a job, it has to be as a civil servant. Nothing less than an IAS officer, I told herself when I was still in school,” recalls Muskan Jindal, a small-town girl from Himachal Pradesh who achieved the 87th rank in the UPSC exam. “I was sure I will crack UPSC. That it’s going to happen as early as at the age of 22 and in my first attempt—this only god knew. I just followed my childhood dream.”