Gurdaspur girl breaks glass ceiling
Ravi Dhaliwal
Gurdaspur, October 18
These days Rupinder Kaur, a young law graduate, is riding high on cloud nine. She has cleared both the examination and interview for the post of Enforcement Officer-Accounts Officer at Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), the exam of which was conducted by the UPSC.
The rule is that from a small town like Gurdaspur not many women aspirants clear the civil services examination. Rupinder Kaur, however, is an exception. The young woman has indeed broken the glass ceiling and now it is up to others to emulate her.
She has become the toast of the town and wherever one goes the discussion invariably veers around her. She has also taken the IAS main exam and is awaiting her results, which are slated to be in the public domain by the end of November.
Hailing from an upper middle-class background, she says, “If you have a dream, do not just sit there. Gather the courage to believe that you can succeed.”
There were butterflies in her stomach the day she reached Delhi for her interview in the UPSC office. When she was waiting for her turn she thought of quitting, such was the stress on her mind. Nerves had got the better of her and she was virtually trembling. However, her brother Harmanjit Singh, a software developer who was accompanying her, gave her a 30-minute long pep-talk.
She was told that it was now or never and that she had it in her to make the cut. She did well in the interview as a majority of questions touched her favourite subject — law. Her joy knew no bounds when she was told that she had cracked it. She is now awaiting her posting orders.
That was some brotherly love. However, her source of inspiration and encouragement remains her father Jatinder Singh.
Rupinder loves reading and is an avid fan of Rhonda Byrne’s ‘The Secret.’ She also wants to read Ayn Rand’s ‘The Fountainhead’ “because so many people have told me to read that classic for it will make her a more determined human being than ever before.”
She did her schooling and later studied law in the GNDU Regional Campus in Gurdaspur. She used to study for at least 10 hours a day, a Herculean task in any way. “That was the bare minimum. There were days when I slept for just two hours,” she says.
She has some words of advice for girls trying to follow her. “Whatever your passion may be, keep doing it. Do not waste time comparing yourself to others. Every flower blooms at a different place and pace. If you are good, people and success will come chasing you,” she quipped.
