His latest attempt ended at the Prelims stage, marking the first time he had failed to qualify for Mains. A 26-year-old UPSC aspirant has opened up about the emotional toll of spending years preparing for the civil services examination, only to eventually sell his books and study material to a scrap dealer for just Rs 464. After four attempts, including three consecutive Mains appearances in 2023, 2024 and 2025, the aspirant decided to walk away from the exam.
For him, these were more than study materials. They represented years of early-morning study sessions, repeated attempts, self-doubt and the determination to keep trying. Every book was a reminder of the person he had become during his UPSC journey. “Restart after restart. Hope, grit, that stubborn fighter spirit that kept saying one more try. But when the last book finally went on the pile, all of that, the years, the version of myself I built and rebuilt for this, got measured in kilograms,” he wrote.
