Beating The Odds: Visually Impaired Purana Sunthari Cracks UPSC & Secures 286th Rank, Tweets Mohd Kaif

Madurai(TN): Purana Sunthari (25) who is visually impaired woman from Tamil Nadu, has cracked the complex UPSC entrance examination and secured 286th all India rank in a feat that has drawn praise from many.

Former cricketer Mohammad Kaif was among those who shared her inspirational story on social media, writing: “25-year-old visually impaired Purana Sunthari from TN beat the odds and cracked the UPSC exam.”

25yr old visually impaired Purana Sunthari from TN beat the odds and cracked the UPSC exam. Since audio study material was hard to find, her parents and friends helped her in reading & converting books to audio so she could become an IAS officer. Never stop chasing your dreams. pic.twitter.com/3icQ6nPJPo

— Mohammad Kaif (@MohammadKaif) August 12, 2020

A resident of Madurai, Sunthari managed to secure the 286th rank in her fourth attempt. “My parents have supported me a lot. I would like to dedicate my success to them,” she was quoted as saying by news agency ANI, adding that it took five years of hard work to crack the UPSC exam. “This was my fourth attempt, I devoted five years to this exam,” she said.

The New Indian Express quoted Sunthari as saying, “I started dreaming of becoming an IAS officer when I was in Class XI. I want to serve in areas such as Education, Health and Women Empowerment.”

She attributed her success in the Civil Services 2019 exam to her parents, who read books for her day and night, and to friends who went out of their ways to help her find study material and converted it to audio format.