“I want to be a Government”

“I want to be a Government” He replied,

The entire classroom of standard 2nd started laughing over his answer when teacher asked him “what you want to be in your life?”

The 6 year old boy got really angry with the laughing kids. This is real incident of 2nd standard class of a municipality school located at very small village place called 'Nitane', which had a population of 1500 that time in the Nashik district of Maharashtra, It was the only school in the village, with only 4 class rooms in total , where villagers used to keep cattle post school hours .

No doubt his answer was quite funny but there was a reason behind this answer. This kid was born in a poor farmer's family. One day while looking at ST bus , He asked his mother “Who is the owner of such large bus..? Mother replied - "Government".

After few days, Pointing a finger at a Plane in the sky, He asked ,Who owns that plane? The innocent illiterate mother again replied - "The Government" and this left huge impact on his little brain. He was determined to become the government. This motivated him to study with true determination and work hard towards it, against all odds.

In fact after few years ,due to a drought in his village when he was in standard 7th , he had to work as a labourer for the wages of Rs 15 for per week. He set goal for himself that he will become part of government any how.

In SSC days despite very adverse condition he secured “2nd position” in the center.

Then with lots of hopes He opted for science stream for XI but the situation got worse as there was no college nearby. He got admitted to the boarding at Satane, which was located 23 kms away from his house. In highly complicated situation he paid fees in the form of 3.5 sacks of wheat.

In 12th, He studied extremely hard and succeed to score 85% but even then it seemed that God wanted to test him even further . The only available medical college for 8 district that time was BJ medical college of Pune and he lost admission to that college just by 1 Percent.

In such adverse circumstances, his father finally got frustrated and with heavy heart he said, 'farming' is the only option left and told him to give up his education. With a heavy heart he accepted this “U” turn of life as challenge and became Full-time farmer.

 Every single drop of his sweat on the field constantly reminded him about his main goal in life and it did not let him sleep at night . Some times he used to hear the sound of that 2nd standard classroom laughing at him.

One day he had some dispute with father while he was working in the field and once again his anger turned into determination , he left the farm at that moment saying that he will not take any kind of help from his father further.

He saw advertisement of Osmania Open University in news paper and decided to complete his graduation from there with distance learning program for B.A. He borrowed Rs 350 from his mother and without wasting time he obtained a admission for B.A. The stubborn boy passed all 21 written exams and graduated in one year.

He started taking efforts towards his goal. He further gathered every details of various competition examinations. He spent days and nights and studied really hard and passed the first MPSC exam for The post of PSI by securing rank 13 in Maharashtra. In addition, He also appeared for the "Combined Defense Services Exam" (CDS) and He secured “The second highest number in India" but the this fellow did not stop and started preparing for examination for the post of Deputy superintendent of police without breaking the bar.

As part of preparation He visited Ex- teachers, friends, some acquaintances, some libraries just to collect /borrow required old/used books and other necessary study material for this exam, He merely spent Rs 70 on book purchase for this exam.

With No special training , No coaching classes, No guidance, No help, No Mentor support this boy continued to study without giving up in such a dire situation and secured “2nd position“ amongst thousands of examinee from Maharashtra.

“ Try Try but Don’t Cry “ At the age of 22, this young man became the “Deputy Superintendent of Police.

He put his heart and soul for his duty but it did not refrain him from studying . Further he also completed his another course in Psychology. As a matter of fact he worked even 18 hours a day ,everyday for one of the extremely sensitive case of 1993 bombings.
While interrogating a terrorist called Faki Ali ; Entire department tried everything to break him, but he refused to open his mouth. Then this man just calmly went to him and said if he didn’t start talking, they will be going to bring his entire family to the station to watch him suffer & with this brilliant move , His behaviour shifted and within 10 minutes he had given the location of 30,000 rounds of AK56 bullets, hand grenades and guns. ( This is how his studies in Psychology helped him.)
It was biggest achievement against terrorism and It was one of the largest recovery in India .

Later on he dealt with many of the major crimes and cases intelligently and bravely. His speciality was ,he always focused on reducing crime rate with his brilliant plan of action and in fact he was extremely successful to reduce the crime rate significantly in each of his posting ; He ensured that every staff under him must understand value of team work and to be responsible and disciplined .The government honored him with various accolades for this but he always gave his credit to the junior staff. He always believed in giving credit to Team members and taking ownership of Blames.

In addition to cultivating a persistent learning attitude, he became an "IPS".

Not only that this extraordinary man also got selected for special commando training at United States of America ,in fact he won Gold medal in "Statergic Planning" topic. He was honored by the “Federal Law Entrance of United States” which was another proud moment for Indians.

The best part was; He went to US with his mother and she was very worried with the thought that “How her son will manage in US ?” as he never dealt with English language and further her son was invited to speak at "United Nations" and after 90 min speech of this small town man from Maharashtra , he got back to back round of applause in the hall of United Nations general assembly.

This is a story of his journey from Farmer to IPS.

This is Story of his real life battle.

This is story of IPS & IGP Pratap Dighavkar.

He literally Slapped to all of them with his inspiring struggle and success.

This slap was for all the students who laughed over him in that classroom of standard 2nd.

This slap was for all the people who made fun of his dreams when he was farmer.

This slap is for those who gives up in tough situations.

"Success is the Best Revenge" isn’t it ?

Further , He helped to the same old school of his village where he studied. He collected 25 Lacs for them and for needy student who want to appear for MPSC/UPSC .He started special coaching centre in the same school for MPSC/UPSC students .( Currently more than 300 students taking benefit of this facility)

He took initiative for scheme of 10000 flats only for police constables and for their widows at Panvel, Maharashtra. He approached Government of India , followed the process , kept constant track, Acquired land of 120 Acres, took all the necessary efforts so that they can get their own dream house at a subsidised rate.

He did not forget that he was farmer. He has planted and maintained over 2 lacs trees. Ministry of Forest took a note of this spectacular work and Honoured him with highest grade award of this segment.

His message for us is "Dream big , Be Confident and Don't Stop."

His struggle will inspire us forever .

“क्यू मरते है सनम के लिये

मरना है तो मरो वतन के लिये

जिंदगी मे करो कुछ ऐसा काम

तिरंगा नीचे आये तुम्हारे कफन के लिये..”

-Meera Pathare


{Bloggers Note: Here SSC means 10th Standard  }