Hyderabad: Mahesh Bhagwat recalled: “That letter changed my world.
Mahesh Muralidhar Bhagwat, a 1995 batch officer born in Maharashtra, is currently the additional Director General (Law and Order), and is one of the mentors who provide training for IAS, IPS and IFS aspirants during the personality testing phase.
“I started working at Tata Motors when I received a letter, considering my father’s family challenges after retirement,” Bagwatt said.
He added: “That letter changed my world and rekindled the passion I had once buried. The mentor in history played a key role. His name is KK Shah, which I will never forget.
“I got that letter while working at Tata Motors. His words nudged me again. He recounted how I was in mastering the subject and training others. He called me the ‘first ranking’ and since then, I never looked back.”
Bhagwat has held Zoom courses for aspiring people with other mentors from Maharashtra, Punjab, Delhi and Madhya Pradesh. “It’s all word of mouth,” he said. “The people we’ve trained to spread the word, and new aspirants reach out to us. That’s the continuation of the loop, driven by goodwill. I also sent whatsapp audio messages to the aspirants separately.”
Despite only one holiday per week, Bhagwat will be committed to trainees on Sunday. “I use holiday time to send notes and audio messages to trainees to assist trainees,” he said. “For the past 10 years, once UPSC announced its schedule, my schedule was set as well. From December to April, along with my formal responsibilities, mentoring was my idea. I’m a little free now and will take some time to rest.”
When asked how he gave his time for himself, Bagwat replied: “My wife, IFS official Sunitha Bhagwat, and her father died a lot in January. Still, their support and the success of my trainees kept me going; it brought me happiness.”
Bhagwat shared details about the trainees, among the top rankings, is Harshita Goyal of Baroda, who won an impressive No. 2 in all India. Among the top ten are Aakash Garg from Delhi (ranked 5) and Aayushi Bansal from Madhya Pradesh (ranked 7). Other notable achievements include Madhav Agarwal (No. 16), Soumya Mishra (No. 18), Trilok Singh (No. 20) and Divyank Gupta (No. 21).
An inspiring story is the story of Shivansh Jagade, who won 26 in his first attempt at the age of 22. “He is a native of Pune,” Bagwatt said. Other options include Dr Iram Chaudhary of Jamu and Kashmir (40th), Mudita Bansal (44th level), Ravula Jaisimha Reddy of Telangana (46th ranking) and Nandana GP of Kerala (47th ranking). He said proudly: “The other nine aspiring people also made the top 100.”
