Rajesh with his father at their Namkum home. Picture by Hardeep Singh

Ranchi, May 13: He almost became an aerospace engineer, but Rajesh Sukumar Toppo is now faced with the dilemma of either joining the Indian Administrative Service or the elite foreign corps.

Toppo, 27, has topped the Scheduled Tribes charts in the 2004 civil service examinations, the result for which was announced by UPSC yesterday. He has ranked 127 in the general category.

Gambling with career options has yielded him rich dividends. After passing out of St Xavier?s School, Ranchi, he joined the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, in 1996 for a course in aerospace engineering. Then, a year before completing his course there, he left it all and changed course to take up history at St Xavier?s College, Ranchi. In his final year of post-graduation, Toppo took his first attempt at the IAS. He managed to clear it and was offered a Class I job in the defence counts service.

The self-acknowledged ?maverick?, however, had other ideas. A bibliophile to the core, Toppo took another couple of attempts at the IAS. He was third-time lucky, bringing an end to his days of distress and desperation, where he often had to hear snide remarks that he was a ?loser?.

In his interview, the Ranchi lad faced a board headed by former foreign secretary Chokila Iyer, who insisted on his joining the IFS. ?Ma?am (Chokila) was impressed with my views on world politics and insisted that I join the IFS. Though I initially opted for the IAS, I am suffering from a bout of indecision now,? he says. Toppo has just received a message from the UPSC headquarters that Iyer would like to talk to him about the stream he might join.

Toppo, who takes lessons from Robert Schellur?s Tough Times Do Not Last, But Tough People Do, does not plan to sit on his laurels. ?Success is sweet but do not expect a maverick like me to bank on it. I plan to get a postgraduate degree in business administration or political science from the London School of Economics. I have already cleared the first few hurdles for the Ford Scholarship that finances such studies. I have to appear for an interview soon. If I get through, I will take two years? study leave and enlighten myself further.?

His father Bijla Toppo, a former HEC employee, is delighted. ?I always knew Babu (Rajesh?s nick name) will make it. He worked hard for it,? he says, sitting in their home in Namkum.

The senior Toppo is the proud father of four daughters as well, three of whom are doctors and the other a teacher. ?I was very particular about their studies. I ensured that my children remained focused on academics,? he said.