Ranchi: Like many IITians, he left engineering to become an IAS officer. But now, unlike most of them, senior bureaucrat K.K. Khandelwal is quitting his top-ranking job to coach IIT aspirants.

Life has taken a turn for Khandelwal, Jharkhand additional chief secretary in charge of department of personnel and administrative reforms who also looks after commercial taxes department. He's opted for voluntary retirement to teach IIT aspirants. The government has agreed to release him on December 31, 2018.

Alumnus of IIT-Kharagpur in the 1980s, Khandelwal is looking forward to 2019. "I can devote my entire time to coach IIT aspirants then," Khandelwal, who would have four years of service left, told this reporter at his official residence on Kanke Road in Ranchi on Tuesday, Teachers' Day eve.

Asked why he was quitting at the prime of his bureaucratic career when most others in his place would be eyeing the chief secretary's post, the 1988 batch IAS said, "But you know, I always wanted to teach bright kids. Yes, that (becoming chief secretary later) was certainly a possibly. But I think I will find tutoring students for IITs more satisfying."

Khandelwal always had a yen for teaching students for what is considered to be the ultimate brainy test in India - the IIT JEE. "It's all about having conceptual clarity and putting focus on the fundamentals," he said, adding his experience with his own sons taught him this rule of teaching.

"Some years ago, I'd put my elder son Ankur at coaching institutes in Ranchi and Kota, Rajasthan, so that he could crack the JEE but I was not satisfied with his progress," Khandelwal said. "So despite the demands of my job, I started teaching him maths and physics and sought help of another teacher for chemistry. Ankur got an all-India ranking (AIR) of 570 in 2011."

Khandelwal went on to teach his younger son Anupam and nephew Aniket the same way and they ended up getting AIR 9 and 56, respectively, in 2013.

"Cut-off for general candidates that year was 152 out of 360 and Anupam got 168 out of 180 in second paper itself. It was hugely satisfying," he said.

The next year, Adhunik Industries that had invested in Jharkhand asked him to coach 20 bright students as a part of its CSR and he agreed. The company withdrew later.

But the teaching bug had well and truly bitten him. Khandelwal tutored maths and physics to six students who all got into IITs with comfortable rankings last year, he said.

"I now have a very competent teacher for chemistry while I will teach maths and physics. I hope to send many more students to IITs," he said.

His set-up would be different from many other IIT coaching centres, he said. "Conceptual clarity is everything."