Rourkela: Ishwar Kumar Kandoo, by his own admission, had always dreamed of cracking the civil services exam - but also knew that it was going to be a tough task.

The junior manager at Rourkela Steel Plant's instrumentation department was at work when he discovered that he had qualified for the Union Public Service Commission with a rank of 187. For the 27-year-old, it was the end of a journey that has seen him leave his home in Lucknow for studies before he finally landed up in Rourkela.

"It is like a dream come true for me. God has been very kind to me," said Kandoo.

"My father runs a paan (betel leaf) shop in Lucknow and my mother is a homemaker. I have two younger sisters and a brother, who works as a business development manager with Walmart," he said, adding that, being the eldest child, life has not always been rosy for him.

Kandoo said his father never compromised with his studies and was ready to go to any extent to provide his children with the right kind of education. The older of the two sisters is married while the younger one is still studying. His parents were extremely happy when he broke the news to them, he said. "My mother was in tears."

"I knew I had to make it big and books were the only way out for me since I was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth," he said.

Kandoo is a graduate in electronics and instrumentation engineering from the Krishna Institute of Engineering and Technology, Ghaziabad. "During my days as an engineering student, I realised that learning English and speaking the language properly was important," he said.

A sports lover, Kandoo said four to five hours of study daily was enough to be successful. "Sports always gives me energy to concentrate."

"I never missed anything and kept up all my activities during my preparations."

He opted for history as the lone optional in the mains. "I opted for history, which fascinates me," he said.

He relied mainly on studying by himself. "For general studies, I was dependent on newspapers and would read two. Otherwise, I followed the standard books available in the market," he said.