While millions of Indians want to get into the Union civil services, very few decide to quit it once they achieve their dream. So, why did Ravi Kapoor, a former officer of the Indian Revenue Service (IRS) of the 2011 batch, decide to formally quit a year ago?   

“I wasn't interested in the subject matter, i.e. taxation. Guided by service rules, it's an accounting and number-based type of work that doesn't involve too much creativity. Working in the IRS also vests you with a lot of power. I was neither interested in the subject matter nor the pursuit of power. The work was suffocating my curiosity and my energy. My heart was just not in it. That is the truth,” Ravi shares with The Better India. 

During his service, however, Ravi found an avenue that would allow him to quit—mentoring UPSC (Union Public Service Commission) aspirants. Since 2020, Ravi has been running a Free Online Mentorship Programme (FMP) for thousands of aspirants, and is currently the Chief Mentor of UPSC at Testbook, an online exam preparation platform. 

Taking upon his 10 years of bureaucratic experience and master’s degree in clinical psychology, Ravi's approach to UPSC mentorship has always been geared towards mental fitness and motivation.

And the results of his FMP have been promising. Last year, 7 of his students cleared the UPSC exam. This year they’re expecting around 20 students to clear the exam. More importantly, the FMP has given UPSC aspirants a choice, which is what stands out the most about it.

Suffice it to say that an entire cottage industry has been built on UPSC coaching. Walk on the streets of Mukherjee Nagar in New Delhi and every second building there is running a UPSC coaching centre. As Ravi notes, “I started this to eliminate the requirement for [paid] coaching. In practice, this didn't happen. Aspirants wanted to consume my content but that did not stop them from joining coaching institutes. They desire a classroom environment.” 

What the FMP did was solve the problem of lack of guidance through this gruelling examination process. “Aspirants don’t understand what they’re paying for when they join a coaching institute. They're actually paying these institutes to guide them through a process so that they don't have to guide and plan [the course] themselves. That's what we have been able to do,” he says. 

As Ravi explains, “The students are given the choice of whether they want to attend coaching institutes or not. That choice did not really exist earlier. Much of the mentorship and guidance is in courses like our FMP  just like the content is also available everywhere. If you use them both smartly, you can bypass the requirement of coaching. Ultimately, the choice has to be with the consumer (aspirant).”

Ravi’s decision to quit a desirable occupation to mentor UPSC aspirants and challenge the status quo established by the coaching institutes comes from facing the drawbacks of the conventional school education system himself. 

Born into a modest middle-class family in West Delhi, Ravi grew up with his share of struggles. During his teens, Ravi was an overweight boy with no noteworthy academic achievements. He suffered bullying and isolation, which led to growing introversion and was a severe blow to his self-esteem. Only later did he understand that he had Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), the diagnosis of which helped........

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