Chandigarh: Overcoming challenges with sheer willpower and hard work has been the cornerstone of 25-year-old Ritasha Sobti’s life. Suffering since birth from cerebral palsy, a neurological disorder which impacts normal functioning and coordination of the body in multiple ways, Ritasha made sure that her spirit remained indomitable.
In a testament to her grit and perseverance, Ritasha cracked the Indian civil services examination, one of the toughest competitive tests in the country, held by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), in 2022. She secured the 920th ranking in the all-India general merit list, which was announced in June this year.
Ritasha, who hails from Haryana and holds a BTech degree from NIT in Kurukshetra, is now awaiting a decision on her medical status from the UPSC and is looking forward to joining her batchmates for training at Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA) in Mussoorie.
Ritasha’s father Rakesh Sobti told ThePrint, “The training began in July but Ritasha is waiting for a decision from the UPSC regarding the status of her medical condition.”
“Since there is a distinction between a cerebral palsy candidate suffering from multiple issues and one with only locomotor limitations, the ranking changes. Once that distinction is made, Ritasha will get a fresh ranking (depending on quota for the specially abled), after which she will join a particular civil service,” he explained.
Ritasha, however, is not used to the idea of wasting a single moment and has already cleared the civil services (preliminary) examination, 2023. If her waiting period gets extended, she will appear for the mains in September, her father said.
“Apart from the civil services, she has also cleared the bank probationary officer exam and has a job offer at the Food Corporation of India,” he added.
Taking pride in his daughter’s achievements, he told ThePrint that Ritasha was a brilliant student who always remained at the top of her class in school and in college.
She made clearing the civil services exam her unwavering aim when she was in school, he said.
“In the last year of her college studies, she decided to skip the job placements. She wanted to come home and study for the civil services exam. We supported her by shifting from our hometown of Kalka to Zirakpur (Punjab), which is closer to Chandigarh, for coaching classes,” he said. “She would study late into the night. Online coaching classes helped and she also took mock tests from coaching institutes in Chandigarh and Panchkula.”
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‘Took every problem as challenge’
Speaking about Ritasha’s birth, her father told ThePrint that his wife, a government school teacher, was headed for a normal delivery. “But everything went haywire that day.”
“The delivery was to take place at Kalka civil hospital but due to the negligence of the doctor on duty that day, it did not go as planned. By the time a senior doctor reached the hospital from Parwanoo (in Himachal Pradesh), the newborn had suffered cerebral damage,” he recalled.
As the years passed, the couple raised Ritasha in a manner that made her feel as confident as all of her schoolmates. “Ritasha’s spirit is unmatched. She took every problem as a challenge and decided to overcome it, come what may,” said the father.
“As she grew up, she tried to do everything on her own, despite her speech being impacted and the use of her upper and lower limbs limited. When she got admission in a BTech course in computers at NIT in Kurukshetra, she stayed in the hostel independently for four years,” he added.
The father said that Ritasha has also been a great influence on her younger brother. “She is extremely happy that her brother has been able to live his dream of being in the Indian Air Force. He is a flying officer now,” he said.
He added, “The brother and sister have always supported one another. Ritasha, of course, has been an inspiration, an ideal, for not only her brother but millions of youngsters out there. She says that ‘if I can do it, why can’t you?’”
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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