When Dev Prabhakar Singh Tomar thinks about his childhood and his family’s past, he goes back to a village in the Chambal region of Madhya Pradesh’s Morena district, where his grandfather had become a ‘baaghi’ (rebel). Decades later, Tomar chose a very different path. After studying Electrical Engineering at IIT Ropar and working in the Netherlands, he left his job to prepare for the UPSC Civil Services Examination. After several setbacks, he secured All India Rank 629 in 2025. He is currently serving in the Ministry of Railways. Tomar’s remarkable journey took several years and multiple changes in direction.
“My story starts with my grandfather”
Describing his connection with Chambal in a JoshTalks video, Tomar said, “What comes to your mind when you hear the name Chambal? The sound of guns, police sirens, and screams? My story starts with my grandfather.” According to Tomar, his grandfather became a rebel around 75 years ago because of family problems and issues involving the government at the time. In the local language and social context, such people were referred to as ‘baaghi’, or rebels. He explained that while police records could describe such a person as a dacoit, the term ‘baaghi’ carried a different meaning in his region.“If we look at police records, such a person may also be called a dacoit. But in our region, we call them a rebel (baaghi),” he said. “The meaning of a rebel is that, because of a certain reason or problem, we raised our voice against it.” The family’s difficulties increased after his grandfather became a rebel. Tomar recalled that his father had told him there were times when the family did not even have enough food. His uncle also later became a rebel. Seeing the situation around him, Tomar’s father decided that he needed to take a different path.
Father left the village to study
His father left the village and went to Gwalior without telling his elders.
Tomar’s father wanted to study, get a job and move to the city. He told his father about his plans and was reportedly questioned about his decision to take up a job because, in their community, government or other salaried employment was not necessarily viewed as an attractive path. But he had made up his mind. He left the village and went to Gwalior without telling his father. There, he continued his education and eventually became a teacher.
From a rural school to IIT Ropar
Tomar initially studied under the MP Board for the first five years of school. In Class 6, he moved to a CBSE school. The transition was difficult. Coming from a rural background, he found the language and environment of the new school unfamiliar. Even when other students spoke Hindi, he sometimes struggled to understand the way they spoke. “I would say, ‘Mujhe nahi pata,’ and they would say, ‘Mujhe nahi aata hai,’” he recalled. The difference in language and environment also made it difficult for him to connect with other students.By Class 11, he had to begin thinking about his future. Many students around him were preparing for engineering entrance examinations. That was when Tomar first learned about the IITs. He decided to prepare for the IIT entrance examination, but his family’s financial situation meant that he could not go to Kota and join a large coaching institute. Instead, he prepared at home with his books. He appeared for the entrance examination alongside his Class 12 examinations and secured admission to IIT Ropar, where he studied Electrical Engineering.
From IIT to a job in the Netherlands
He got an opportunity with Philips.
His first year at IIT went well, with good grades and a strong GPA. By the third year, however, he noticed that several classmates had already secured internships and pre-placement offers. Companies were recruiting students, and some packages being offered at the time were in the range of Rs 23 lakh to Rs 25 lakh. Tomar was unable to secure an opportunity through campus recruitment and began applying for jobs off campus.After doing his own research, he got an opportunity with Philips. He travelled to the Netherlands, where the company’s headquarters was located near Amsterdam. He worked there and eventually received a pre-placement offer. After graduating, he returned to the Netherlands and continued working. But despite the good work environment, Tomar began thinking about what he wanted from his career. “I realised that the life I was living abroad, although the work was very good, did not really match my personality,” he said in the JoshTalks video.
“I decided to leave my job”
That was when the idea of becoming an IAS officer through the UPSC examination began taking shape. Tomar studied the UPSC syllabus and realised that preparing seriously while continuing with his job would be difficult. He eventually took what he described as a serious decision: he resigned from his job and returned home. “I took a very serious decision, because of which I received a lot of criticism from my family,” he said.His first attempt did not go as planned. He had prepared for a year but admitted that he had not developed a proper strategy. He collected information from different sources and appeared for the preliminary examination. When the result came, he had missed the cutoff by 12.5 marks. The setback affected him deeply. In his second attempt, his marks improved, but he again failed to clear the preliminary examination, this time missing the cutoff by 2.5 marks. “When you fail twice in a row, your family’s confidence in you also starts to decline. Your own confidence also starts to decline,” he said.
Changing his preparation strategy
After the second failure, Tomar went back to his books and examined his earlier attempts. He analysed the way he had attempted questions and found that he was making two or three avoidable mistakes. “I realised that I did not just have to think about studying, studying and studying. I had to think about clearing the examination,” he said. He cleared the prelims, followed by the mains, and reached the interview stage. His interview took place on May 9. He felt it had gone well and began waiting for the final result. The result was expected on May 23.On May 21, he invited relatives, friends and people from his village to his home. He remembers around 18 people being there. When the result PDF arrived, he searched for his name. He could not find it. Several people around him were asking whether he had become an IAS or IPS officer. But his name was not on the list. “I would have to start from zero again,” he recalled.
Another attempt, another setback
Tomar appeared for the 2023 preliminary examination. He described the paper as difficult, particularly the history section, but cleared it. He then cleared the mains and reached the interview stage again. However, he was unsuccessful again. By this time, he had also started working as a teacher in Delhi. His family encouraged him to continue preparing, pointing out that he was still young and could spend another two or three years preparing properly. Tomar decided to make another attempt while continuing with his job. He appeared for the preliminary examination while working, cleared it, and once again reached the interview stage. This time, he prepared more carefully for the interview.
“There was my name”
Tomar was subsequently selected as an Indian Railway Traffic Service (IRTS) officer.
The final result was expected on April 22. His wife was with him when the result finally arrived at around 1:30 pm. The PDF appeared on Telegram. Tomar searched for his name, but this time the result was different. “There was my name. I checked the full name carefully. Yes, it was Dev Prabhakar Singh Tomar,” he recalled. He then matched his roll number. He had secured All India Rank 629 in the UPSC Civil Services Examination. After confirming the result, he told his family, “Look, finally, your son has cleared the UPSC and secured Rank 629. He is now fully prepared to serve the country as a civil servant.” Tomar was subsequently selected as an Indian Railway Traffic Service (IRTS) officer and is currently serving in the Ministry of Railways.