SRK in his famous dialogue from the movie Om Shanti Om says, “When you truly desire something with all your heart, the entire universe conspires to help you achieve it.” But Om Prakash Makhija needed another birth to make the impossible happen for him. Vijay Vardhan, how to wait for 35 government exams would also seem like a lifetime for anyone. But that life of striving gave him the opportunity for a life that most people only dream of.Government exams are an obsession in India. People give years and years to get a ‘sarkari naukri’, even if it means settling for a place far below their qualification.Vijay Vardhan’s story goes one step further. His is one that exceeds the combined perseverance of probably 10 such aspirants. He failed 35 government exams before clearing UPSC, not once but twice, to make up for all the failures he had and become an IAS officer.Hailing from Sirsa, Haryana, Vijay did his electronics engineering and then moved to Delhi for his IAS preparation, a move that would not be easy and would bring years of angst and heartbreak. Like most aspirants, he appeared for many government exams, the most famous ‘Plan B’ in UPSC circles. He wrote the Haryana Public Service Commission (HPSC), Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission (UPPSC), Staff Selection Commission Combined Graduate Level (SSC CGL) and Combined Defense Services (CDS) exams and cleared each of them.This would not only have broken anyone, it would have torn them apart. But Vijay’s arena was the stuff of legends, that of people like Dashrath Manjhi, who carved a path out of a mountain with just a hammer and chisel.Vijay’s first attempt at UPSC was in 2014 where he failed but didn’t give up. His breakthrough came in 2018 when he got AIR 104 and became an IPS officer. But as the famous saying goes, it didn’t come that far to get here. What were all those years of grinding and failing for if he didn’t try again with India’s top job, IAS? 2021 was the year Vijay reached rank 70 and avenged all the failures in all government exams by clearing all possible successes in a government exam in the country to become an IAS officer.What Vijay Vardhan did would crack even the most persistent, the hardest working because let’s face it, the UPSC journey can be quite lonely. You see your peers have higher educations, pass exams, go into professions, earn well, get married and have children. There are friends and family waiting for you to settle in. And psychologically, so many failures can put you in doubt that can be very difficult to get out of for years.A famous psychologist once said, “Give me a dozen healthy, well-formed babies, and my own specific world to raise them in, and I guarantee you to take any one at random and train it to become any kind of specialist I may choose: doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant chief, and yes, even beggar and thief, regardless of their ancestral tendencies, inclinations, race, vocations, inclinations, etc.” Really, if you’re looking for something in your life, and whatever it takes, no matter how long it takes, chances are you’ll get it.