“I gave it everything I had": After 8 years of UPSC struggle, Bareilly woman faces ₹18,000 reality

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Sleepless nights, 15-hour study sessions, and coaching classes define their routine. In the lanes of Mukherjee Nagar, one can see innumerable dreams coming alive.The fond hopes stem from a strong belief that persistence will eventually bend reality.

The web series “Aspirants,” built on a similar narrative, has strikingly captured this reality. We aspire to succeed, and we prepare hard for it—a rosy picture that we often dream of. But what about failure?

As the saying goes, preparing for success is essential, but not knowing how to deal with failure can be disastrous. Aspirants are often conditioned in a similar way. We imagine ourselves as Abhilash from Aspirants, but what if our fate resembles Guri instead?

A similar story making the rounds on the internet has now caught widespread attention. For eight long years, a woman from Bareilly held on to the same belief. Coaching notes, test series, and revisions stretching late into the night became her everyday reality.

But life, as she reveals in a deeply personal video, did not sign off on that script.When UPSC dreams didn’t materialise, reality stepped in without warningIn her candid account, she does not dramatise failure, nor does she romanticise struggle. She simply lays it bare.

Eight years. Multiple attempts at the Union Public Service Commission examination. Five attempts at state civil services.

Each cycle bringing hope, each result bringing recalibration. And then, finally, the moment many aspirants dread but few prepare for, the end of attempts, with no final selection in hand.“I gave it everything I had,” she shares in the video, her voice carrying the fatigue of years spent between expectation and uncertainty.

Like thousands across India’s exam ecosystem, she was left standing at a crossroads that coaching brochures rarely illustrate: What comes after the dream doesn’t arrive?Meeting failure and pressing the "restart button"With limited options and no clear fallback plan mapped out over years of preparation, she made a decision that is becoming increasingly common among former aspirants: She moved to Gurugram.The job she secured was entry-level in the corporate sector.

The salary: ₹18,000 per month. On paper, it is a beginning. In practice, in one of India’s most expensive urban economies, it is a balancing act.

Her own words cut through any abstraction: “Those who know how expensive this city is… nothing much happens at ₹18,000. It’s like ₹600 a day, and more than that goes into metro or accommodation.”

It is a calculation that resonates instantly with anyone who has navigated the city’s rent sheets, metro cards, and rising daily costs. The arithmetic of survival, she suggests, leaves little room for comfort, only continuity.The harsh math of big cities and small salariesGurugram, with its glass towers and corporate ambition, has long represented opportunity.

But for many early-career professionals, especially those restarting after years of exam preparation, it also represents a sharp financial adjustment.Rent eats into salaries. Commutes eat into time.

And between the two, aspirations often get trapped. Her story has struck a chord precisely because it removes any illusion of sudden transition. The reality is it won’t be a dramatic leap from UPSC preparation to corporate success, but usually a slow, sometimes