JORHAT, Dec 28 - Where there is a will, there is a way. This adage very aptly fits into Masi Topno�s case, a post-graduate of the Cotton University, who belongs to a tea workers� family of Sycotta Tea Estate of Mariani under Titabar civil sub-division of Jorhat district.
Overcoming all odds in life, Topno succeeded in securing a berth (98th position) among the 135 canditates selected for Assam Civil Services.
The results of the Assam Public Service Commission-conducted Combined Competive Examinations (2018) for posts under several categories were declared on Thursday.
Topno, the only son of Jayanti Topno, a permanent garden worker (plucker) and Basanta Topno, a daily wage warner outside the tea estate who expired last year, told The Assam Tribune that he received the best Christmas gift of his life so far on X-mas eve after he came to know that his name was in the ACS category list.
�I have no words to express my joy. My parents had toiled very hard to provide me education. Me and my family had to go through a lot of difficulties. Finally, I made it to the Assam Civil Services,� Topno observed.
He said that despite facing a number of hurdles in completing his education, he could move on ahead with his steadfast determination and hard work and immense support from his mother. Topno said his mother tried her best to arrange money not only from her regular earnings, but by finding out other sources of income to keep the academic journey of her son moving.
Topno said that his mother reared pigs and goats to generate additional income and at times had taken loans by mortgaging their plot of land in order to support him.
Moreover, his mother had to work in nearby tea gardens for about four years when Sycotta, a tea estate of Assam Tea Corporation Limited, remained closed after the State-owned PSU turned bankrupt.
�I gave tutions to school students while pursuing my graduation programme in Jagannath Barooah College in Jorhat to support myself,� Topno said.
He also said several people extended a helping hand in different stages of his academic life. The Political Science Master�s degree-holder stated that during his schooling (staying in hostel) at St Francis of Assisi, Borholla (Titabar) he got some relief from the school authorities.
After completing his Higher Secondary level from St Xaviers HS School, Duliajan, while pursuing his degree in JB College, his hostel fees were waived by a college teacher (Subashish Sharma) who was the hostel incharge, Topno said.
He further said that a Father of a church in Mariani earlier, and now in Golaghat district, Caesar Henry, too had helped him in many ways and one of it was by arranging free coaching for UPSC Civil Services Examinations, in which he appeared two years ago.
Another interesting aspect of Topno�s life is that since the past few years he has been working as a faculty member in Borthakur IAS Academy�s Jorhat branch and 10 candidates of the coacing centre, who too have made it into the ACS category list, were his students. He disclosed that one anong them has got position in the list, ahead of him.
His mother said she was very happy that the hardships she faced finally bore fruit.
