Her husband is an engineer, and so is her father. Her brother chose to be a technocrat at Infosys, but Pune girl Shama Dhok-Pawar always wanted to be a bureaucrat and an able administrator.

She pursued her dream through hard work and has realised it now.

Wife of a chemical engineer with Bharati Del Monte India, daughter of an engineer with Kirloskar Oil Engines and sister of an Infosys technocrat, Shama is a naib tehsildar. Not happy with the post, she took another crack at the Maharashtra Public Service Commission (MPSC) exam. The results of the exam to select civil service candidates in the state were announced on Monday and Shama is first on the merit list.

Shama can now be deputy collector.

Nilesh Kshirsagar of Pune is fourth on the merit list and is first among boys, as the second and third ranks have also been bagged by girls.

Shama started preparing for the exam in 2002 immediately after getting a BSc degree in horticulture from the Agriculture College, Pune. She appeared for the 2003 MPSC exams and cleared it. As her rank was low, she got a posting as naib tehsildar in Phaltan, which she has been holding so far. “I was not satisfied with the earlier rank and was trying hard to improve it,” she said.

Shama had also taken an attempt at the UPSC civil service exams, but couldn’t reach the final stage. “However, the UPSC preparations helped me in the MPSC as the changed pattern of the exams is on the lines of the UPSC exam,” she said. “My work experience as a naib tehsildar helped me during the interview. All the questions were about public administration,” she said. Asked why she had chosen to become an administrator when her family members are technocrats, she said it was her father who first told her to become an administrative officer. It became her dream. “However, there was no pressure on me.”

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