When an IFS officer lied about his father's farming background during his IIT days

Himanshu Tyagi, an IITian who later joined Indian Forest Service, shared an incident during his IIT days. Tyagi is very active on social media plaform X, often sharing tips on self-improvement and exams. He recently recounted an incident from his second year at IIT during an internship and shared a valuable lesson he learned from this experience.

On his first day of internship, Tyagi faced a question from his manager: "What does your father do?" Feeling uncertain about revealing his father's occupation as a farmer, Tyagi opted to fabricate and claimed his father was an engineer—an action he later reflected upon as immature. Despite making several such errors, Tyagi acknowledged that each mistake taught him important lessons about life.

Reflecting on his experiences, Tyagi outlined six crucial life lessons in a thread:

1. Authenticity is key. Embrace your reality and continue to grow without resorting to falsehoods.
2. Question customs rather than blindly adhering to them. Base your decisions on personal understanding and experiences.
3. Remain flexible and adaptable to changing circumstances instead of being rigid.
4. Understand that nothing in life is permanent, whether it's relationships or possessions. Keep moving forward.
5. Recognize that you alone bear the consequences of your actions, as others may comment but ultimately move on with their lives.
6. Uphold your honor through your actions and behavior, rather than mere words.

Many netizens praised Mr Tyagi for honestly admitting that he lied about his father's profession. "Our real life incidents and the lessons learnt from it ...make us a more mature and better person and we can make others," said an user.

Another person said that if he were at his place, he "would have proudly mentioned that my father is a farmer. This shows how long, I have come to reach here, it would have shown my hard work and resilience . Moreover there's nothing wrong in mentioning such a noble profession."



Another netizen said: "I am not IIT, I always used to say my parents are farmer when ever asked by someone., till my death will say.. it's not bad job they are earning money on the right path"

Tyagi had graduated in chemical engineering from IIT Roorkee in 2016 and later worked as an assistant manager in Indian Oil for nearly six years. He had also guided students in UPSC coaching as guest faculty.