Story of IAS Officer's pic with boyfriend leading to uncomfortable conversations

In the year 2016, Chandni Chandran, now an IAS officer, was among the thousands of aspirants who had appeared for the Civil Service Exam 2015 and were awaiting their results.

Ms. Chandran decided to take a walk with her then-boyfriend, now-husband Arun Sudarsan in order to beat the stress around the time of results.

What followed was a hilarious turn of events that Ms. Chandran took to Twitter on Tuesday to reveal the story.

She wrote, “May 10, 2016. Results of Civil Service Exam 2015 was expected to be out and I was roaming with @mrarunsudarsan to not stress over it,” she wrote on the microblogging platform, tagging her husband. “I didn’t make it.”

She eventually cleared the UPSC exams next year and belongs to the 2017 IAS batch.

She is currently posted as sub-divisional magistrate of Kanchanpur, North Tripura.

In her Twitter thread, Ms. Chandana recalls that while she did not clear the highly competitive exam that year, her photo did appear in a newspaper alongside pictures of UPSC toppers.  She wrote, “Next day newspapers were filled with pics of toppers, and @timesofindia published this pic of us!”

She shared a picture that shows her walking in the rain with Mr. Sudarsan. The picture shows the two of them sharing an umbrella, was published in a small piece about rains in the city.

She wrote, “Arun called ToI and complained as we weren’t married then,” the IAS officer wrote. For her part, Ms Chandran took it as a sign that her photo was destined to appear in a newspaper filled with UPSC toppers. “I can happily walk towards any destination with someone holding an umbrella and looking out for me with love unbound when I take each step,”

Ms. Chandran explained why they had taken issue with the photo and complained to the publication. She explained, “Nothing illegal! Just that such pics create uncomfortable conversations at home.”

She wrote, “I made it and we got married.”

She asserted that she was recently reminiscing about the picture and her husband contacted the photographer, Rakesh Nair, who sent them a copy.

The tweet went viral on Twitter and garnered 7000 likes.

IAS MV Rao tweeted that the story deserved a movie based on it.

Below is how the internet reacted.