Happy Diwali

Happy Diwali! Felt like bringing festive mood to the Chennai Clouds. :) I could hear a lot of cracker noise in the background now. By the way, I think I should have told you something more in my previous post. The Chennai Cloud snap was shot with a very basic Canon digital camera; and more importantly I had posted the snap without modifying it like - changing the bringhtness, colour, hue etc. It is actually a colour phototgraph, not a black and white one. On that monsoon evening with those intimidating clouds draping the west side, the whole world was in black and white...

I believe in destiny - not before venturing into something; but after things had happened. To me destiny is not something that controls us; it is just a supreme explanation of the past. Why all this now? Just before my Exams started a week back these things came and went -

* Usually I watch a film daily. The choice of the film is purely based on my mood. Sometimes I have a mood to choose films with peculiar titles. Just two days before the Exams, "Serpico" attracted me. It was based on a true story. Frank Serpico is an honest cop with the New York police. He pays a heavy price for being a straight arrow in a department that is entrenced in corruption. Serpico loses his dignity, girl friends, aides, and even mental balance at times. Towards the end he is decorated with a medal in recognition for his bravery in action. But he exposes the corruption in police; and quits the department! The film closes with Serpico waiting in a port - with just his pet dog by his side. He moves to Switzerland.

* Kiran Bedi's interview was in one of the supplements of The Hindu. She says earlier she was serving to earn; now she was earning to serve. Just check this out. She had spoken about the difficulties she had to face while cleaning up the police system here; and how she ultimately got to quit it!

* One of my friends had called up. During our talk I found out I had missed the police job last year by just 2-3 marks.

I like Thirukkural.

The one that comes to my mind now is "Though you guard it well, what destiny does not decree disappears. Though you cast it aside, what fate calls yours will not depart". Verse 376.

Chennai Clouds

After a gap of, I don't know how many years, I get a chance to be in Tamil Nadu during the monsoons here. While many treat these rains that come around the Diwali time to be a spoiler, to me - it adds a whole new mood to the festival. I still remember those wonderful days when we used to delicately fry (without oil, of course!) the damp crackers in a pan before using them on the pouring Diwali morning...

Plan B?

Some of my friends were quite eager to know what kind of questions one gets in the Civil Services-Main Exam (a.k.a. IAS exam) conducted by the UPSC. Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Five papers. While the last two papers - English and any Indian language - were only qualifying in nature, the first three papers would matter a lot in deciding whether one got a chance to sit for the personality test in April 2009. Two papers of General studies (GS) and one Essay paper. As it gets boring to type as well to read the entire paper, I have given samples from the GS papers.

* "The emergence of new social classes in British India was the direct consequence of the establishment of new social economy, new state system, administrative machinery and Western education." Discuss. (150 words/15 marks)
* Golkonda Fort (20/2)
* Bring out the pros and cons of Special Economic Zones (150/15)
* Nor' westers (20/2)
* Discuss the major extra-constitutional factors influencing the federal polity in the country. (250/30)
* Discuss the composition and functions of the Union Public Service Commission. (150/15)
* Discuss the problems in achieving National Integration in India. (150/15)
* The conditions of urban poor are more deplorable than that of their rural counterparts." Give your views. (250/30)
* Lakshmi Mittal (20/2)

The above are from the GS - I paper. The GS papers are for 300 marks each, and one gets three hours for each paper. There is a two-hour break before one takes the GS - II paper.

* India and the New World Order (150 words/30 marks)
* India-Nigeria: Abuja Declaration (20/2)
* Indian diaspora and Bollywood (20/2)
* Access the performance of India in attracting Foreign Direct Investment(FDI). (250/30)
* NAMA (20/2)
* Universal Declaration of Human Rights. (150/15)
* INTERPOL (20/2)
* In what way "Medical Biotechnology" and "Bioengineering" are useful for technological development of India? (250/30)
* Spintronics (20/2)
* Sappan (20/2)
* Components of Robots (20/2)
* A question on representation of data by a suitable diagram.(like histogram, pie chart etc) (6 marks)
* The mean monthly income of a person is Rs.18190 and his mean monthly expenditure comes out to be Rs.17930. What is his average monthly saving? (2)

Essay paper. One gets to choose a topic from a basket of six topics. The essay paper is also for three hours. It carries 200 marks. No specific word limit.

* Is an egalitarian society possible by educating the masses?
* Discipline means success, anarchy means ruins.
* Urbanisation and its hazards.

Four more papers are remaining. Two each for the two optional subjects that one gets to choose from a range that stretches from Russian literature to Zoology.

Well, let me be frank and tell you what I felt during the Exam. I sincerely hope that the UPSC reduces the age limit for the candidates (without affecting the number of attmepts one gets. this can be done by shortening the cycle time of the Exam) I thought I was very old to sit and take this Exam, which anyone above 21 years can take. But at the Exam centre I felt I'm quite young! I genuinely feel hundreds of candidates are wasting the wonderful phase of their lives by mechanically appearing in the Exam, year after year, for many years. Some of my friends have spent more than five years in this Exam, without any result. It saddens me.

While I agree that dreams need perseverance, what hurts me is the fact that many candidates do not have a Plan B. So suddenly one fine morning, after exhausting all the attempts over the years, one realises one does not have a place to go. One is not equipped to find a decent job; an alternative career. My sincere wish is that the Civil Service aspirants while chasing their dreams, should also work on their fallback options - without mindlessly escalating their commitment year after year.