My IAS Interview

I got AIR-316 in Civil Services Examination-2011. The journey to civil services was never easy but always challenging and exciting. It offered me many valuable lessons to keep in my mind for the whole life. We all have to make some sort of compromises and even sacrifice many things in order to achieve something, which we cherish so much. Being an IAS was one such dream for me. But then what is that success which is not nourished by sacrifices? 

Well, my interview was on 23 April 2012, morning half. I reached there about 1 hour before the reporting time. After the formalities and document verification, we were made to sit and wait in the hall. I was simply passing my time by watching other candidates. Occasionally, I was also flipping the pages of the newspapers lying on the table. Finally after a long wait of 2 hours, I was escorted towards the interview chamber.  The interview panel was that of Mr. K.K. Paul. I will use the symbol CH for Chairman (Mr. K.K.Paul). There were 4 other members including a lady member. I will designate them by the symbols M1, M2, M3, M4 (lady). CH sir was more serous of them all, rarely giving a smile.

CH: What is your roll number?

Me: Sir, this....

CH: Date of Birth?

Me: Sir, 15 August.......this

CH: (Smiling) so you were born on a very great day?

Me: (Smiling) yes sir (other members were also sporting smile on their faces)

CH: So, your hobby is stamp collection. What stamp collection is known as?

Me: Sir, Philately.

CH: What is the oldest stamp that you have?

Me: (After long thinking) Sir, it is a 10 paise stamp which was released many decades back....emm...after independence  (I was not confident in this answer as I was not able to recall the year, but when I came back home I saw that those stamp at that time didn’t bear year of release, hence I was foxed.)...

CH: (interrupting) After 1957?

Me: (Puzzeled)..emm,,,yes sir, I think it was after 1957.

CH: Why 1957 is famous in philately.....?

Me: (Thinking) Sir, I don’t know.

CH:  .........or for that matter any reason?

Me: (Thinking) Sir, I am unable to recall. (I was beginning to lose confidence by now as the starting was not that good.)

CH: OK..(He was not looking very satisfied). In 1957 government of India shifted from the Ana system to decimal system.

Me: (Nodding) thankyou sir.

CH: Do you know what is the happiness index?

Me: Sir, it the index which measures the happiness level of the people of a country.

CH: So how it is calculated?

Me: I don’t know exactly sir.

CH: If you leave this interview hall with very good feelings, what will be your happiness index?

Me: (Smiling) sir, it will be very high.

CH: How HDI is calculated?

Me: Sir, it is calculated by taking an average of three components like literacy level.....emm education....per capita income....(I couldn't recall the one component L)

CH: Why then we haven’t adopted happiness index instead of HDI?

Me: Sir, I think HDI is a much broad index and it include happiness index in itself. Hence it is also a reflective of happiness level of the people.

CH: Which country has adopted happiness index?

Me: Sir, Bhutan.

CH: (Nodding.....now he was looking little satisfied and passes it to the M1)

M1 was more friendly than the CH.

M1: Recently a bill is in the parliament...the Pensions Bill...can you tell what are its provisions?

Me- (Thinking) I m sorry sir, I don’t know.

M1: Do you know what is a Param computer?

Me: Sir, It is a super computer, which can perform very fast calculations, hence can be used in many places like defence, research etc...........like SAGA 220 which was developed by DRDO..(Actaully it was developed by ISRO L )

M1: Can they be used in remote sensing?

Me: Yes sir, they can be used, because in remote sensing huge amount of data has to be processed and analysed.

M1: OK..how can it be used in the Agriculture?

Me: Sir, in Agriculture, they can be used for weather monitoring, crops monitoring, giving warnings etc, so that farmers can be provided early and timely information. Hence they can play a great role in increasing agriculture production.

M1: OK....(and passes the baton to M2. He looked satisfied with my answers.)

M2 was also a little bit extra serious, but his questions were simple.

M2: What is the difference between DRDO and ISRO?

Me: Sir, they are the two most important institutes in the field of Defence and Space research. DRDO looks after the defence of the country while ISRO manages the department of Space....

M2- (Interrupting)...so why do we need two bodies for them....can’t a single body do it?

Me: Sir, both the departments are very large and critical for our country, hence if one institute looks after one department, they can give specific attention. (he looks satisfied now)

M2: You are from Allahabad, so what places are there near Allahabad?

Me: Sir, there is the most famous Sangam...other places are Anand Bhavan, Alfred park  etc.....in the vicinity of Allahabad there is chitrakoot at the border of uttar Pradesh and madhaya Pradesh.

M: Hmm (and passes on to M3)

M3 was more happy with himself and was enjoying in imparting knowledge not only to me but to the entire panel.

M3: As we were discussing about Allahabad.....what is the name of your college?

Me: Sir, it is NIT Allahabad.

M3: So it seems that its name has been changed? When did it was changed?

Me: Sir, earlier it was a Regional Engineering College....and in 2002 it was made a National Institute of Technology...

M3: .....(interrupts) what is this MNNIT then?

Me: Sir, It stands for Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology.  Earler it was called Motilal Nehru Regional Engg College and now it is called motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology.

M3: So this motilal name was from earlier time?

Me: Yes sir, actually it was the name given to it by Jawaharlal Nehru after Motilal Nehru who lived in Allahabad for a long time and made it his home.

M3: What are other educational institutes in Allahabad?

Me: Sir, IIIT, Medical college, Allahabad University etc.

M3: ok...so why IIIT is famous for?

Me: (Thinking) Sir, it is also a very good technical college of India, but it gives degree only in computer science and IT.

M3: (With a victorious smile) no no it is something to do with nobel prizes.

Me: (After mechanical thinking) Sorry sir, I don’t know.

M3: (Highly delighted)...it is the only college of the city ...infact one of the few colleges in the entire country which attracts nobel laureates......there is somethings special about it (and kept on imparting this knowledge to the entire panel)

Me: Thank you sir.

M3: Recently some person from allahabad was in news...who was it?

Me: (after thinking) sir very recently?

M3: Yes, very recently (smiling)

Me: (Again thinking) sorry sir, I am unable to recall.

M3: (Highly delighted again).there is a girl from Allahabad who has won this years pantaloons famina miss India.

Me: Oh..thank you sir.

M3 satisfied with himself...and passes the baton to the lady member. She was very cheerful and always had an encouraging smile on her face which helped me in my interview.

M4: Rajesh what are these 2G, 3G, LTE etc, which are so famous nowadays?

Me: Mam they are the generations of telecommunications which are being used recently. For example 2G means second generation of telecommunications, 3G means third generation of telecommunications. 4G has also been launched in India very recently.

M4: What are the advantages of 4G over 3G?

Me: Mam, the most important is the speed of operation, in 4G it will be about 20mpbs where as in 3G it was only 2mbps. Hence it means that downloading, video chatting, video conferencing etc will be much faster in 4G.

M4: You mean data streaming will be very fast.....

Me: Yes mam...(actually this was the term I slipped and used ‘speed of operation’ instead....she did notice it)

M4: What is so special about the 2G? which was also in the news for so long?

Me: Mam in 2G, there was a significant amount of spectrum which was sold by the government at very low prices, hence it resulted in to huge loss of revenue to the government.

M4: No no ...what is the special thing about 2G...you know..which was in the media for quite a long time?

Me: (Thinking), I don’t know mam.

M4: It was that it helped in transmission of voice and data...(bla bla bla.....i was not getting what she was saying....she was actually trying to know the technical speciality of 2G, but maybe I misunderstood the question...but still she looked satisfied with my answers)

M4: Rajesh what do you do in your leisure time?

Me: Mam I do read novels, I also read and write poems.

M4: You also write poems?

Me: Yes mam...(with a broad smile)

M4: What type of poem you generally write?

Me: Mam I write poems which are rich in Veer ras and Karunya ras.

M4: (Delighted and admiringly)..Karunya ras!!! Good!!

(She happily handed it over to CH, I was more happy then her by now.)

CH: (With a little smile)There are increasing news about eve teasing in the northern states in comparison to the southern states...what do you think is the reason?

Me: Sir, I think the level of education has to do a lot with this. The literacy rate in northern states is less in comparison with the southern states....

CH: ....but even the well educated people are also indulging in these activities?

Me: (Thinking) Sir, I think administration has not taken sufficient steps towards this direction.....

CH: (Interrupts...seems little annoyed) .......do you think we should deploy a policeman with every female members on the road?

Me: (In a damage controlling mode) no sir, what I feel is that if strong punishment is given to somebody involved in this act, then it will act as reminder to the other people, hence it may play a great role in checking this problem.

CH: (Nodding)...OK rajesh....(he looks towards other members for confirmation)...your interview is over you can go.

Me: Thank you Sir!