Some Sense Mostly Nonsense

Hey there!!!

1. Have you ever wondered where you are going getting your head crammed with all useful(?) information?
2. Have you ever wondered why you are always on the brink of a momentous nervous breakdown brought about by the aforesaid information overload?
3. Have you wondered why you cant stop stuffing yourself with knowledge no matter how close to bursting-the-seams your head is?

If the answer to all the above three questions are yes then probably you too are a victim...like me... no matter how much it bothers us we feel undeniably inevitably tied down to the process of gathering facts. Although for very different reasons. Some of you may feel it's only your job and hence your duty, others like zillions of students the world over are helpless martyrs and a nutty few like me are foolish enough to go for the craziest of reasons: For Cracking THE EXAM!

Now for the benefit of those few who have already not guessed what i am talking about.....

In India there is only exam which is referred to as The Exam, yeah capital T capital E and it is The Civil Services Examination held by the UPSC every year. It is a unique struggle, not unlike grappling with the mythical Minotaur, which tests your endurance skills along with more mundane things like knowledge. It's a slow, long drawn out torturous process extending over 3 arduous phases across 12 long months of toil. Imagine a particularly painful tooth extraction and couple it with a slow motion sequence and bingo! you can have a vague idea about what I am talking about.

OK, OK all kidding aside, it is indeed a tough exam but definitely NOT uncrackable! I think the secret to clear the exam is to enjoy the process. Now how exactly are you supposed to enjoy a tooth extraction you might ask me. A very valid question. The answer is that the process of preparation grows on you....you have to acquire a taste for it. Like caviar. Like bitter gourd. You have to acquire a taste for it without becoming nauseous! You have to learn to enjoy the preparation....like learning to ride a bike, you tend to get the balance one day which makes all those grazed knees worth having. Simply put, a few months into the preparation if you अरे really passionate about making it to the most prestigious services in the country you tend to gradually enjoy the process of acquiring information. Believe me.

Not that you never feel like you have taken more than you have bargained for, not that sometimes you don't feel that you have bitten off more than you can chew, not that you sometimes you don't get this uncanny feeling that your friends secretly think that you are slowly becoming a certified geek. But these feelings are momentary, they pass. And all things said and done preparing for the civils in a committed and orderly manner makes you gain more than mere textbook knowledge. You gain perspective. You tend to observe things, events, people, places and endless other 'nothings' which you have either been too busy to take notice of or have been taking for granted all the time.

Take my case for example...I used to always have this impression that politics is dirty and economics boring. Wrong on both counts. It has been my overwhelming ignorance which had me make all those snooty remarks about these two interesting fields. What I didn't know about economics could actually have filled several volumes of any self-respecting encyclopedia. I don't say that I have become Adam Smith himself or that I could give Amartya Sen a run for his money but at least I don't say 'duh-uh' when someone mentions bulls and bears anymore. Nor do I have to keep myself from yawning every time somebody mention cost-push inflation.

I appeared for my first civils in May 2007. I was lucky enough to clear the prelims,mains and reach the interview on my first attempt itself. And I was stupid enough to not clear the final to make it to The List. That's right, capital T,capital L.

I may have lost the battle but not the War. So here I am, preparing for my next attempt.

All the above mentioned stuff may seem to be useless banter to most. But those who have been where i have been will understand, i hope. All that was a thinly veiled attempt at ventilating my grievance . On a more serious note i intend to make use of this blog to recapitulate what i've aasimilated for the day. So if you are in luck this maybe my ration of nonsense for a long time to come since my next few posts will deal exclusively with Fact File.

Cheers!!

And good luck to all those who are preparing for the civils this year.