My Rendezvous with UPSC.

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 I was allotted Ms Rajni Razdan’s board. There were four other male members. I was sitting outside waiting for my turn. Suddenly a buzzer went off and then one UPSC official asked me to get up and opened the door for me.

Me: May I come in Madam.

RR: Yes please come in.

Me: Good Afternoon Madam. Good afternoon Sirs.

RR: Please be seated.

Me: Thank You madam.

There was a silence of around 15-20 seconds with RR going through some papers, possibly of previous candidate or mine. I saw two members observing me very carefully and smiling. Suddenly..

RR: Bache, would you please wait outside for five minutes? We will call you back.

Me: Yes Madam. Not a problem.

(I got up, left the place and sat back at my waiting seat. After five minutes I was called back again.)

Me: (making May I come in gesture. She nodded)

RR: (Just As I entered) Please be seated.

 Me: Thank You Madam.

Now she asked me my name, Roll No and verified my photograph.

Again then there was a silence of around 1 minute as she was going through my DAF. Was the toughest period for me.

RR: So are you working somewhere?

Me: Yes madam. I am working with Corporation Bank in Mumbai.

RR: (without looking at me and still reading) What were your optionals?

Me: Madam Political Science & Intl Relations and Sociology.

RR: Which one you liked most?

Me: (After some thinking) Madam Sociology.

RR: What did you learn from sociology?

Me: Madam studying Sociology gave me deep insights into how various aspects of society work. It was also interesting and I really enjoyed studying it when I was preparing. (Still reading and nodding)

RR: How many languages are there in India recognized by the constitution?

Me: Madam 28 languages specified in eighth schedule. (I later checked, it was 22 :( )

RR: Aren’t there more?

Me: Madam I think its around 28. But I am not 100% sure. (She again nodded)

RR: Are all those languages spoken?

Me: Yes madam.

RR: (with a smile) What about Sanskrit? (a slight laughter among all members)

Me: (I too smiled a little) Madam some people speak to a little extent.

RR now asked the first member to proceed. He was the most cordial and pleasant among all.

M1: So Himanshu, you have done your engineering in IT.

Me: Yes sir.

M1: Tell me what is Social Media?

Me: Sir social media we can say are the social networking sites like facebook, twitter through which people can interact among themselves.

M1: Okay tell me the good things and bad things about social media. Everything has its advantages and disadvantages.

Me: Sir good things are that people can share their views among each other as happened in Arab Spring. They can criticize govt policies if they feel something is not right. The main thing is that it has obliterated the time-space distance among people. The bad things are that there are privacy issues. Something private getting leaked can be seen by all. Plus there are hate speeches and messages as happened with Kokrajhar violence.

M1: Isn’t it also that today’s youth spend a lot of time in it?

Me: Yes sir. I have many friends being busy in such sites.

M1: No what about you?

Me: Sir I have a facebook and orkut account. I have a blog as well. Though I do login everyday I don’t spend much time there. I don’t get time only to do that.

M1: So what do you blog about?

Me: Sir, I post some of my articles, some quotes which I have collected, articles of other..

M1: (interrupting) What articles you write about? Tell me an article that you are really proud of writing.

Me: Sir, I have written on patriotism, sexual violence against women...

M1: Tell me about the article on patriotism.

Me: Sir I wrote about how we get patriotic feelings only on independence and republic day. That our patriotism should not be limited only to national security and territory. Nation includes our people, animals, environment, etc and…

M1: (interrupting) Ok I will give you a hypothetical situation. Listen very carefully (This took my nerves for a second). Suppose Gandhiji, C. Azad, Bhagat Singh and Netaji SC Bose are alive today. Who would you choose to lead our country and why?

Me: (After thinking for some time) Sir I would choose Gandhiji.

M1: Why?

Me: Sir because I feel the other three were driven by certain fixed ideologies. Though Gandhiji had his own ideology he was also a pragmatic person. He knew how to lead masses and unite them in spite of many differences among them. This I feel the other three freedom fighters would not be able to do so.

M1: Whom would you choose as second?

Me: Sir, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. (He seemed satisfied with both answers)

M1: So you have mentioned animal welfare in your form. Can you name some organizations associated with such work.

Me: Sir there is PETA. Then there is NGO Karuna based in Mumbai with which I was associated.

Passed the baton to second member. He grilled me the most and always wanted more.

M2: You have played Badminton in school. Tell me some national players in Badminton.

Me: Sir, Pullela Gopichand, Saina Nehwal, P Kashyap, Jwalla Gutta.

M2: Tell me some recent rising star.

Me: Sir there is one lady (thinking) but I am not able to recollect her name. It was in this year Mains paper as well (I don’t know why I said that. The answer was PV Sindhu though)

M2: Where is the National Bandminton Academy located?

Me: Sir in Hyderabad (made a guess)

M2: And who is the national coach there?

Me: Sir P Gopichand. (Again a guess)

His facial expressions told me that my guesses were right.

M2: What is the full form of PETA?

Me: Sir, People… (thinking but I could not recollect). Sorry Sir I am not able to recollect.

M2: Tell me the name of certain people associated with such work.

Me: (Here suddenly Pamela Anderson popped into my head but I stopped myself from saying that name) Sir there is Kunal Kapoor, Diya Mirza. They have adopted vegetarianism and promote..

M2: Tell me some people from public life and not celebrities.

Me: Sir there is Maneka Gandhi. She has been doing pioneering work for animals.

M2: Okay you have studied sociology. Have you studied Social Work? What is the difference between Sociology and Social Work?

Me: Sir, though I have not studied Social Work if I can make a guess I would say Sociology is more about arm chair theorizing while social work is related more to work at field.

M2: Can you name some prizes associated with social work?

Me: Sir there is Magsaysay award.

M2: Can you name some Indian recipients of this award?

Me: Sir there is Mr Rajinder, the water man of India (I didn’t remember his last name)

M2: What did he do?

Me: Sir he helped in spreading awareness about water conservation and management.

M2: Where? Which part?

Me: Sir in Rajasthan.

M2: Tell me some recent Indian personality who was awarded this prize?

Me: Sir there is one person who won recently due to his work in microfinance. But I am not able to recollect his name.

M2: What is micro-finance?

Me: Sir it is where capital is provided to poor vulnerable groups for their self-employment and other projects.

M2: Some prominent person associated with this.

Me: Sir Mohammad Yunus of Bangladesh has successfully implemented this model and have provided micro-finance to women SHGs.

M2: You must have studied NGOs in sociology.

Me: Sorry sir, my studies were limited to the syllabus of examination and NGO was not a part of it.

M2: But still you must have studied it in General Studies.

Me: Yes sir. An NGO is a Non-profit Organization doing social work on various issues.

M2: Tell me some names of NGOs for animals based in Delhi.

Me: (after giving a thought) Sorry Sir I don’t know.

M2: Regarding this recent incident in Delhi Justice Verma has submitted a report. Can you tell what were the recommendations made by the report?

Me: Sir, first the report recommended that there should be no death penalty. The convict can be put in life imprisonment if the crime is very brutal.

M2: Do you support death penalty?

Me: No Sir. (I was quite firm on this)

M2: Why?

 Me: Sir two wrongs do not make a right. Every man is a product of the society and if he has done something wrong it is our duty to correct him, change him, mould him. Further there is no evidence that point that death penalty act as a deterrent for preventing such crimes.

M2: Even for the rare crimes. Even for the rarest of rarest crimes.

Me: No Sir. But this is my personal opinion. (I thought he was referring to SC judgment)

M2: Of course its your personal opinion but...

RR:(interrupted) Even if someone murdered 30 people.

Me: No madam. Even if someone murders people..(Here I fumbled). He can be given life imprisonment. But its our duty to change that person.

RR: What about the sentiments of the relatives of those people? (Who got killed or brutalized)

Me: Madam with due respect to the relatives of such persons I feel if someone has done something wrong we should not reciprocate the same thing. Every man is a product of society and its our job to change him. (here I was repeating statements :( though I was very firm on my stand)

M3: Then what we did with Kasab was also wrong?

Me: Sir Kasab was a different issue. There were certain security implications. But still in the end he was just a 22 years old boy who was influenced.

(In all this death penalty arguments I got little emotional which I feel should have been avoided.)

M2: Okay you were saying. Tell me the other recommendations.

Me: Sir there was another recommendation that says among defence personnel if a sub-ordinate does a crime related to sexual violence then his superior would also be liable.

M2: Yes, now imagine you being a SP of a district and your constable does such crime in some corner and you will be prosecuted for that. Do you support this?

Me: Sir I am not 100 per cent in support of this.

M2: Than how much percent you are in support of this? Tell me the percentage. (Everybody laughing)

Me:  (admitting my mistake and smiling) Sir I do not support it.

M2: ok what other recommendations were made.

Me: Sir it asked for more fast track courts and speedy trials.

M2: What else. (I think he was looking for AFSPA)

Me: Sorry sir I am not able to recollect.

Passed to third member.

M3: So you have done your graduation from Mumbai University. Textile Engineering.

Me: Sorry sir I have done my engineering in IT.

M3: Ok. Have you gone through the budget?

Me: (reluctantly) Yes Sir. I have read it in newspapers.

M3: Tell me what were the proposals in the budget for IT Industry?

Me: Sorry sir, I don’t know.

M3: Said something. Trying to give me a hint.

Me: Sir there was a proposal that if 100 crore of investment….

M3: (interrupted) No there was one related to chips.

Me: Sir there is a proposal for cluster development..

M3: (Not satisfied) Have you heard of CSR? Has it been in the news?

Me: Sir it stands for Corporate Social Responsibilty where corporates spend a certain part of their profit into social welfare activities. It has been incorporated in New Companies Bill and has been made mandatory.

M3: But don’t you think it is unjust for corporates by the government?

Me: Sir Government cannot be a panacea for all the social problems. Two percent is not a big amount. So I think it’s a good thing if it goes for a social cause.

M3: So you think government doesn’t have funds (I actually didn’t mean this). Do you know how much increase there is on education in this year’s budget?

Me: Sorry sir, I don’t know.

M3: What is Current Account Deficit.

Me: Sir it is the difference between our exports and imports.

(He didn’t seem satisfied. I knew this was not the correct definition.)

Me: Sir it includes ECB. No that would be in capital account. Apart from export-import it includes what a foreign company remits back… (I really messed it up here)

M3: See it is basically related to Balance of Payment. Ok How much it is right now.

Me: Sir it is more than 3.5 per cent of GDP.

M3: No in figures.

Me: Sir around $200 billion.

M3: No you don’t know. It is $80 billion. Ok tell me what items we are importing due to which CAD is high?

Me: Sir its mainly due to gold and petroleum products. (Should have said crude oil)

M3: Yes but tell me two more items.

Me: Sir pulses. (He nodded in negative). Sorry sir I don’t know.

Passed to next member. 

M4: So you have done your X from Delhi and then did your XII and graduation from Mumbai.

Me: Sorry sir, I did my X as well from Mumbai. My father got transferred from Delhi to Mumbai when I was in eighth. So we had to shift.

M4: But you have here mentioned that… (There was nothing mentioned wrong). Let us leave that. So you work in a bank.

Me: Yes sir.

M2: Which bank?

Me: Sir Corporation Bank.

M2: ok.

M4: So what makes you interested in Banking?

Me: Sorry sir I didn’t get you. (Actually I couldn’t understand the meaning of the question)

M4: Repeated the same question. Luckily this time I managed to understand it somehow.

Me: Sir first I get a good salary i.e. remuneration is good. Second I also get to do public service. We have been opening Aadhar based accounts for subsidy as our branch comes into the pilot programme.

M4: Then why you want to be in civil services?

Me: Sir the same thing but on a bigger level. Civil services will give me a unique (a big stress) opportunity to do public service as well as it will also give me a sense of personal achievement.

M4: Personal achievement? Civil Services is all about team work where when if you do your work successfully your boss will take the credit while if things go wrong you will be faulted for everything. (Smiled and looked at other members. Here he tried to make a joke but no body laughed)

Me: Sir actually what I meant was that it’s a good career. I said something more that I don’t remember.

M4: ohh good career.

After that he concluded.

RR: ok thank you.

Me: Thank you madam. Thank you sirs.

I stood up and left the place. Overall I was satisfied though I have absolutely no idea about my marks. There might be few more questions which I don’t remember.

Sexual Violence Against Women

 The recent brutal Delhi gang rape incident shook the nation's conscience, particularly of the middle classes across India. It was a horrific act which must be condemned and thus there is a need, as the civil society demands, to strengthen laws and governance for the safety of women. But is our solution limited only to strong laws, death penalty and stupid ideas like castration. For me, tough laws and strengthening police are just short term measures. You can't put police men in every corner of India and whats worse is that some times these security personnel themselves are the perpetrators.

We need to understand that sexual violence against women is a result of much deeper factors. It is a symptom of a larger problem which is related to the subordination of women (no matter what class she belongs to). Thus the whole society is to be blamed when any such incident takes place. Right from the childhood the girl is taught, both overtly and covertly, that her every public act is related to family's honour. As you must have heard the saying  "us bechari ki izzat lut gayi". What this statement connotes is that a family's (read men's) and women's honour is directly related to her chastity. This is a particular trait of our Indian culture (Remember Rama asking Sita for Agni Pariksha ). Thus a rape no longer remains a physical torture and exploitation but an act which takes away women's and her family's so-called dignity.  Women is no longer in control over her sexuality and body and this is taught to her (and him as well) throughout her life. Thus though all such incidents may have elements of perversion, they happen behind the shadow of such factors. For instance, in all the communal riots the targets are often women so that the males of the opposite religion can be humiliated for life as their women were 'de-valued'. The prime example is Godhra riots. Similarly in rural areas invariably all such incidents are committed against lower caste women by upper caste men to settle inter-caste conflicts. Similar things happen during wars. Again many sexual abuses happen within the family and the girl keeps quiet.

For me the solution thus is empowerment of women, particularly her economic independence. This is because only after becoming economically independent can women challenge such deep patriarchal notions. A women who depends on her family to survive cannot fight against the system. Only by becoming independent and empowered, both materially and intellectually, that she can start taking control over her body. Soon society's culture would show signs of change too. It will definitely lead to decline in atrocities against women as women would not only no longer shy to speak against it but also because physical violence and honour would get dehyphenated. It is high time thus to move in this direction. We need to pass Women Reservation Bill, we need more education and funds for women, we need more economic opportunities and positive discrimination for women, we need to gender sensitize our various institutions including family and marriage. Not only government should take steps in this direction but we should also change our thinking and socialization patterns and help fan such ideas. For example, I really admire the Slut-Walk idea. My thrust on the article thus is to relate the sexual violence with the subordination of women. As long as she remains in cultural shackles these violences will continue unabated.

Financial Mantras

Though money is not everything it is an important ( in fact very important) part of our life. That is why actually we work. Investment for future thus should be carefully planned. Though I am no expert, here are some things which I have learnt and which we should always keep in mind while investing.


1. There are no free lunches.

2.Start investing early.

3.If money available, don't take credit.

4.If a scheme sounds to good to be true, more often than not, you should avoid it.

5.The older you are, the lower should be your exposure to high risk investments.

6.Judge an investment by it's real rate of return (i.e nominal rate-Inflation). Thus while investing, never lose sight of inflation.

7.Don't keep all your eggs in one basket. Always diversify your investments.

8.Gold is a good hedge against inflation.

9.In equities, guaranteed returns is a lie.

10.Sell when market flares up irrationally.

11.Never hesitate to sell when you stock has reached your price target.

12.Sometimes, the best trade is no trade at all.

13.The time to get interested in stock market is when no one else is.

14.Money is a good servant but a bad master.

And finally

15. Your profit is someone's loss.

I love my country!!

                                                      

I love my country. I love India and can die for my country. These are the phrases one hear from many people during independence or republic day. We can also see this on people's facebook status, during chit chats, etc. But I wonder whether one has any idea of what a nation is & what constitutes it (although nation is a very abstract concept). I would like to ask what a person mean when he says that he loves his country & can die for it. What is this nation & whom does he love? Is love to our nation only limited to our territory & national security. Doesn't nation mean our people, our forests, our animals, our water, our air, etc. But no, that doesn't strike us. That is not what we love, we only love our country, nothing else.

I think the reason for this is very deep. Sometimes I feel this society is a big hypocrisy. All show that they are very virtuous, loving and caring, but all care nothing but about themselves. Lip service is the rule. Lovers (or rather so called lovers) seek love instead of giving love. Parents want their children to become good doctors or engineers (rather than good human beings), so that their children can fill their expectation shoes & earn them a reputation. A woman looks for a husband who is rich (as if she is incapable or physically handicapped to earn a living for herself). A man looks for a beautiful wife and objectifies her in the process. If this is the attitude of a person towards his close ones, one can imagine his attitude towards others. These 'others' for him are nothing but sick bastards born to annoy him.

So for me, if you want to change the society, then first change yourself. Start loving yourself so that you can realize that whats inside you, is the same inside others. This is the only way through which you can start loving others. And note that, selfishness (which I discussed above) and self-love are two extremely different things.

To sum up, these so called phrases like, I love my country, are a big lie. My message is that either don't say it, or if you do say, then mean it. The next time you see a girl with torn clothes begging around streets, don't be indifferent towards her. She deserves the same privileges, if not more, as you have, of basic education, health & food.

Our farmers are dying, to hell with the World Cup

 A very good article written by Narendra Shekhawat in The Hindu's Open Page(articles written by readers).

Yes, you read it right; to hell with the World Cup; to hell with the celebrations; to hell with all the free land and money being showered by different governments on the players. How can I jump, scream, have gallons of beer and cheer for the nation when a few kilometres away the farmers and feeders of my country are taking their own lives in hordes?

Do you know that, on average, 47 farmers have been committing suicide every single day in the past 16 years in our shining India — the next economic power, progressive with nine per cent growth?

Last month, on March 5, Friday evening, when Bangalore's watering holes were getting filled up, when all the DJs were blaring out deafening music, when we were busy discussing India's chances at the World Cup, sitting in CCDs and Baristas — just 100 km away from Bangalore, Swamy Gowda and Vasanthamma, a young farmer couple, hanged themselves, leaving their three very young children to fend for themselves or, most likely, die of malnutrition.

Why did they do it? Were they fighting? No. Were they drunkards? No. Did they have incurable diseases? No! Then WHY? Because they were unable to repay a loan of Rs 80,000 (a working IT couple's one month salary? 2-3 months EMI?) for years, which had gradually increased to Rs. 1.2 lakh. Because they knew that now they would never be able to pay it back. Because they were hurt. Hurt by our government which announced a huge reduction in import duty for silk in this year's budget (from 30 per cent to 5 per cent).They were struggling silk farmers and instead of help from the government, they get this! Decrease in import duty means the markets will now be flooded with cheap Chinese silk (as everything else!) and our own farmers will be left in the lurch.

On average, 17,000 farmers have been committing suicide every year, for the past 15 years on the trot. Can you believe it? Most of us wouldn't know this fact. Why? Because, our great Indian media, the world's biggest media, are not interested in reporting this! Why? Because they are more interested in covering fashion week extravaganzas. They are more interested in ‘why team India was not practising when Pakistanis were sweating it out in stadium on the eve of the match?' They are more interested in Poonam Pandey.The media are supposed to be the third eye of democracy and also called the fourth estate, but now they have become real estate. Pure business.

So any attention from the media is out of the question. Who is left then? The government? But we all know how it works. The other day, I was passing by Vidhan Soudha in Bangalore and happened to read the slogan written at the entrance, “Government work is god's work”. Now I know why our government has left all its work to god! Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa announced plots for all the players. But land? In Bangalore? You must be kidding, Mr. C.M.. So he retracts and now wants to give money. But where will it come from? Taxes, yours and mine. Don't the poor farmers need the land or money more than those players who are already earning in crores?

A government-owned bank will give you loan at six per cent interest rate if you are buying a Mercedes but if a poor farmer wants to buy a tractor, do you know how much it is charging him? Fifteen per cent! Look at the depths of inequality. Water is Rs. 15 a litre and a SIM card is for free! For how long can we bite the hand that is feeding us? The recent onion price fiasco was just a trailer. Picture abhi baaki hai doston!

In 2008, Lakme India fashion show venue was in a Mumbai five-star hotel and was covered by 500 journalists and the theme was ‘Cotton'. A few hours drive from there, cotton farmers were committing suicide, 4 or 5, everyday! How many TV journalists covered this? Zero!

Sixty-seventy per cent of India's population is living on less than Rs. 20 a day. A bottle of Diet coke for us? The electricity used in a day-night match could help a farmer irrigate his fields for more than a few weeks! Do you know that loadshedding is also class dependent? Two hours in metros, 4 in towns and 8 in villages. Now, who needs electricity more? A farmer to look after his crop day and night, irrigate, pump water and use machines or a few bored, young professionals with disposable incomes, to log on to Facebook and watch IPL?

How can we splurge thousands on our birthday parties and zoom past in our AC vehicles and sit in cushy chairs in our AC offices and plan a weekend trip to Coorg when on the way, in those small villages, just a few minutes' walk from the roads, someone might be consuming pesticide or hanging himself from a tree for just Rs.10, 000? How can we?

There was much panic when there was swine flu. Every single death in the country was reported second by second, minute by minute. Why? Because it directly affected our salaried, ambitious, tech-savvy, middle-class. So there were masks, special relief centres, enquiry centres set up by government to please this section. On the other hand, 47 people are dying, every single day for the past 15 years. Anybody cared to do anything?

It has been observed that within months of a farmer taking his life, his wife follows, either by poisoning the kids first or leaving them on their own. In Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh, a distressed woman farmer went to the government seed shop, bought a bottle of pesticide, on credit, went home and drank it. She was under debt for most of her life and now — even her death was on credit!

Centuries ago, there was a Roman emperor, called Nero. He was a strong ruler and also very fond of parties, art, poetry, drinking and a life full of pleasures. Once he decided to organise a grand party and invited all poets, writers, dancers, painters, artists, intellectuals and thinkers of society. Everybody was having a great time eating, drinking, laughing, and socialising. The party was at its peak when it started getting dark. Nero wanted the party to go on. So he ordered and got all the arrested criminals, who were in his jails, around the garden and put them on fire! Burnt them alive, so that there was enough light for the guests to keep on enjoying! The guests had a gala time though they knew the cost of their enjoyment. Now, what kind of conscience those guests had?

Nero's guests
What is happening in our country is not different from Nero's party. We, the middle-class-young-well-earning-mall-hopping-IPL-watching and celebrating-junta are Nero's guests enjoying at the cost of our farmers. Every budget favours the already rich. More exemptions are being given to them at the cost of grabbing the land of our farmers in the name of SEZs, decrease in import duties in the name of neo-liberal policies, increase in the loan interest rates if the product is not worth lakhs and crores. Yes, that's what we are, Nero's guests!

I'm not against celebrations. I'm not against cricket. I'm not against World Cup. I would be the first person to scream, celebrate and feel proud of any of India's achievements but, only if all fellow countrymen, farmers, villagers also stand with me and cheer; only if they do not take their own lives ruthlessly, only if there is no difference between interest rates for a Mercedes and a tractor. That would be the day I also zoom past on a bike, post-Indian win, with an Indian Flag in hand and screaming Bharat Mata Ki Jai. But no, not today. Not at the cost of my feeders. Until then, this is what I say. To hell with your malls. To hell with your IPL. To hell with your World Cup. And to hell with your celebrations.

Irom Sharmila

While Anna Hazare has done a commendable work bringing government to its knees after he went for a fast unto death for passage of a strong anti corruption law, I would like to mention about a similar person championing for a cause. Irom Sharmila is also on a fast unto death since last 10 years against AFSPA(Armed Forces Special Powers Act) in Manipur.

Her fast against this act started in 2000 when several civilians were allegedly killed by security forces in Manipur. She wants revocation of this law. Since the central government could not relent due to cessation activities still present & Irom Sharmila wont budge too, she is presently under house arrest and is given liquid food through nose by government to keep her alive. Imagine this for 10 years & she is still continuing. She is really an inspiration for me to keep fighting against all odds.

To make things clear I will write some provisions of AFSPA, which is currently in operation in J&K and states of North East.
-Permits army to fire at a suspected insurgent (even to causing of death) without any fear of punishment.
-Empowers armed forces to search & arrest without a formal warrant.
-Prohibits the prosecution of soldier accused of misusing the provisions of the act until the central govt grants sanction.
(Imagine all these provisions operating in Delhi or Mumbai!!!)

Here my point is not to debate for or against this law, but to show the determination of this iron lady. The night she learned of the massacre, Sharmila had scribbled on a piece of paper: "What is the origin of peace and what will be the end." The next day, she ate a meal her mother had prepared and told her of the killings at the bus stop. Sharmila has not eaten since.