My interview for the Civil Service examination had its own share of twists and turns, but it got me the requisite rank to get into the Indian Administrative Service. I did score fairly high marks in it, but realized this only when Dr Muttuswami, one of our instructors, (may God bless his soul) asked “Oh, so you are that Agnihotri?”
I could not figure what ‘that Agnihotri’ was. He asked, “do you know you have the record numbers in the interview after Piloo Modi.” That was quite gratifying. Soon the word spread around and in spite of being the HMT (Hindi Medium Types) category, I got acceptance within various high-brow groups. But that is another story.
I recall the day of the interview quite vividly. I remember Sajal Chakravarty, then a journalist, was there for his interview. He later joined Bihar / Jharkhand cadre. He appeared quite confident and showed me a fat file. It had all the impressive writings he had done as a journalist. I had not brought anything with me; not even my writings in ‘Dharmayug’; a prestigious Hindi weekly then, or my M Tech dissertation for that matter. I saw others with similar ‘credential files’ and dressed in very formal attire. Was I too casual?
But the IIT hostel mess-table chat sessions, and the continuous evaluations system in the class room, do prepare you to stay unfazed and face what comes your way. “Do you know”, one candidate informed me, after knowing that I am from IIT Bombay, “Your Board is chaired by Prof Indiresan, Director IIT Madras. But he is coming a bit late. Dr (Mrs.) Dhan will chair it for some time.” Since I was the 2nd or the 3rd in the interview list that day, chances were that I will miss Prof Indiresan. Was it a good thing or a bad thing? As it turned out, I had two interviews de facto, But I will come to it later.
I do not recall the full sequence of our conversation, but certain parts remain etched in my memory given the heat created, and also some light moments. The first faux pas I created when I used the term ‘the so-called scheduled castes and scheduled tribes’, even though I was arguing in favour of affirmative action. Mrs Dhan did take offence, “what do you mean by ‘so-called’, young man”? I did quickly realize my mistake. “I am sorry Maa’m, I did not mean it in any pejorative sense, this is how they are categorized, but I am comfortable with terms ‘Adivasi’ and ‘Harijan’ in regular conversation and do not need to invoke the ‘schedules’. I survived, since my main argument, that persists till date with me, was that we do not question the reservations based on the management quota where a candidate with much less merit gets his way through thanks to his or her parent’s financial muscle, but we get agitated when we see affirmative action.
The next air pocket was hit when the discussions came to Assam Agitations. I made a controversial statement that the government does not seem to be clear about what they want to do. This was immediately pounced upon and I was asked to explain what I meant. I pointed out that there were three cut off dates that were being talked about simultaneously. One by the team negotiating with the agitationists, the other by the then Prime Minister and the third by the Hon’ble Governor who has been serving there since 1973. Surely this is an indicator of a lack of clarity. Isn’t it Sir? The member agreed.
This answer was one that had been rehearsed on the mess table cack sessions many times and came in handy. More important, when you are able to pose an ‘isn’t it so?’ question where the other person can only say yes, you have hit a boundary!
An additional stroke of luck was my M Tech project – bio gas from water hyacinth. The subject matter expert was very knowledgeable on gobar gas plants and the technology, but water hyacinth as a substrate was a new topic for him. He did ask several questions in depth, but I was well prepared and in fact could elaborate certain aspects which he was not very familiar with. He was extremely satisfied and remarked to the Chair ‘he knows what he is talking about’. In fact, he did ask me as to why I was not wanting to pursue the career as a scientist since I was doing ‘state of the art’ research. I will keep this and another of his remark for the later part of my interview. Another Member asked if it was it not a waste of a seat in IIT if I joined the Civil Service. I responded by stating that the civil service option was better that going away abroad or joining an MNC as a sales executive as most IITians were doing! (Indeed, a brilliant Mechanical Engineer friend had joined a chocolate producing MNC as a Sales Executive few months ago!). The matter rested at that.
There was some mention of my interest in the Indian mythology and Sanskrit. The next member picked up that thread and asked if I had read the Bhagwad Gita. Oh yes, not just the Gita, but the entire six volumes of Mahabharata from the Geeta Press many times over! That claim did raise an eyebrow. I explained patiently that I did read these volumes, borrowing them from time to time, from a Library, whenever my stock of detective novels was over. My father happened to be a Professor in that Institute in Darbhanga, Bihar. I added for good measure that I knew the 12th and the 15th ‘adhyaya’s of the Gita by heart, because these were the shortest – 20 shlokas each! This assertion without any air put on, did impress him. He then asked, if there was any aspect that I was critical of, in the Geeta?
This was another ‘mess-table-rehearsed’ free hit. I said, the biggest damage Lord Krishna has done to the Indian Society is to give the ‘Sambhavami Yuge Yuge’ message. This did stir up the pot. I was, as expected, asked to explain what I meant. My argument was that this has made the society so dependent on an Avatar that we have ignored doing our part of the duties and only wait for ‘Him’ to come and salvage every crisis. I said that the Avatar is like the seed. When he lands, the soil must be kept ready for his blooming. But the assurance of ‘Sambhavami Yuge Yuge’, has made us fatalists, and that will not help. We are not doing our part of the job. I was lucky. The answer did convince the member, or perhaps he did decide to let go.
I was also asked, as to why my three services preferences were only the IAS. I was quite clear about it. I did not intend joining any other service. And what will I do in the IAS if I did get through? Serve the people and bring down corruption.
Bring down, not eliminate? was one remark. I said, I will try to eliminate it but I will not pretend I can eliminate it. It is easier said, than done. By this time, I was quite relaxed, so I added, ‘Sir you must have heard the story of Birbal’s penchant for making money even on trivial Government tasks.’ The Chair asked me to narrate that story and I quite casually described the story about how Birbal could extract money even in trivial tasks assigned to him like the counting of the waves of the Ganga, or following the King’s elephant for keeping track of the elephant dung. I could see them enjoying the narrative, which was casual and without any arrogance. One member could not help asking, you seem to be quite an idealist, yet you talk about how difficult it is to eliminate corruption. How will you maintain your honesty at the personal level. I was not quite prepared for this question, but did manage to come up with a good answer that has guided me in my later career. I said, if at the personal level, I minimize the gap between what I practice and what I preach, it will be a good beginning.
The Board seemed satisfied and the Chair wished me well. I thanked everyone and left.
But that was not to be! Some ten minutes elapsed. Next candidate had not been called. I filled up the TA/DA form and was depositing it at the concerned counter so that I can leave, when the orderly came and said “Satish Agnihotri kaun hai?” The next candidate said, “unkaa to ho gayaa, next meraa number hai”. I also added, “meraa interview khatm ho gaya hai, main to form jamaa kar rahaa hoon”. He was unmoved, “aapko Chairman sahab ne bulaayaa hai?” “Chairman Saheb?” I was suspicious, “Madam Dhaan ne?”. He said, “nahee, actual waale Chairman Sahab aa gaye hain. Unhone bulaayaa hai.”
This sounded a bit unusual. “Aisa bulate hain kabhi?” I asked. “Nahee, hum to pehli baar dekh rahe hain.” I could feel sympathy in his eyes as well as those of the other candidates.
My heart sank. Not another interview with Prof Indiresan as a Chair! I also had a reason. There was a strike in IITB few months back and I was one of the ‘marked’ student leaders. We had even done a ‘gherao’ of the Director’s office! Is he going to take me to the cleaners on this?
Prof Indiresan welcomed me warmly. “Young man, sorry to have called you back. My colleagues tell me about an excellent conversation they had with you. Can we have a brief word, particularly about your research?” This was reassuring. He asked me to describe my project idea which I did briefly. It seems the ‘expert’ had told him that I knew the subject better than him – that was touching and gracious indeed. Prof Indiresan then asked me if I would consider working as a Scientist rather than an administrator. He offered me a JRF ship from the next day, should I come to his office and meet him. I was flattered but was firm. I said, “I am aware of the work that I am doing, but at the end of the day should the choice of career path not be with me Sir?” It was another of the ‘isn’t it, Sir?’ moment. “Yes of course” he said, “but I do strongly suggest that you consider the scientific career”.
Then came the question that I was half anticipating, half dreading. “There was this strike at IIT, I say. You mention that you were a General Secretary of a hostel. What did exactly happen? Is everything okay now, it was the first time that IIT Bombay was ever closed sine die”
I was both cryptic and diplomatic. “Sir I was the General Secretary of one of the Hostels – H-9”. The Institute is now back on rails. The issue related to the alleged corruption in the Gymkhana and also about harsh treatment to some students. But now things are fine.”
“I am glad to hear that young man and I hope you will meet me tomorrow in my office” he said.
I heaved a sigh of relief and left.
The first thing I told my sister on phone, that the Board will either give me very low marks, so that I don’t get in and follow a ‘scientific’ career, or, I should get very high marks.
Prof Muttuswamy’s words assured me that the Board did indeed give generous marks, 225 or so out of 250 if I recall correctly. It was a pre-inflation, conservative era in awarding marks!
Hope this helps HMT aspirants of Civil Service and entertains others.