By Alok Joshi
The other day I read in the Times of India that “Civil service aspirants from restive Manipur’s hill districts can choose to have their exam centre changed” to other NE states, Bengal or Delhi. The Manipur Government will even reimburse their travel expenditures along with Rs 1000 per day for a maximum of three days by way of food and accommodation expenses.
This news took me back to the 1980s, when I was also a Civil Service aspirant from the North East. Those days, examination centres were limited and we did not have the privilege being offered to aspirants now.
Fresh from the Punjab University, Chandigarh, armed with a gold medal for my post-graduation in English Literature and Linguistics, I got selected as a Lecturer in the Central University. My mother cried at the thought of her eldest son going so far away. The only reason I decided to leave home was to be financially independent and to relieve my parents of the burden of bringing up the other three brothers.
Until then, I had never stepped out of home beyond New Delhi. Shillong looked like a far-away country in those days. As my taxi drove into the city of Shillong, I sensed some uneasy commotion and chaos in the air. Everyone in the crowd seemed to be in a frenzied rush. I had the least idea of what was happening. As my car slowed down in the market, I heard someone shouting my name on the other side of the road. It was the Head of the Department, Prof Jacob, who had interviewed me. Instead of welcoming me, he asked me to immediately get down from the car with my luggage. Curfew was being imposed in the next ten minutes from 5 p.m. onwards with shoot at sight orders, he informed me. The area where I was supposed to stay was highly sensitive and acid bombs were being thrown. It was the time of a student agitation. All my enthusiasm evaporated as I thanked my stars for having sent the Professor from nowhere to save me. His house was a few metres away and he asked me to stay with him for the night. Prof Jacob was a bachelor and lived alone. That night I could not sleep because the armed soldiers marched on the streets to prevent any untoward disturbance.
Next morning, I was escorted to the Vice Chancellor’s office. What the VC said shocked me. “Young man, where would you like to go? Nagaland or Mizoram?” All that while I was given the impression of being posted in Shillong, being the headquarters of NEHU. Then he explained that the University had started two other campuses and I would be responsible for setting up a new post-graduate department from scratch in either of the two state capitals and designated as Lecturer-in-charge. Pretending to be brave, I told him that the place did not matter. Frankly, I had little clue where these states were on the map of India. I was then 23 years old.
Nagaland happened to me. I was in Kohima, a different world for me. Believe it or not, the locals called me an “Indian” when they heard that I had come from New Delhi.
To be honest, I had no aptitude for teaching then and my main aim was to get into the Civil Services. The All-India competition was as fierce then, as now. There were no mobile phones, internet or social media. The only source of national and international news was print media. I had subscribed to the Tribune, published from Chandigarh. The post arrived at Kohima in a batch of seven newspapers a week later. Current news became history by that time. I strayed from my main focus and started enjoying my stupid new-found authority with a separate office cabin, a drunk old Nepali attendant and the old-fashioned bell to summon him for a glass of water, sometimes even when I was not thirsty.
Back then, the maximum age limit for competing in the Civil Services was 26, which meant I had only three attempts. The first time, I appeared without much preparation. It was peak summer time and the electricity was cut off at night. I remember studying the whole night inside my mosquito net in candle light. I failed the Preliminary examination itself. The second time, I passed the Prelims but could not get through the Mains.
On my second attempt, my examination centre for the Mains was Shillong (Kohima not being included as a test centre). I took leave and went all the way to Shillong to appear for my Mains examination. Luckily, I had got the University Guest House accommodation. On the night prior to my first paper of Psychology, the Guest House attendant called Sherpa told me what he had heard on the local radio a curfew would be imposed from next morning starting at 5 a.m. in the city. All my preparation and mental equilibrium flew out of the window. The challenge was how to step out and reach the far-off test centre. He advised me to take a blanket and leave at midnight to ensure I don’t miss the exam. I followed his advice and spent the whole night under a tree with a blanket wrapped around me. The armed soldiers arrived in the early morning to guard the test centre. I brushed my teeth at a hand pump, washed my face and waited for the locks to be opened. In hindsight, I thought it was funny trying to remember theories of applied Psychology with a battalion of armed security personnel laying a fortress-like siege around the test centre. The result was obvious. I could not qualify the Mains exam and wasted my second attempt.
Well, then it was a do or die situation. It was my third and last attempt. I took unpaid leave, went back home and finally cracked all the three stages- preliminary, mains and interview and found my name in the newspaper. About 500-odd candidates got selected that year from the entire country. I resigned my University job and returned home to wait for my call letter. Unfortunately for me, the Mandal Commission was implemented and my position got pushed down in the merit list. I joined as a probationer in some service that I did not like and to the surprise of everybody, resigned from the Civil Services one month before the completion of probationary training to join ONGC as an Administrative Officer (Personnel & Administration) at Tel Bhawan Dehradun. The rest is history.
The purpose of narrating this story is not to brag about myself but to encourage youngsters of today to come out of their comfort zones, accept challenges and adapt to new environments. It will make them more confident, more practical and add value to their careers.
(Alok Joshi is an HR Advisor, motivational speaker, trainer, freelance writer and author with a multi-cultural background and diverse experience in India and abroad.)
