Athletic meet

We had Athletic meet at LBSNAA... After so many days all of us participated in events. Some are really good Athletes and they bagged all the prizes. Few are good but not in condition..

Coming to me: When I had to give my name for a particular event, I told our leader that I'm a very bad Athlete and that I would participate in simplest event. But these words of mine made a great damage. Later when I was interested in participating in events like Tug of war and Relay, I was never considered. Indeed everyone started to believe that I'm a bad athlete. But later I learnt that Im not very bad. Almost all were bad athletes except few great women. Indeed with the regular yoga practice I was having good stamina too. I ran with the best woman athlete Amrapali to cheer her up! Later, I felt I should have participated at least in 100 mts. I repented my statement "Im a very bad athlete" so much those 2 days..

Lessons learnt: Never think that you are weak. Even if you believe, do not declare it. You might be able to do it better than many others. Dont give up without trying!!

LBSNAA

Mussoorie... A place I visited with my friends when I was in BITS campus..

Its a beautiful place with scenic beauty everywhere...

Mountains covered with fog even in the afternoon...

Scene from my room window looks awesome...

Our inauguration ceremony was conducted on 31-08-2010.

Uttarakhand Governor Mrs. Margaret Alva was our chief guest..

I performed Academy song along with many others on the day..

I was so lucky, mom n dad attended the ceremony..

Initial few interesting classes were on things like Dining Etiquette, formal dress....

We have P.T every morning at 5:55 am. Its really cold here and play ground is 2 km away from our hostel. Its completely ghat road. Getting down is easy but climbing up is very difficult as some slopes are too steep.

Tomorrow we are going on trekking to Kempty falls which is 13km from here..Im all excited.

They are selecting people as secretaries and members to various departments. I filed nomination for member of both Fine arts association and society for social service. There will be elections if many people contest.. I dunno how many votes I'll get.. But I will participate in all my favorite departments irrespective of election result.

Our Collector, Another inspiration.

This post is about reaction in crisis.

One of my friends father was in Indo-American Cancer hospital and he was being administered chemotherapy today. While I was going for shopping to buy a cell with my dad, my friend called me and spoke in a very feeble voice. She said, her father was being given chemotherapy and he got a massive heart attack during the process. So, doctors said odds of survival are extremely low. She said doctors were not attending to her father. He had been left alone since 3 pm. It was around 7:00 p.m. She wanted me to talk to CEO, Indo-American Hospitals through our collector so that he gives importance to this case. She said, "Laya, this is the last help I seek from you, we are ready to spend any amount of money, please do this for me".

I was moved and started shivering. Slowly I prepared myself, went to collectorate, found that collector was in a meeting with MLA in his chamber. I waited till he came out. I went in and spoke to him. He was very kind to respond immediately and he talked to CEO. But what he heard must be very bad, his expression changed immediately. He conveyed that it was a critical case, the patient got massive heart-attack and they were planning to move him to CARE hospital. I conveyed the same to Srivani and her mother and told them to be brave.

But none of our efforts helped. By the time we completed our shopping and returned, I got another call from Srivani, saying her father expired. It was such a difficult situation, she was sobbing endlesssly and I did not know what to say. What she was told was, her father had expired much before. But they broke the news gradually while conducting tests even after his life was gone. She was very weak and she said, her father was killed by doctors due to their gross negligence. It may or may not be true. She might be too emotionally disturbed to really understand and judge the situation. But Chemotherapy according to me is not fatal though it has many side-effects.

We might know facts only with time or we might never know anything. But in one month her life had changed drastically and it had become very difficult for her to cope with it. It will take time but I believe she will definitely become stronger and very successful in life.

And for the first time, I really felt proud of my job. Without which, it would have been impossible for me to talk to a District collector. My heartfelt thanks to my Collector. He really inspired me a lot in those few moments. I can never forget the way he responded to my request. He became my another role model today! But the fact that I cant be of any help continues to hurt me.....

Tryst with UPSC

Long time.. no update..

Indeed I dint find any readers for my blog....

so I left it uncared for...

Now that I came to know there are some fans to my blog...

I'm motivated to write it again!

May 6th: My UPSC result came n I got AIR 201st rank..

Everyone at home is extremely happy.

Here is my brief account on 2nd attempt preparation.

After giving UPSC civil service interview in 2009, I came to Hyderabad to prepare for

next prelims and give it in May. It is very important to manage stress when you get result of your previous attempt and still study for your next attempt. I cleared 2008 Civil service exam and I got IRS (Income Tax). I gave prelims on May 17th.

During the same period APPSC mains result was also announced and I cleared. So I attended the interview on May 31st. Since I was already into IRS that time, I could face interview very confidently and it paid me back. Later I came to know that I was topper in the interview score.

I went to Delhi in June coz I thought I'd attend mains GS classes and come back just before mains 2009. In June/July I got APPSC result and I was selected for Deputy Collector. I decided the very moment that I'd join Deputy Collector and not IRS. Many advised me otherwise but I felt I'd be more satisfied working as DC than as Asst.Commissioner Income tax though IRS is always superior in terms of cadre and pay...

I had to fly down to Hyderabad to join job.. So I could not attend GS mains classes for 2009 mains.. I joined job on Aug 13th 2009. I'd write about DC training in another blog..

Soon I started feeling restless as I was not having much time to prepare for mains and Im spending almost all my time in office. It was already Sept, I had mains in Oct and I decided to take leave. I gave letter to my collector and he accepted it. I stayed back at home and started studying. I got g.s mains material from Delhi. Since mains current affairs are prepared during that time, I asked one of my friends to post it. I wrote Geography written tests conducted by Gurajala Sir and read vajiram gs material. I could not do much for Public Administration. But after undergoing training for 20 days as Deputy Collector, I gained more insight into actual working of government... This helped me in writing fresh and practical answers in Pub Ad paper2. I'm always comfortable with Pub Ad Paper I. Essay - I just wrote 1 essay before 2 days before mains exams. Got feedback from GSR sir. It was very helpful. I was happy with my Essay, GS paper 2 (International Relations) and Pub Ad. Geography exam was conducted immediately after Public Administration. There was no gap and I stayed up whole night to revise. Still I could not complete last 2 chapters and I was not feeling very fresh on the day of exam. But Exam was ok..

My mains exams got over on 28th and I joined job on 3oth in collectorate.. I was not very happy with my performance, nevertheless there was huge improvement compared to my first attempt. I was totally enjoying myself in DC training.. Institutional training at MCRHRD started in Jan 2010 and I was very active during that time..I could not find much time for my interview or next prelims.. I could just manage to go through Hindu paper superficially.. In March mains result came and I cleared. So I had to prepare for interview then. I started brushing current affairs, completing some books I started reading... We were sent back for field training between Mar 6th and 21st. During this time I reported back in collectorate and we were attached with Police commissionerate, DMHO, RVM for training. Though I was feeling tensed on one side for not being able to study on the other side I was comforting myself that whole of this training will be very useful in my interview.. GSR sir was giving guidance for interview whenever he could find time. I used to attend whenever I could find time. But those few sessions were very very useful in my interview preparation. Since I was not following current affairs closely during Dec, Jan, Feb.. I used to get lot of inputs when I attended these sessions. Many other aspirants were present there and we could exchange opinions on prominent issues that were in news that time. During this time Gopala Krishna Sir of Braintree called me once for mock interview.. I attended once and he asked many factual questions on state administration which I could not answer. He just said one thing to me " You can articulate very well, you have all the ability to give good interview but you do not have information, I wont wonder if you fail because you are not prepared well.." He advised me to sit at home from very next day and study. I was very tensed at that time, but there was no way I could skip institutional training which started in MCRHRD on 21st March. I joined before everyone else came to join and I was thinking how to prepare for interview and next prelims.. This training was to last till June 20th and prelims on May 23rd. So, I was feeling hopeless. Whenever I met people like my JC - Durga Das garu, our RDO - Chandrasekhar Reddy garu and even GSR sir.. Everyone was like this is your best chance, you should not waste time attending DC training now. You should study for interview. It was very difficult to get leave. I came to know that they are allowing us to take 3 days leave in MCRHRD to attend interview in Delhi and fly back! I was taken aback... My face became very small n I was not finding interest in anything.. I was sitting at the back in classes n was trying to read some frontline magazines and newspapers. But I could not really concentrate when classes were going on... Some people used to stand beside me while teaching to see what I was doing! It was suffocating.. Finally my DC colleagues understood my problem and on senior most group1 officer Dr.Ambedkar requested our course director to exempt me from sitting in the class for 3 days until interview. I sat in library and studied as many magazines as possible. my concentration was full as those few hours were very precious for me! Then I left for interview feeling confident. As I mentioned before, I always told myself, Iam different form all others. My DC training gave me different kind of experience and my academic background, my preference for DC over IRS job would make the board choose me for IAS.

I was very happy after completing my interview. It went on similar lines, my experiences during DC training, why I chose DC, What are my priorities etc... It was really a great interview.. I felt very confident after stepping out of UPSC that day...

I came back and joined training hoping for the best.. I started preparation for next prelims. But as the date of result was nearing I could concentrate lesser and lesser on prelims preparation..

Finally, result came and suddenly everyone started saying "I'm proud of u"...

I'll be getting IAS - which cadre - Not known yet.. UPSC is always like that... It keeps you waiting for days, weeks and months together keeping you in a dilemma... But fortunately, it always gave me good news rather it never gave me catastrophic news..