Honesty, confidence pay rich dividends

When I started writing the article on my preparation for the Civil Services Examination, I was not sure how relevant it would be since I was dealing with my experience almost 40 years back. But the response I received pleasantly surprised me. When you go down the memory lane you become nostalgic and process becomes as important as the event itself. I thought I will share with you my experiences consequent on my selection in the Civil Services Exams till I went before the interview board in this article leaving the details of interview to be covered in the next one.

When I appeared for the Civils exam, I was working as an assistant development officer at an industrial estate located at Sarangapur 10 km away from Nizamabad. Office consisted of me, my clerk and one attender. The office of Industrial Development Officer, Mahadev who was my boss, was also located on the same premises consisting of his clerk and his attender. He always felt that I was not giving him the respect due to him. Though he did not treat me badly, was not very friendly either.

But suddenly things changed. Once it was known that I got selected in the Civils exam, he started showing me a lot of respect, what if I make it to the IAS in the due course and come as his boss. Incidentally, he was in service when I joined the AP government in the cadre of the IAS though there was no opportunity for us to work together since I was not posted in industries department during the course of my career. 

The other clerical staff felt very happy about my selection and since it was a small office, we used to move together and go for movies together. I could see even in those days strong sentiment in favour of Telangana. All the staff members including my boss were from Telangana area. Though this never had any effect on our friendly relationship, a strong undercurrent of resentment that youngsters like me were coming and occupying higher posts was always there.

The date of the interview was known and accordingly I planned my trip to Delhi. I had a classmate of mine, Devendra Kumar, who got selected to the Indian Overseas Bank as a probationary officer and was working at that time in Delhi. I sent him a telegram that I was coming to Delhi and started on my journey to Delhi. It was overnight bus journey from Nizamabad to Nagpur on way to Delhi. 

Office staff came to the bus stand to see me off. The bus reached Nagpur in time to connect with the ever dependable Grand Trunk express from Chennai to Delhi. If the trains are on time, GT express from Delhi to Chennai and Chennai to Delhi cross each other at Nagpur railway station. I got into a reserved compartment without reservation and told the ticket collector that I was going to Delhi for Civils interview and he promised to provide me a berth by evening time. 

There was a Tamilian Army Major travelling in the same compartment and he enquired where I was going. Informed him about my interview and told him if my friend misses me at railway station my destination would be Indian Overseas Bank, Janpath. He was helpful and told me if I missed my friend, I could take a cab, ask him to take me to Janpath and as he took a turn from Connaught Place to Janpath, I should ask him to stop and I would be right before Indian Overseas Bank. 

As luck would have it, the telegram I sent didn’t reach my friend in time and he was not there at the railway station. The advice of the Army Major came in handy and accordingly I took a cab went to IOB and waited for my friend to come to the office. In those days without mobile phones and no residential telephones to many, the only means of communication was either a card or a telegram and if they failed to reach in time, you really have a problem. Luckily my friend turned up at 10 ‘o’ clock at the bank. 

I went with him to his room stayed there for the night and was ready for the interview the next day. Since, as mentioned earlier, this was my first attempt and a feeling that I may not make it gave me a good sound sleep in the night and with full confidence that I may not be able to crack the interview this time in my first attempt, I entered the Dholpur House. The positive effect of the same was that I was not nervous when I entered the room for my interview.

There were other candidates who came for the interview. My turn came nearer to lunch time. The general impression was that it would be better if the interview happened early in the morning times, because as the lunch time approached the concentration of the board members may not be there. I was the last one or the last but one before the lunchtime. How the interview went I would be dealing with it in my next article. But there was one sound advice given by an elder which stood me in good stead on that day. He told me if you don’t know, don’t guess. Tell them you don’t know they will appreciate you for the same.