Facing the Civils interview board
#BIG-IMAGE##In this article, I am going to cover my interview for the central services. As explained in my earlier article, I approached the interview with an advice and an attitude both of which stood me in good stead during the course of the interview. The advice was from an elder who advised me not to guess but frankly say that I don’t know in case I don’t know the answer. The attitude was that I was not nervous that being my first attempt and in any case, I was not hopeful of making it to the services
In those days there were two interview boards. One for the IAS and IFS and another one for the central services. Since I did not take the higher options I was only qualified for the central services and went before the central services board. It was just before lunch time my turn for the interview came. I went inside wished the board members, took my seat on being asked to do so by the chairman.
There were three members to the right and left of the chairman and I was facing straight the chairman in terms of seating arrangement. Chairman of the board whose name I subsequently found out was one Mr Ghosh, a retired IAS officer. He went through my filled-in application, came to the last portion and started remarking that I play ball badminton. In the application form, I filled in that I play ball badminton. He paused for a minute and asked me the first question why ball badminton is played more in South India than in North India. I didn’t know the answer and instead of guessing I told him I don’t know the answer.
He then went on to explain that I need to think and answer may be it is more windy in South India and hence it’s difficult to play shuttle badminton in such weather conditions; further, shuttle badminton is a costly game and you southerners are stingy and hence play
ball badminton instead of shuttle badminton. I answered him back stating that both those could be true. He insisted on explaining the same in my own words. I answered him stating that since weather conditions may not permit, people in the south preferred to play ball badminton and since shuttle badminton is a costly game and as most people can’t afford it probably ball badminton became more popular.
He was satisfied with the reply and requested another gentleman sitting to my left to put next question. I subsequently came to know that he was retired DGP of Tamil Nadu Sunderavelu. He put me the question whether I knew why shuttle badminton is played more in North and even without waiting for my reply replied himself. In the north, people eat a lot of chicken the feather is left out and they make shuttlecocks out of it and play the game.
There was an all-round laughter as he paid back Mr Ghosh for his remarks about stingy southerners. He went on to put me next question as to why there is a lot of unrest in a number of educational institutions whereas the same is not the case with premier institutions like IITs and IIMs. I answered the question stating that once a person joins the premier institution his future is assured and he concentrates on his studies.
These institutions are islands of peace in otherwise turbulent ocean of other academic institutions where students are not sure about the future after completion of academic courses hence they tend to behave differently compared to students studying in the premier institutions. He agreed with me and commended my answer. The lady sitting next to him put me the next question.
Since I was by then working in industrial infrastructure corporation as assistant development officer, the question related to my work experience. She questioned me what were the major problems of small-scale industry. The same I was able to answer well, effectively pointing out that timely credit availability is a major problem for small industry.
I was able to relate it to an enterprise in my industrial estate started by a professional but taken over by Marwadi at a latter date since he had problems of finance from banks that too at crucial time. I also mentioned branding and marketing are major problems for the small industry and was able to relate the same by bringing in the example of shock absorbers for the two wheelers a field monopolised by one brand Gabriel in those days. This answer also went well with the interview board. Then the questions became specific to Andhra Pradesh state in terms of major commercial crops grown in the state, major industries located within the state. I was able to answer both of them very well.
There were some more questions which I cannot recollect at this length of time but was able to answer them well. I came out of the interview with the feeling that I had done it reasonably well. My brother-in-law gave me the reference of Dr Panduranga Rao, Language Officer at UPSC, who was known to him. (Next year when I made it to IAS his son I V Subba Rao became my batchmate), After the interview, I met him and gave my number and he promised to inform me the result. I came back and started attending to my duties in the industrial estate. As it happens sometimes, there is a slip between the cup and the lip.
After the interview, I was reasonably confident that I would make it to the civil service. The day the results were announced I was in Nizamabad and the only newspaper that carried the results was Indian Express. In the morning when I saw the newspaper my number was not there. Since my hopes got enhanced after the interview I felt disappointed and went to my workplace only to see the letter from Panduranga Rao Garu with whom I left my roll number congratulating me on my success. I immediately came to Hyderabad and saw other newspapers.
My roll number was very much there only to be missed by Indian Express. I got 60% in the interview and made it to income tax mainly based on my interview performance. In those days, 60% in interview was an excellent performance. I received the necessary communication shortly from the UPSC, and decided to skip the foundation course and prepare for IAS full time. Accordingly, I resigned from my job, came to Hyderabad and started my preparation for the IAS, leading to my selection. I will be covering this in my next article.