Amidst the lockdown, Mr Vikram Grewal made time out of his busy schedule to answer a few questions. These include but are not limited to some pertinent doubts which afflict the candidates during their preparation, as well as ways to study in and cope with the status quo. We present his witty and enlightening response:
1. How do you spend your time during these trying times? Have you discovered anything new during the lockdown?
"I have been working from home mostly, attached to the Covid Cell of MEA for Sri Lanka and Maldives. And as the Vande Bharat evacuation is on, it’s a great learning experience. Apart from that, the new things I have discovered while staying at home is that washing utensils is quite therapeutic and electrocuting mosquitoes while listening to Beethoven is weirdly satisfying."
2. How would you draw a parallel between your experience as a Fauji kid, and an officer in the administrative service?
"I think, to start with-both the streams-the Defence Services and the Civil Services are integral to what we call nation-building. As a Fauji kid, the kind of exposure I got by staying all across the country, meeting different people, changing schools time and again is something that also aroused my interest in understanding how the governance structures of this country work and how uniform or diverse they are. So knowing the ‘defence’ side of the story and now trying to learn the ‘civil’ side of the story would certainly enhance my comprehension of the system as a whole. They might not necessarily be two sides of the same coin, but they are parallels that intersect often."
3. As the author of two books, what motivated/motivates you to write?
"To be honest, my approach towards writing is a little different. Nothing really motivates me, it’s only to ease the burden in my head that I write. I feel it is a satisfying exercise in which you transfer the load of your thoughts onto paper. It creates space for other incoming stuff in your mind and makes you feel light. So I basically write more to simply create space and ultimately to read more. I think everyone’s a writer, it’s just that we are all too lazy to clean our hard drives perhaps. And that’s ok I guess."
4. What does the training of an IFS officer entail?
"After completing the Foundation Course at LBSNAA, Mussoorie with our batchmates from other services, IFS officer trainees have a multi-module training at Sushma Swaraj Institute of Foreign Services (SSIFS) at New Delhi where we have lectures, seminars, simulations, attachments at international events (like Raisina Dialogue, Indian Ocean Dialogue, etc.) We have Army Attachments, Bharat Darshan and the Mission Attachments (for which I was fortunate enough to visit Vietnam this year.) After the stint at SSIFS, we are attached to the Ministry for sometime before leaving for our first foreign posting as Language Trainees. That’s the official plan. Unofficially, the training of an IFS officer is lifelong. There’s so much to learn across the globe and that excites me."
5. What has been the most memorable part of your journey, so far?
"Walking on a frozen Pangong Lake in Ladakh during Bharat Darshan. Staying in J&K for the most part of my life, I had visited the Lake earlier, but never during winters. Walking on it and listening to Led Zeppelin’s ‘Stairway to Heaven’ was something I always wanted to do but had no idea that I would get the opportunity to do it so soon."
6. What motivated your choice of the Indian Foreign Services over Indian Administrative Services?
"Moving around the country has been a part of my childhood. Moving across borders someday fascinated me. My father’s two tenures in Ethiopia and South Sudan as part of UN IPKF also intrigued me. A huge fan of ‘Adventures of Tintin’ since school, I always wanted to travel across the globe and work for India. Also, because of this sort of ‘nomadic’ early life I never had a sense of overwhelming affinity towards any hometown or any specific state, so choosing a State for IAS Cadre preference was anyways extremely confusing. All these factors consolidated my desire to be a part of the prime Central Civil Service for which I had given the exam in the first place: the Indian Foreign Service."
7. What did your schedule for preparing for the exam entail?
"Schedule was simple. One year. 12 months. 3 months for Ncerts, 3 months for extra books, 3 months for Optional and the final 3 months for rigorous revision. Daily schedule involved 8 hours of study, 8 hours of sleep and 8 hours for miscellaneous/essential activities. I was fortunate enough to stay with my parents- so didn’t have to worry about subsistence- it’s a privilege that many aspirants don’t get."
8. What were the driving factors behind attempting the Civil Services Examination?
"The biggest driving factor was the exam itself and the vast knowledge it offered. I never had a favourite subject, and this exam is a boon for such people who get bored really quickly with a subject. While all my batchmates had charming CVs and recommendations from Professors in college, I didn’t have much to show. I wasn’t a post-holder in any society, though I was a part of Sabha, ShakeSoc, CSF, CineClub, Quiz Club and some others. All I did in my final year in college was direct plays, Wodehouse Society pranks, try to revive Kooler Talk and write SPICE. All of this I could do, because at the back of my mind I knew that I was going to prepare for an exam that doesn’t care about who you are, it only cares about what you know. So it was a pure knowledge-gaining process for me. Everyday I woke up with the excitement to know about something worth knowing. And maybe that’s why I didn’t miss college that much. (But I certainly did/do miss the people.)"
9. Could you recommend the material you utilised while preparing for the examination?
"Rather than recommending anything specific, I’d just suggest a criterion that you must follow while picking up material for this exam. The criterion is simple: it’s a government exam- think like a government examiner. Go for government publications: NCERTs, PIB, Economic Surveys, NITI Aayog reports etc. You basically have to closely track what the establishment is doing in order to observe what it is doing, just like K-Pop fans track their favourite artists across the internet, a little more analytically though. Oh and do read the Hindu or the Indian Express!"
10. What would your advice be for Stephanians who aspire to join the bureaucratic echelon?
"Stephanians are a privileged lot. No doubt about that. The intellectually stimulating environment you get in college, you won’t find it anywhere. The way all societies are open to all junior members- they are outstanding opportunities to meet people and learn. And when you have such talented batchmates that you look up to- an innate respect for colleagues is imbibed in you which will hold you in good stead in professional careers. And then there are other gems that many people fail to recognize: Engaging with Unequal India (I hope this course is still there for First Years) was such a brilliant class to gain from. It’s sad that very few people attended it seriously; then there are people like JPji, Gopalji, Dr. Baker who have loads of experience to offer. I learned more interacting with them and my seniors than in any lecture. So, my advice to the Stephanians aspiring to join bureaucracy is that please make the most of your time in college. Don’t restrict yourself. Learn from everywhere and everyone. Attend guest talks, discussions, performances, plays, hiking trips, quizzes, film screenings, photo-walks. All of this knowledge will come in handy when you sit down to do hardcore preparation later."
11. Do you have any message for the aspirants, specifically as to deal with the onslaught of the Coronavirus as it affects the academic calendar?
"So the good news is Coronavirus has obscured the entire current affairs landscape. So all aspirants can focus more on the static part and reduce their ‘newspaper time’. The bad news is that there is a lot of uncertainty. The situation reminds us that paying attention to your health- both mental and physical- is extremely important. So many citizens have to worry about food, water and shelter right now while your worry is just an ‘exam’. You must keep calm and invent ways to keep yourself interested indoors. You can watch shows that can help in your preparation: Samvidhaan is one. Recently, ‘Paatal Lok’ came out- if you watch that show and have a discussion on violence, caste, religion, fake news etc. you are indirectly preparing for your exam. Listen to podcasts that might enhance your political, social, economic or constitutional understanding. The uncertainty in the academic calendar will persist for a while but staying on the learning curve despite that is crucial for everyone."
12. What measures should the candidates take in the absence of the repository of online material and paucity of funds in certain places?
"The measures in such cases need to be innovative. There is a tsunami of information online, it’s just that we fail to explore the right content. For example, for Hindi medium students there is a dearth of material both online and offline but there are so many new YouTube channels that provide lectures in Hindi for UPSC preparation for free. Then there are websites like ‘free upsc materials’ that provide compilations, mock tests and other material for free."
13. How effective could virtual classes possibly be? What measures can the students take to prepare thus?
"The efficacy of virtual classes depends on a lot of factors: the teacher, the medium, the student, the network etc. In my opinion, virtual classes can be utilized productively if the student is taking notes constantly because at the end, you need a repository to consult. I’d prefer recorded lectures rather than online classes as that gives much more scope to the student to rewind, fast forward, screenshot important parts of the lecture."
14. What measures do you advise for maintaining a healthy state of mind and personal wellness during these trying times?
"Move! In times like these when you feel stuck in a stagnant soup, it’s important to move. After every 3-4 hours of lying dead on your books or laptops, just do anything that makes you feel alive: stretch, jump around, skip, dance, call your friends/ family/ teachers etc. Or do what we did a lot during drama practices in college: Scream! Also, eat healthy, stick to a routine and talk about your thoughts to someone when you’re feeling low: because ‘If it’s mentionable, it is manageable’ says Tom Hanks as Mister Rogers in ‘A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood’. Do watch that film, might help in your Ethics paper."
15. Any last words for the present and future aspirants? Any line from your favourite
poem/book, or a quote which inspires you?
"It is an exam- give it the respect that it deserves- until it behaves like one. And when it doesn’t, remind yourself that it is an exam. Nothing more, nothing less. I do have a couple of favourite books but their quotes aren’t really inspiring. The thing with inspiring quotes is that they are so many in number and so google-able that I tend to forget them.
Anyways, every candidate has his/her own favourite quotes that’ll see them through this journey. There are a thousand ways to clear this exam and the best way to clear it is your own."
