How does the instant celebrity status bestowed on an IAS officer affect the young men and women who have given their all towards preparing for this grueling exam?
What happens when you start a career with the feeling, “Wow, I have arrived!” That is how some IAS Officer Trainees at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA) admit to feeling after having cracked the grueling Civil Services exam. I was at the Academy in Mussoorie as a speaker at the annual LBSNAA Literature Festival.
To get through this exam, which challenges every aspect of your being, one needs to live and breathe the dream to the exclusion of everything else. Life in the salubrious environs of Mussoorie after the soul-sapping exams can only be described as the sudden lull after a storm. As officer trainees land here, there is bound to be exhilaration, soon followed by a feeling of emptiness.
You achieved what you set out to get, a goal you gave up your whole life to achieving. You are here! Now what? This has to be a spiritually significant moment of your life – how can it not be? From this emptiness will emerge the direction of the rest of your life, and your orientation as an officer and a human being.
Riding the same space, the trainees gravitate towards each other and make friends. Some find life partners and negotiate what are known as Cadre-Based Marriages, others simply worry about an ideal partner for the kind of lives they will lead now. Most simply sink into the moment and gravitate back to college mode – relaxing, having fun, cracking jokes, and bonding. Some said they had put on weight!
Such is the status of the IAS in this country that it is natural to slip into a self-congratulatory, contented state after clearing the exams. So how does the LBSNAA shake the young officers out of this mode? Are they taught to replace the IAS goal with new goals and aspirations that are in sync with the needs of the country? Are they nudged into creating new goalposts and encouraged to keep shifting these to greater heights? Is an attempt made to shape them into responsible officers ready to deal with any situation they may face? Are they taught how to balance life and work?
Probationers told me that soon enough they are brought down to earth when they interact with senior officers who address them as guest speakers and make them realize how much they need to learn. Field trips and case studies introduce them to real life situations, and they are also taught Behavioral Sciences on how to influence public behavior and how to make short-term and long-term decisions.
The LBSNAA website talks of aiming at “overall personality development and technical upskilling” through sports activities, panel discussions to promote divergent views, simulation exercises, moot court and mock trials and problem solving exercises. Interesting!
I asked if Emotional Quotient is part of the training and was pleasantly surprised to hear that it is! I also wondered if issues such as corruption, nepotism and abuse of power were discussed or just brushed under the carpet? Probationers told me that every time a bureaucrat lands in trouble, the issue is brought up and discussed at the Academy! Impressive!
With such training and orientation, I wonder then at what stage does cynicism set in and why? The young probationers laughed and told me this is a warning most senior officers give them – ‘Keep your present passion alive and do not become cynical!’
Sadly, I saw very few women amongst the officers, and was told that of a total of 182 IAS officers just 45 were women! This seems to be the average ratio each year. That worried me. I wondered if the UPSC Board that conducts the Personality test to select the officers is well represented by women? Is the Board sensitized about being fair to women candidates? It would be interesting to know if more women lose out at this stage of the exam!
A worry some Trainee Officers expressed was of balancing their personal and official lives. On an average, one-third of their career will be spent in rural areas. As such, finding the right partner with a suitable career and issues of children’s education are bound to loom up.
Also, during my talk I got questions related to love and relationships, which were not very different from the queries I get at other talks. So, despite having “arrived” career-wise, under the IAS garb, you still spy the vulnerable girl or boy looking for the right balance to strike for a happy and contented life.
