Civil Servants of India Don’t Enjoy Their Life

It is a wrong assumption that IAS/IPS/IRS officers don’t enjoy their life.

They are rather envied by the media, intellectuals and professionals of other fields because they are enjoying their life too much.

I am an engineer from IIT and most of my batch mates are working in corporates, MNCs in India and abroad. Many of them are also entrepreneurs who are running their own companies and earning huge money. Many of them further graduated from IIM and working as CEO of top companies.

However, they have little time to enjoy their wealth because either they are the employees where they are sharing a huge responsibility or heading a company and concerned about the business and competition.

Most of them feel insecure in whichever position they are.

Civil services in India gives you a lifetime security simply by cracking one single examination.

• Your pay, perks and promotions are assured for life.
• You live your life on your own terms and conditions.
• You have all the powers given by the law to run your organization.
• You get opportunity to serve millions of people directly.
• You collect revenue, maintain law and order and contribute to development of your country.
• You make policies for the Government and the country.

A civil servant in India is still the steel frame of India.

Government structure would collapse without them.

The importance of a civil servant far exceeds the importance of the professionals of any other career for the country and for the common man.

  

 -Awdhesh Singh

Party is Over. It’s Time To Get Serious

My answer will hurt… but this is the truth.

Party is over. It’s time to get serious!

Why?

• You’re facing a world of unimaginable change because of accelerating technological innovation.
• A world with a global population reaching 8 Billion people — each one of us demanding extensive needs.
• The monetary policies that have supported the global growth for decades is not working anymore because of irresponsible and ambitious leaders that have abused it — today our economy depends on debt to grow. Not sustainable!
• You’re facing a world where the current educational system is NOT teaching and training you to face these tough realities.
• You’re the most distracted generation in history. Your distraction is your biggest enemy because without focused actions you won’t stand a chance to make a good living.
• You’re facing a world that is full of painful surprises that school has been hiding from you — like the fact that Baby Boomers are about to retire and they don’t have enough financial support to make a living.
• Only 22% of Baby Boomers believe they are doing a good job of preparing financially for retirement. [1]
• Only 27% of Baby Boomers believe they will have enough money for healthcare expenses.
• Do you know who will pay for this liability? Correct, you guessed it…

To answer your question; this is my best advice:

1. Eliminate your social media apps on your smartphone and everything else that is hacking your attention.
2. Start planning your future with full focused intention and strategy.
3. Become an expert on any area that you enjoy and are good at.
4. Develop the habits and discipline of hard work and constant learning.
5. Develop your mindset to become a leader and NOT a follower. Don’t trust what everyone is doing! Don’t follow the crowd!
6. Have fun :)

Footnotes

[1] 10 Statistics That Prove Baby Boomers Are in Big Trouble When It Comes to Retiremen

 

-Hector Quintanilla

Algebra, Trigonometry, Calculus, Mechanics, Thermodynamics, Cell, Geometry, Coding Why they are Taught to Children & Teenagers ?

There is actually no reason to study those if you wish to work at manual labor for the rest of your life. You probably don't need them if you are going to be a sales clerk, or a waiter, or a truck driver. Those are all honorable jobs, so if that is your goal, there is no need.

On the other hand, if you want to be an engineer, a data analyst, a scientist, or an architect, then those skills will be part of your everyday life.

If you want to go into business or computers, then you need the ability to think analytically, and to become a problem solver. Very few subjects studied in high school teach those skills; the predominant one is mathematics. If you find math difficult, it is likely for precisely that reason: it is the only course you are taking in which you are asked to solve problems that are not absolutely identical to problems you have previously seen. The key to learning math is recognizing that you are learning approaches, not facts, and think of those approaches as tools towards addressing new ideas.

The skill to "problem solve" is one of the most highly valued skills in all careers.

 -Richard Muller

5000 to 500 Crore

Every Moment I Just Want to Change My Past

There is an anecdote on this.

A young man was going to meet his lady love and to her parents. On the mid way he took little rest and he put his horse in a grassland for a while.

As soon as he woke up he found the horse to be missing. It was one of his favourite horse. He searched the horse like a mad man. At times he regretted that why he took rest and all. Days passed by. He wondered for the horse for days. Later he found out there is a wicked landlord who has captured the horse. He tried to pursue the landlord to give him back his horse. But it did not result anything. Later in the mid night he hatched a plan to steal his horse, but caught by the guards of the landlord and he was badly beaten.

In the mean time he totally forgot that he had promised his lady love and her parents to come. He promised his own mom to come back as early as possible. And here he is with broken legs and hands lying under a tree.

Often our life is like that. We are working to achieve a goal. Then a distraction or external agent comes. We get swayed away. When we get beaten there, we forget the first goal even. When we start regretting we often lose the things that are with us or that could have come in our way. Whether it comes to your love or career or anything else remember life is much bigger than this. Love may happen many times in life. Career can be resurrected from dust. Everything in this world is not worth in front of life itself. Stop regretting.

  

-Abinash Mishra, IAS | IIT-KGP

                     { Bloggers's Note : Try to learn from your past and also from past of others. Read and teach yourself Psychology & Sociology. Start to make your life better. Read the book " As a Man Thinketh by James Allen " & also the book   " You Can Heal Your Life by Louise Hall  "  

Make yourself better & work smart & hard }

Why They are Middle Class?

Because they buy glossy branded shoes with their credit cards and wear them over the overwashed cheap-torn socks.

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The poor person has nothing to hide. His status is clearly evident from his lifestyle. So he is not bothered about what others would think of him.

The rich person has everything at his disposal. He needn’t care about his image. His wealth will do the talking. So even if he is dressed in non-branded wear or has an old car, people would consider him as an epitome of simplicity.

Between these two categories lies the middle-class.

They want to be associated with the ‘rich’ image rather than ‘poor’ image.

Hence, they are more concerned about showing that they are rich rather than being rich.

I will give a very simple example.

Many middle-class people are fascinated with owning a car. They prefer a brand that is usually beyond their financial status and put aside good chunk of their monthly salary to pay this EMI.

But from the moment they have car inside the house, they think thrice to take it out for a drive. They get scared thinking about the fuel expenses, parking fees, toll gate fees etc.

And by the time they painstakingly clear the EMIs, they would have drove that now-depreciated car less than a hundred times.

Same logic goes for weddings, gifts and celebrations. A rich person has the liberty to have a budget wedding but a middle-class person doing the same treats it like a prestige issue. Hence, he uses all his savings, borrows if necessary, and then puts up a grand show. He then spends rest of his life working hard to repay the expenses for that evening’s celebration.

In one episode of Neeya Naana, a Tamil debate show, a lady said

My husband bought me a gold necklace and earrings. I felt excited and wore it for a family event that day. And the next day, he took that jewellery, mortgaged them in a bank and took loan to repay the money he took from a money lender to buy them. He paid hefty interest to him that day. Till today, he is still paying the dues to the bank.

This summarizes the grave mistake middle-class people make.

In an attempt to match the ‘rich’ tag in the society, they buy most of things on loan, end up paying more than their value, and live from paycheck to paycheck. And at this time, if some unexpected expense knocks their door- a fatal disease or pandemic or loss of job or a dent on car, they are finished.

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The rich take great care managing their assets and investments, while the less well heeled go into debt buying cars and televisions they don’t really need.

The supreme commandment of the rich is ‘Invest!’ The supreme commandment of the rest of us is ‘Buy!’"

― Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari

   

 -Srinath Nalluri 

My House

 

If there is something that I am extremely proud and happy about, it is my house. I have been living outside my state of Kerala for many years. The pandemic has allowed me to be back in my house, and has made me realise and appreciate the sublime beauty of my state, and the unparalleled serenity of my house.

My parents built our house in 2007. We were badly affected by the Kerala flood in 2018.

The house has since been repaired and repainted.

My parents wanted a house that could capture the essence and simplicity of the traditional Kerala architecture, without compromising on the needs of the present times. Thus, our house has an open courtyard inside, around which different rooms are built. It is truly bewitching to watch the rain inside the house, and the entire house will be filled with the earthly scents and petrichor.

Kerala, being ‘God's own Country' (both literally and figuratively, in my opinion), is so green and lush. My house is no different. Even though we have space-constraints, my mother has created a beautiful garden.

Of course, the beautiful climate of Kerala helps in keeping the plants so healthy and green. It is like eternal spring in Kerala.

Few more photos:

Our cute little gate:

Pictures taken by a professional photographer during a family function:

Overall, not a bad place to be quarantined and locked down, eh?

   

-Gayathri Venu

"I Was Born With an Abnormality That Affects 1 in a Million People. It's Untreatable, So........

"I was born with an abnormality that affects one in a million people. It's untreatable, so I grew up listening to comments like 'lula', which meant disabled. My schoolmates laughed at the way I ate or held a pencil. So I'd sit in a corner to avoid them. I was a lonely kid without any friends, and cried at home everyday; questioning– why me? No one had an answer. 

 

In Grade 7, a teacher, who'd seen the bullying, called me in front of the class and asked, 'Rohit, do you want to tell your classmates anything?' I broke down. After that, people began talking to me, but only out of sympathy. But soon after, I switched schools. 

 

There, I was scared. I'd wear full sleeved shirts and walk with my hands in my pockets to hide them. But finally when my classmates saw me holding a pen, they just said, 'We don't care.' It felt surreal, to finally be accepted after so long of being sidelined. But in junior college, things took a bad turn.

I started wearing half sleeved shirts again and walking the way I do normally– that’s when the imitation started. I'd try to ignore and develop a thick skin, but it still affected me and my grades took a hit. I barely managed to pass. 

 

My parents were my only support. They'd comfort me and say, 'These things don't matter.’ The only thing that mattered was who I was, as a person and what I made of myself. So I began preps for MBBS and studied 18 hours a day, 7 days a week– I simply didn’t have time for the haters. A year later, I got into the program on my first attempt! Dad just said, 'Finally all those hours paid off!'

 

I was excited for a fresh start. In the first year, I asked a girl out, but her friends told her, 'He has a deformity!' But she didn't care, and we were together for 5 years. 

 

  

It didn't work out between us, but medical school completely changed me. I found things I was good at– like presentations, debates, organizing conferences. And with each task I undertook, my confidence rose. 

 

I realised there was more to me– beyond how I walked or ate; things that actually made a difference. Like for one of the courses, we had to dissect a body. And out of my whole group, I did most of the task– it became about the little achievements. 

 

Over the years, my passion for serving others has only grown. So currently I'm doing my Masters and am a doctor in training– I work on the frontlines to treat Covid patients. 

 

My friends and parents worry about me because even the way I hold an injection is different, but it doesn't matter. I'm still able to help people and save lives; and if I'm doing it a little differently, that's okay. Afterall, I’m one in a million."

 

Emotionally Exhausted & Physically Tired Because of That?

A codependent dynamic is, by definition, a system where I give more than I have.

I constantly ignore or neglect my own limits and my own needs in a search for approval or love, hyper-focused on how the other is reacting to the point of obsession.

I eventually lose the ability to determine or articulate what I think or how I feel.

I measure my own worth through how others define me, which means I spend a lot of energy managing things I can’t control, such as what other people think of me.

I experience high levels of stress, as “ordinary statements” such as “I will see you tomorrow!” make me feel I’m being abandoned in a remote location forever.

I feel uneasy alone, which means I cancel out my own ability to recharge.

Of course I invariably end up exhausted.

The antidote - the cure - is not a quick fix. It’s a new way of life.

It’s setting boundaries. Learning to say no, despite the fear and discomfort.

It’s learning how to be alone even if in the beginning it feels painful, since this is when I can listen and put into words my needs, my thoughts, my inner voice.

It’s following through on what I say I am going to do, which involves discipline and healthy habits. This way I show myself I can trust me.

It means placing more weight on what I think of me, instead of what others think of me.

It takes practice, and coming back to it again and again.

This is the only way I know to un-exhaust myself.

 -Dushka Zapata