It was in 1997, when someone had knocked at my room in Jia Sarai, the abode of IAS aspirants. I knew the person who was standing there; he was the topper of Civil Department of our batch, another aspirant for a berth in IAS. He had told that he was looking for a room in Jia Sarai to start full time preparation for the CIVILs.
Even I had quit the highest paid job of my department to appear for the next prelims. I had preferred Jia Sarai to the hostel room I had been allotted in JNU for MA Geography and the scholarship at another course in Forest Management at Bhopal.
My room happened to be the best situated room in the entire locality. It overlooked the Hockey and Football fields of IIT on the other side of the road. The house belonged to the biggest Xerox shop owner of Jia Sarai who knew me for the volume of work I had done during my B-Tech project at his shop. While I had been searching for an accommodation, he had offered that room to me at a throw away rent in one of the costliest places in New Delhi. The room was extremely spacious, traditionally shared by two to three IAS aspirants in the past.
As a recent pass out from an engineering college with hardly any saving, even that rent was a huge burden for me. I had told my batch mate that he could come and stay in that room on sharing of rental. After a long thought he had responded, “Nahi yaar, mere ko serious types ki taiyaari karni hai”. However, he had informed another person, our four year senior, about the part vacancy in that room.
When the result had come all the three of us had qualified.
Even I had quit the highest paid job of my department to appear for the next prelims. I had preferred Jia Sarai to the hostel room I had been allotted in JNU for MA Geography and the scholarship at another course in Forest Management at Bhopal.
My room happened to be the best situated room in the entire locality. It overlooked the Hockey and Football fields of IIT on the other side of the road. The house belonged to the biggest Xerox shop owner of Jia Sarai who knew me for the volume of work I had done during my B-Tech project at his shop. While I had been searching for an accommodation, he had offered that room to me at a throw away rent in one of the costliest places in New Delhi. The room was extremely spacious, traditionally shared by two to three IAS aspirants in the past.
As a recent pass out from an engineering college with hardly any saving, even that rent was a huge burden for me. I had told my batch mate that he could come and stay in that room on sharing of rental. After a long thought he had responded, “Nahi yaar, mere ko serious types ki taiyaari karni hai”. However, he had informed another person, our four year senior, about the part vacancy in that room.
When the result had come all the three of us had qualified.
We still laugh, that after all his ‘serious preparations’ my friend was ranked 17th, I was ranked 15th and our senior, my room mate at Jia Sarai, was ranked 14th, amongst almost 250,000 applicants. We had undergone training at LBSNAA in same batch, we were in the same Bharat Darshan Group and even now we often plan to attend the trainings organized by DOPT together. Last one was at IIM Bangalore, when we had decided that it was time to have a degree in Business Administration.
Today my friend, Collector Sahib for over three years now, had visited ISB with his wife. So it was refreshing of memories of over 14 years, 4 years in IIT and those after that.
Time flies by! What else to say.
Today my friend, Collector Sahib for over three years now, had visited ISB with his wife. So it was refreshing of memories of over 14 years, 4 years in IIT and those after that.
Time flies by! What else to say.
No comments:
Post a Comment