A man was travelling through a muddy road when his car got suddenly trapped in the pool of mud. He tried very hard to move but his car failed to come out of it.
Suddenly, he saw a villager coming toward him in his bullock cart.
Once the bullock cart came near, he requested him to pull his car out of mud. A deal of Rs 100 was negotiated between them for the work and the villager pulled the car using his bullocks.
The man felt greatly relieved and paid him the money.
He then asked the villager, “There may be so many cars that would be getting trapped in this mud.”
Villager: “True sir. You are the seventh person since morning whose car got trapped in this mud.”
Man: “Oh my God! Did you have to pull all of them.”
Villager: “Yes Sir.”
Man: “You must be busy full day pulling the cars from the mud having no time to do your own work.”
Villager: “Very True Sir. I have to do all my work in night only.”
Man: “Oh I see! By the way, what work you do in night.”
Villager: “I just ensure that this mud is never dry.”
There are so many people on both sides of the India-Pakistan border who ensure that the mud is never dry.
Imagine that you have to perform a long distance train journey from Delhi to Mumbai. You have several options to travel.
1: You can travel by Air Conditioned (AC) Tier-I Class where you can sleep comfortably in the night and reach to your destination comfortably reading a few books, surfing the net and listening the music.
2: You can travel by Sleeper compartment, where you can get a berth to sleep but you have to suffer all the noise of the moving train and the hot/cold weather in the night.
3: You can travel by in a ‘unreserved’ general compartment where you may not even get a seat and you have to spend your night standing on foot.
In all the three cases, you start and reach to the same destination exactly at the same time. However, your journey is not the same in all three cases.
Imagine a journey which lasts for 80-100 years.
Given a choice you would like to travel by AC class with all the comfort. However, you have to earn money to buy an AC ticket which would be 5-6 times more than the price of the general class compartment. You have to work hard to earn that money to buy the tickets.
The journey of life is similar to the journey by train.
Everyone is born one day and everyone has to die one day.
What is different is the experience between the birth and death.
If your journey is pleasant, life is a joy.
If your journey is unpleasant, life is a torture.
Every person has the right to live his life with joy and avoid torture when he is alive.
The best government job in India today is the job of a Faculty in an IIT or IIM.
Few people know that the Faculty not only gets perks and promotions at par with IAS, IPS, IRS etc. but they get so many other benefits which no civil servants in India gets.
I am reproducing some of the benefits which are not available even to the top civil servants in India, as published on the website of IIM Indore
FACULTY ENTITLEMENTS2. Leave Rules of the InstituteCasual Leave – 8 days per annum.Restricted Holidays – 2 days per annum.Half Pay Leave – 20 days per annum.Vacation Leave – 60 days of vacation per year. However, faculty members can avail vacation to a maximum of 30 days at a time (except summer vacation) and are encouraged to take summer vacation between 15th April and 1st June. (NOT AVAILABLE TO CIVIL SERVANTS)4. Academic Allowances (NOT AVAILABLE TO ANY CIVIL SERVANT)4.1 Faculty Development Allowance (FDA):Reimbursement of an amount up to Rs.100,000/- per annum for items like purchase of books, periodicals; or datasets for research purpose, attending national level conferences/ workshops/ seminars/courses etc.Faculty member can use FDA to plan for international visits. FDA funds can be used for travel, stay and visa expenses related to such visits.4.2 Full funding, once a year, to attend one international conference as per institutional norms. (MOST CIVIL SERVANTS VISIT ABROAD 4–5 TIMES ONLY IN THEIR CAREER)4.3 Full funding to attend and present papers in national conferences.4.4 A faculty member can do consulting for 52 days a year. The Director may, at his discretion, extend this beyond 52 days. (THIS IS AN EXTRA SOURCE OF INCOME FOR PROFESSORS WHILE CIVIL SERVANTS ARE PROHIBITED TO DO ANY OTHER COMMERCIAL WORK)
There are even more additional benefits to Professors like-
- Low work pressure
- Lesser working hours
- Higher retirement age
- Stability of life (no transfer/posting)
- Excellent accommodation in the campus
I don’t think there is any better government job in India than this.
Most people, however, don’t know about these jobs.
Is there any main goal in the life of a person?
How does a person know about it?
We often waste lot of our time chasing something that does not actually exist.
A man was passing through a jungle where he found many arrows hitting the bulls eye on trees.He looked around and found a boy with a bow and arrows.He complimented him, “You are such a great archer. All your arrows are hitting the bulls eye. Can you show me how you do it?”The boy admitted shyly, “I am not such a good archer. I actually hit the arrow first and make the circle later.”
This is the case with most of successful people. Once they are successful, they build stories around their success as if they already knew their goal from the beginning. They connect everything of their past with the goal to give an impression that they did everything to achieve this goal.
The fact is that people don’t know what their goal is.
We follow different things in life and we discover our goal when our talents match with our pursuits. Your efficiency is much better in the field of your interest and you get far better results and rewards when you work in such field.
We get bored with anything soon and start trying something else. Bill Gates has not stopped merely as an entrepreneur or as the richest man of the world. He is now doing a lot of charitable work for the world. Tomorrow he may choose to contest for the President of USA post, and if he feels so, he can do it.
Gandhi was an unsuccessful advocate. However, during his trip to South Africa he discovered that he can be a great mass leader. He then became a politician.
Don’t worry if you don’t know what your main goal is because there is actually no predestined goal for anyone.
It is you who make that goal and it is you who have to accomplish that goal.
Your goal is your creation.
Set realistic goals for your life that suits your aptitude and abilities for leading a happy and contented life.
Let me tell you a story before I answer the question.
Three guys got into a car crash and all died. They all get up to heaven and meet St. Peter at the gates. St. Peter said "Okay everyone can come in, but whatever you do don't step on a duck."The gates open and there are ducks everywhere, all over the floor, on tabletops, everywhere. The first guy walks in and accidentally steps on a duck. St. Peter comes along and handcuffs him to the ugliest woman in the world and says, "Now you must stay handcuffed for all eternity."The other two see this and do their best to avoid the ducks. The second guy goes months and months without stepping on any duck. Then one morning he wakes up and as he is getting out of bed he steps on two ducks. St. Peter comes over and handcuffs him to the most atrocious looking and smelling woman and says, "Now you must stay handcuffed to each other for all eternity."Now the third guy goes years and years and doesn't step on any ducks in all that time. Then one day St. Peter comes along and handcuffs him to the most beautiful woman he as ever seen. St. Peter says, "Now you must stay handcuffed to each other for all eternity."The guy happily says,"Oh my God, what have I done to deserve this?!" And the woman says,"I don't know what you did, but I stepped on a duck."
In the real world, the rewards and punishments are given not only because of your hard-work or mistakes but often due to other factors beyond your control.
If you analyze deeply, success is the result of upbringing, wealth and education of your parents, intelligence, personality and right environment.Unfortunately none of these are in your control.
However, you must challenge your limitations and make it a purpose of your life to overcome them through hard-work and determination. There are so many people who have succeeded despite adversities.
When you help yourself, you are also helped by God to achieve your objectives.
It is not only the cab drivers who make more money than an IT professional but even a tea vendor or a porter at a railways station makes far more money than an IT professional.
It is quite common for porters to demand exorbitant fare when you have so much luggage with you that you can’t carry. They earn sometime Rs 200–300 for just a few minutes of service. They make several thousand rupees in a day, much more than a young IT professional.
Porters may, however, be making only as much money even after decades of experience while an IT professional would make 10 times that much of money when he/she gains experience and develop higher level skill in the job.
- A porter with 20 years of experience does not make more money than a porter who has just started the job.
- An IT professional with 20 years of experience makes 10–100 times more money than a fresh graduate.
Your profession is not only to make money.
It is your identity and a source of social prestige.
The Prime Minister of India or the President of USA may be earning only a small amount per month. However, their status and prestige is beyond the imagination of even the richest people in the world. They would happily wait in queue to meet them.
Picture Above: The who's who of Indian business industry were seen lined to meet the US President and Modi at the US-Indo CEO forum in New Delhi
Please remember
- Money is not everything in life.
- You don’t work to merely earn money.
How you earn the money is much more important and relevant.
Source :
Google Images
IAS is a mythological figure for most Indians. They see one of their Avatars as District Magistrate giving orders to everyone and they wish to be like them.
People are crazy about IAS because of several reasons. Some of these are myths and some are reality.
1. IAS officers are too powerful. They can change the society single handedly
2. IAS officers can’t be removed by anyone in India
3. IAS officers live in big bungalow like VIP
4. IAS officers have a large contingent of servants at house
5. IAS officers move in red-light vehicle which every police officer salute
6. IAS officers make the headlines of newspaper
7. All the government departments are under the control of IAS officers
8. IAS officers can make any amount of money by legal (or illegal) means
9. IAS officers can appoint anyone to government job and dismiss anyone from service
10. They are close to top people of the country like PM, CM and Ministers
When they see IAS officers having everything that they desire, they become crazy to become an IAS officer.
My boyfriend is crazy-smart. He won state and county math contests, and went to Stanford for an engineering degree. He's a fantastic diplomat and a high-empathy soul, with tons of awesome friends and a great career and hobbies he loves. I've never met anyone quite like him.
And yet he gets all shy and bummed out about how his life turned out sometimes. He'll talk about how he "could have done more" and stuff. He talks wistfully about people he knows who did "real" things, jet-setting to tons of different countries or becoming upper management at Fortune 500 companies when he's "only" a guy in a cubicle at a tech place somewhere. He's not sure about going to his college reunion because he's "ashamed" of not measuring up to some of the other people in his class. Why is he so hard on himself when he's obviously doing better than tons and tons of people out there?
And yet he gets all shy and bummed out about how his life turned out sometimes. He'll talk about how he "could have done more" and stuff. He talks wistfully about people he knows who did "real" things, jet-setting to tons of different countries or becoming upper management at Fortune 500 companies when he's "only" a guy in a cubicle at a tech place somewhere. He's not sure about going to his college reunion because he's "ashamed" of not measuring up to some of the other people in his class. Why is he so hard on himself when he's obviously doing better than tons and tons of people out there?
One of my friends wanted to buy a property in Delhi in 2012. He was working in Singapore in a multinational company and he had a decent budget of Rs 2 Crores (20 million). I was then staying in Vasant Kunj area of Delhi in a government accommodation. Vasant Kunj is one of Delhi's decent colonies but not the best.
When we started looking for flats of 3BHK, we found that a 3BHK flat in a decent sector was priced in the range of 3-4 Cr and the nothing was available for 2.5 Cr or less. You have to spend at least 20-30 lakhs in renovating the flat and pay additional 10 -20 lakhs for registration. Finally, he became frustrated and said, “Why can’t I ever afford a decent house even when I am earning so much? My budget always falls short when I want to buy a flat.”
I remembered when he was working in a public sector company in India where he was getting less than 10% of what he is getting now. He purchased a 3BHK flat (floor) in Ghaziabad (near Delhi) for just 10 lakhs (1 million). He was so happy to buy his house and we all attended the Grahpuja.
I told him, “The problem with us is that we always increase our standards of living beyond our means. If your budget would have been 3-4 Cr, you would have been perhaps looking for some flat in Vasant Vihar or Defence Colony area where nothing would be available for less than 5-7 Cr. If you want, you can buy an excellent flat within 2 Cr at Dwarka in Delhi. In fact, you can buy even a 4BHK flat in Noida, which is within Delhi NCR and still much better locality than Ghaziabad where you lived earlier. However, you will not go for such places because you think that you deserve better.”
This is the real tragedy of life for all the brilliant and talented people. The more they get, the more they start expecting from themselves and the world. When their aspirations are not fulfilled, they feel frustrated.
You can be happy only when you can value what you have more than what you don’t have and develop the habit of living within your means. I remember a quote frequently attributed to Gandhi ji, ‘There is enough wealth in this world, which can satisfy the need of all people in the world. However, the entire wealth of the world is not enough to satisfy one person’s greed.’
Contentment is a virtue which many brilliant and talented people don’t have.
It is incorrect to say that the salary of the IAS officers are less than the engineering jobs which is around Rs 3,00,000 per annum.
Let me give you a correct picture of the starting monthly salary , perks and privileges of an IAS officer as on 1st January 2016.
- Basic salary = Rs 56,100
- HRA= Rs 10,000 -13,000 (or a government house whose rent may be in the range of Rs 20,000-Rs 1,00,000 depending on the place and posting)
- Transport Allowance = Rs 7,000-8000 pm ( or a government car whose cost to government may be in around of Rs 40,000 pm)
- Free medical facility for family without limit
- LTC for travelling your home/any part of India every two years for the family
- Attendants
- Job Security
- Power
- Recognition
- Opportunity to serve the people directly
If you like to match the same facility in private sector your CTC must be at least 15-20 lakhs per annum.
Government of India is not a bad employer.
It pays you well.
I have something really interesting to share.
After doing my B Tech in Mechanical Engineering from IIT(BHU) Varanasi in the year 1987, I joined IIT Bombay to do my M Tech in ‘Reliability Engineering’. I actually got only one job after my campus placement, which I did not like. Hence I joined M Tech in IITB.
However, after couple of days, I got the appointment letter from Larsen & Toubro (L&T) to join as Graduate Engineer Trainee (GET). L&T was located in the same place as IIT Bombay i.e. in Powai. It was hardly 2-3 km from the IIT Gate. L&T was one of the most sought after company in IIT Bombay and everyone advised me to join L&T.
I, therefore, decided to drop M Tech at IIT Bombay and join L&T. I was very keen to get the scholarship for the (almost) one month of my course in IIT Bombay. The amount of Rs 1000 was quite huge in those days considering that the salary of L&T was merely Rs 1550 pm (plus Rs 350 HRA). However, I was told that I can’t get the scholarship because my stay in IIT Bombay was 2 days short of one month. I requested for proportionate scholarship, but the clerk was adamant.
He, however, said that IITB would revalidate my GATE Score since I had not taken any scholarship.This would help me in taking further admission in M Tech, if I so desire. I reluctantly agreed for the same as I had no other option. IIT Bombay issued a certificate that the GATE score card is valid for admission and returned me the original score-card.
Here is the scanned copy of the certificate.
One year is, however,a long time to change your mind when you are in 20s. After working couple of years in L&T, I realized that I don’t want to spend my life in corporate. I incidentally met one of my friends during the Holi vacation whose elder brother was an IAS officer. He motivated me to write civil services.
In those days, IIT Delhi was the best place for preparation of IAS. However, my score of 93.75 percentile was not good enough to get into IITD on any course. Incidentally, from 1988, IITD introduced an interview system in which 80% weightage was given to the GATE score and 20% weightage was given to interview.
Since my GATE score card was revalidated, I applied into IIT Delhi and got admission in ‘Design of Mechanical Equipment’ due to my performance in interview.
I wrote the civil services and got selected into IRS in the first attempt itself in 1990.
I often wonder, if I would have completed one month and received one month of scholarship, I would have never got my GATE score revalidated and I would have never got into IITD and hence in IRS. My life would have been totally different than what it is today.
Sometime destiny plays extremely important role in shaping our life.
A few years ago, we were investigating a case of smuggling and we got the mobile number of the main kingpin. When we sent our team to the address registered with the telecom company, it was found to be fictitious. We had no further clue to move further and we came to the dead end of the investigation.
Suddenly my colleague Manish got a brilliant idea. He dialed him from his mobile and said, “Congratulations! You have won the bumper price of the draw last week from our company. A gift cheque of Rs 10,000 was sent at your address but it has come back undelivered to us. Perhaps, you have changed your address. Can you provide your new address so that we can deliver your gift?”
The smuggler got into the trap and gave his true address.
A team was immediately sent to the address and he was arrested for smuggling.
I still can’t forget how smartly Manish was able to locate the right address by giving a hoax call.
I was posted in Chennai in June 2012. I have now spent almost three and half years in Chennai and I am loving being here. It was my first posting in South India and I have enjoyed it immensely besides learning so many things about people and the place. Let my share my experience with you about South India in general and Chennai in particular.
1: Work Culture
The first and foremost thing about Chennai is its work culture. You don’t have to remind anyone to complete their job. When I landed up as Commissioner of Large Taxpayer Unit (LTU), Chennai in 2012, I was amazed by seeing the office building, which is centrally air-conditioned and can easily give complex to any private sector MNC office. The file work of the officers is perfect and noting so good that you love reading them. You will find officers coming on time and doing their work silently and sincerely, which is quite rare in North India.
The Conference Room of Large Taxpayer Unit Chennai
2: Culture and Traditions
In my LTU office, there were almost 30-40% ladies. All of them used to be dressed in traditional sarees or salwar-suits with gajra on their hair. They come office on time and work as efficiently as their male counterparts. You will rarely find the woman in Chennai dressed in Western Outfits. Yet woman here are very progressive. You will find them everywhere in all professional colleges and jobs. They learn classical dances, singing or develop some skill like debating, GK or like. There is hardly any complaint of harassment and Chennai is considered to be one of the safest cities for woman. I wish that we North Indian can learn from Chennai that we can be modern without discarding our old values.
3: Religion
The people of Tamil Nadu are extremely religious but not fanatic. I was told that there had never been any communal riot in Tamil Nadu. People respect each other religions and live harmoniously. We used to celebrate all festivals in our office. Most people go to some temple on weekend. Temples are the greatest tourist places in South. You will find millions of people visiting temples in South every day. One of my bosses used to say, “People do the right things due to two types of fears: The fear of God and the Fear of Rod.”. I guess that better law and order prevails in Chennai due to the former factor and the government need not use the fear of rod.
Onam Celebration in Office
4: Simplicity
I like the simplicity of the people of Chennai. Many officers in my office used to come by scooters and even public buses. I have hardly seen any similar rank officers in Delhi using buses for coming to office. It would be below their dignity. If you have attended any marriage function in Chennai, you will be surprised of its simplicity. The size of the venue will not be even one fourth of that of North Indian marriages of similar social stature. You go to marriage hall, sit there for some time, stand in the queue to give gift and blessings to the couple, go to the dining area to take your meal and leave for your home. It just takes one hour to complete the entire process. There is no band-baja, decoration and showoff like in North. Some people may not appreciate it, but l like their simplicity.
5: Peaceful Coexistence
One of thing that strikes me in Chennai is the peaceful coexistence of all sections of the society. I have never come across any acrimonious exchange of words in my office nor have I seen it on the roads. There is no confrontation between the ‘governed’ and the ‘government’. People love their leaders and respect their authority. It is not uncommon to hear people even committing suicide, if something wrong happens to their leaders. Unlike that in places like Delhi, you find tremendous tension between the government and the governed. Government use power to control the people and people hate the government from the bottom of their heart. Such deep hatred and suspicion is virtually absent in South India.
6: Language
The only difficulty we have in Chennai in language. Tamil is a difficult language to learn. While I can easily manage all official work in English, my wife has to struggle with my maid. You have to see them talking to each other. One does not know a word of Tamil and the other does not know a word of Hindi or English. They use sign language to communicate and they do so quite successfully. Nowadays, Hindi has become quite popular in Chennai. You can find Hindi songs being played in Malls, Restaurants and even in Saloons. We even had a Hindi Antakshadi in our office at LTU. In every function, there will be a few songs in Hindi. The new generation is learning Hindi and likes to speak in Hindi with us. Hindi movies are quite popular here.
Hindi Antakshadi Competition in Our Office
7: Attitude towards North Indians
I am here since more than three years but I have never faced any discrimination in Chennai. My officers like me as much (or even more) than their local officer. I feel completely at home. We enjoy working with each other. We have now almost one third of senior officers in Chennai from North India and none of them had faced any discrimination. We are also able to be neutral as we never become part of the local politics here.
My Impressions
It has been a nice journey for me so far and I hope to enjoy my tenure in Chennai. I have been able to see a new culture. We see tremendous industrial development and prosperity in Southern India due to great work culture and the attitude of people. We from North India should learn a lot of things from them to bring peace and prosperity in northern part of India.
When we were preparing for civil services examination, a story about our colleague in IIT Delhi became very popular. Let us call this person AK. He got around 400 rank in the CSE and allotted IRS. When he got his mark sheet, he came to know that his poor performance was due to his low marks in Personality Test (Around 50/250). The story was like this.
AK’s father came to meet him in the IIT hostel. He touched the feet of his father and made him the promise, “I promise you that I will get into IAS next year, even if I get zero marks in the interview.”His claim was quite amusing and haughty. AK was generally known to be an arrogant fellow, who could hardly get along with people. We were all waiting for his result next year.When the results were announced, he indeed became an IAS as he bagged a rank in the top 5. When his mark sheet came, he indeed scored such marks in his written paper that he could have become an IAS even without his interview marks.
I know many people who are blessed with fantastic memory and exceptional intelligence. They may work just four to five hours in a day and get top rank in their class or get top position in competitive examinations like GRE, GMAT, CSE or CAT.
If you seek their advice, they would advise you to do what they do themselves.
However, when you follow their advice, you may not succeed because you may not be as brilliant as they are.
What worked for them may not work for you.
You need the knowledge, skills and techniques that work on you.
What you know and what you can make other learn from you are not the same. You may know your job well but you may not have the skill to communicate your knowledge.
The best players are often not the best coaches.
There are people who have the ability to communicate their knowledge quite well and they become great teachers.
Some people are good at knowing.
Some people are good at practicing.
Only in exceptional situations, both these qualities are found in one person.
A King or A Kingmaker
Chanakya was never a king but he was a great kingmaker.
Chandragupta became a great emperor of India when he synergised his martial abilities with the astute political knowledge of Chanakya.
A true knower of the knowledge spends all his energies in acquisition of knowledge and not on the exploitation of knowledge for personal benefits. If he chooses to do so, his knowledge would lose its purity as it would get biased from his personal experience. He would start believing that what worked for him was right while what did not work for him is wrong.
In reality, what work for one person hardly work for other people because everyone is so unique and different from each other.
The advice of the most successful people is hardly very useful because they never bother to know how other people succeeded in their venture.
A good teacher can give you better advice because he develops a better perspective from his experience. He has a better understanding of what type of knowledge and skill you need. His advice is more realistic and useful coming from years of experience.
A person who has never been the king can be a great kingmaker.
A great king is never a great kingmaker.
You must seek the best knowledge from anyone and not influenced by the source of the knowledge.
Sometime I see some posts on Facebook, where the husband/wife wishes happy birthday to his/her spouse on Facebook, though they are living together in the same house. I simply don’t understand using Facebook for such purpose.
I can still accept such a thing on Facebook. However, I don’t understand when they thank their spouse publicly by writing something like this on their marriage anniversary,
‘I have been blessed to have a husband like you. We got married 5 years ago and time just flied. You did ignored many of my shortcoming and continued to love me despite my mistakes. You are such a nice husband…..(blah, blah, blah)’
I don’t understand why people have to express their (private) love on such a public platform where hundreds of people can read it.
There are many things which makes me proud in life.
- Nobody in my family ever passed High School in their first attempt. I passed it with Honours with 4 Distinctions.
- I got into IIT, Roorkee and UP Engineering Entrance Examination (The three competitions in our times) in the first attempt without any coaching or external guidance.
- Got into IRS in the first attempt while completing M Tech with good grades.
- When I joined my first posting in 1993, I took two of my brothers with me for further education to share the responsibility of my parents. They are both now well settled in life.
- I myself taught my daughters maths and physics almost daily till their class XII even after my hectic office schedule.
- I have made great improvement in the quality of training to the IRS (C&CE) probationers during my tenure as Course Director in National Academy of Customs, Excise and Narcotics (NACEN) Faridabad during 2009–2011.
- I got my first book “Practising Spiritual Intelligence” published in 2013 by Wisdom Tree.
- I got the Presidential Award at the eve of Republic Day 2015.
- I get so much of love, affection and regards from the Quorans almost daily. I am proud to connect intellectually and emotionally with my next generation.
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