What UPSC has taught me? - Akshay Hakay ( CSE 2014- AIR 508 , IPS)

Akshay Hakay
Service- IPS

(Earlier in ITS)

_________________________

"Hello friends.

While sharing my experience regarding the civil services preparation, I would like to quote Arthur Ashe here. Who rightly said that 'Success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome.'

Travelers would certainly agree that Journey is always more enjoyable and full of rich lessons than the actual destination.

When we all aspire for Civil Services, no doubt the destination (final selection in desired service) is highly respected and most sought after one. But the Journey(preparation phase)  that it encompasses is even more enriching and adorable. Although intangible for outer world but it makes us confident and capable enough from within to rightfully bear the office we crave for.

Here I would like to share such insights from my journey which I have embarked 5 years back in 2011. Both push and pull factors led me to aspire for this exam. But it turned out to be something much more than just an exam. As Drake  said 'it's the journey en route that teaches you a lot about your destination'. These years have taught me much more about Myself, Services I aspired for and 'fundas' for Life. On the way to become a good officer,I first became a good individual and a good citizen. And the process is on. It will continue everyday.

The preparation phase was a journey within. I  never knew what potential is hidden in me. Had it not been Civil Services ,I would have never studied for 10-12 hrs, I would have never been so disciplined about anything I do, I would not have learned the importance of Understanding, Analyzing and Planning for the target even before setting yourself on the path to achieve it.

Few insights that I would like to express here

Self realisation

This was the first time in my life that I spent so much of time with myself. I started understanding my mental and physical limits and avenues. What i like, which are my strength areas, where i need to focus more.Everyday I was winning over small small battles to get ready for final war. Small small improvements everyday helped immensely.

Patience and Perseverance

Since one single attempt requires a period of 1.5 to 2 yrs of dedicated preparation, the importance of being patient, dedicated, committed to the task cannot be neglected. In this phase things seldom came to me very easily. There were many incidents of failures/partial success. But I learnt that one need to be continuously crafting ones own work. Taking small small baby steps towards the destination. Make mistakes and learn from them. Make more mistakes, learn faster.

Co-operative spirit

The preparation at JP(Jnana Prabodhini) was essentially a group effort. Everyone of us have different strong areas. Everyone is proficient in different subjects. We learn from everyone. It's like passing the baton from one to other. Rich heritage of experience, mistakes, tricks of trade is being shared and everyone is benefited. I learnt that in our future career also, whatever steps we take, the efforts will be necessarily a group endeavor, a team effort. The group synergy, effectiveness of a team is exponentially higher that individual effort.

Humbling experience

During this phase I came to learn much about great and towering personalities across the spectrum of academia, sports, politics, social leadership, entrepreneurs and it made me realize that even though we are aspiring for Civil  Services and we will be a part of much respected fraternity, the real challenge lies not in getting selected, but proving our worth. The real success would be one where we will be able to help the weakest link (Gandhiji's Talisman) in our society. The sense of social trusteeship that is now deeply imbibed in all of us will surely guide us to be a better.. better.. officer. To deliver what is expected out of us.

Better Individual

I have learnt so many perspectives, different subjects, philosophies, many approaches and dimensions towards the same issue. This has imbibed a comprehensive outlook towards different issues. Now all of us are able to take a balanced viewpoint towards any social, personal happenings. 

These are few jewels from pearls of oceans that UPSC has taught me and many more of us.

Thank you and best wishes."