I.A.S. TODAY

By Prof. Vikas Sharma

Juxtaposing the world of greed against that of detachment, IAS Today is a story of Romesh, a Gandhian, who gets married with Trishala Vasu during his training period and later tries to uproot crimes to the best of his abilities. In the same world is also Tinny, a son of noble parents who becomes a ring leader and forms his own gang with Kale, Penny, Vallu and Gannu and leads a lecherous life with Kanti, Rewati and Swati. With his sin bin already full, will he face the repercussions for his mis-deeds? With strong female characters, the novel presents the readers with a conflict between love and lust, violence and nonviolence, rustic and urban life. Still the question remains to be answered Is Fancy a deceiving elf?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Diamond Books
• Release date: Jun 3, 2022
• ISBN: 9789354866845

Book preview

1

Shrotriya had full faith in Ovid’s saying — ‘What cannot art attain!’

He often asked himself — ‘Why beg affection and respect from others? Why weep for his early poverty? Why curse the darkness when a candle could be lit? Why lament for the past that has left deep scars on his heart? Why cry for the love of a particular girl merely because she is pretty? Why not depend upon personal skills, work hard with intelligence and prudence?

He asked himself to be ready against every stroke of whirlwind and ups and downs of life as nobody can escape from the turmoils of life. There were many very poor labourers and farmers in his town Simbhaoli where he got his school education. As his father arranged for his tuition in Math, he succeeded in his High School Examinations. Even at the Intermediate level, he had problems in English communication and that he overcame in due course of time and secured first division. After that, he aspired to join Delhi University for his graduation but his father told him frankly that he also has to look after his parents, three children and wife. Hence, he had to join SSV College, Hapur for further studies.

There was no limit to his expectations and ambitions. Very often his drive and ambition proved to be very strong and inspired him to seek every star of the sky. As seminars were common in all the subjects here, he took part in them and presented his papers in seminars of English and Political Science. That created his interest in the positive side of life and his guides and mentors encouraged him to prepare for civil services. But alas! Only syllabus books were available in the town market and no fresh books for I.A.S. could be purchased there. At the same time, his father grudged giving him money to buy books.

Due to his ignorance, his father told him — ‘You have a lot of books on your shelf. Finish them and then ask me for new books.’

He was snubbed whenever he wanted to buy the latest edition of books on General Knowledge, Essay Writing and General English. When he disclosed his problems to his teachers, they told him not to worry about books on General English as there were many books in the college library on each part of speech of grammar. That solved his problem to some extent. Fortunately, he took a xerox copy of the articles on contemporary socio-economic and political events as printed in the newspapers and collected the same in three separate files — ‘Social issues, Economic problems, Political changes.’ And that solved his problem of having data on current national issues. Being a student of History, he prepared his own notes on European History, Indian Medieval History, History of Indian Muslim Rulers and History of India after 1857. Then he was advised to consult Pt. J.L. Nehru’s World History whenever he had any confusion.

Of course, time did not stop for him and he often felt headaches due to the tension of his studies. Then the tennis coach advised him to run by the roadside every morning and breathe for five minutes. That solved his stress problem and he continued to pursue his object of life. Basic principles of life as followed by him were:

Choose the aim of life carefully.

Have an option in case you fail to achieve the main goal.

Ask yourself every week — ‘What are you doing daily to achieve your goal?’

Ask yourself — ‘What are the problems of your way? What are you doing daily to overcome them?’

He studied the summary of the biographies of Swami Vivekananda, R.N. Tagore, H.D. Thoreau, R.W. Emerson, Napoleon Bonaparte, J.J. Rousseau, Abraham Lincoln, S. Radhakrishnan, Pt. J.L. Nehru and M.K. Gandhi. The biographies of Hitler and Sir Winston Churchill impressed him as these two leaders faced tough political and economic challenges for more than twenty years. Naturally, he could not admire Nazism of Hitler as the latter wanted to take revenge on Russia, U.K., U.S.A. and France who defeated Germany in the first world war and then insulted Germans and imposed taxes to compensate for their losses in the world war. He failed to understand as to why Germany was not invited to join the League of Nations if the European powers wanted to solve political issues amicably? He was shocked to know that American President Woodrow Wilson was badly insulted by U.S. Senators when he reached the U.S.A. after proposing the League of Nations in the meeting held in Paris. Well, life is full of eatings and beatings and he accepted that celebrities are humiliated by friends and enemies alike as and when misunderstood.

Romesh took it as a divine justice when Hitler committed suicide after atom bombs were dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki (August 1945) and consequently Japan surrendered. But the U.S.A. failed to be admired by the citizens of the world and the scientists that prepared the bombs were called enemies of mankind.

Romesh also studied the biography of Sir Winston Churchill though had no respect for this hero of the Second World War. He studied Winston Churchill’s books such as The World Crisis, The Age of Revolution, My Early Life, The River War and The Gathering Storm though he expected no help from these books in his I.A.S. preparation. But then it was surprising for him to note that this British scholar was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature and members of the Jury admired his art of oration and defence of moral values. Romesh knew about the meeting of Churchill with M.K. Gandhi as the British Prime Minister who invited the Indian saint for personal discussions. As a matter of fact, Churchill had asked British journalists — Who is mainly responsible for spreading nationalism in India and provoking Indians against British Imperialism? They told him the name of M.K. Gandhi and hence, the latter was invited to suppress his voice along with that of other Indian leaders.

At the very outset, Sir Winston Churchill lost his patience and bluntly told Gandhi — ‘Do you think that the British government will leave India because of lean and thin leaders like you? Remember Mr Gandhi that the sun of the British Empire never sets and will never set. Understand. Why don’t you speak to defend yourself?’

But Gandhiji politely replied — ‘Sir, I thought I was your guest?’

This sentence was a severe blow on the face of ill-mannered P.M. as British manners are admired by common citizens. Similarly, the Americans speak high of their democratic structure.

History books are full of such episodes. Then Romesh accepted Plato’s theory as mentioned in The Republic that idea comes first. All technical structures came to the mind of scientists as simple ideas. Every skyscraper is the product of the idea that came to the mind of an architect. The sculptor develops his idea with his hammer and chisel and turns stone into a statue worth worshipping. Each literary artist develops an idea in his book and concentrates upon its various aspects to produce a sublime effect. This taught Romesh how to develop each one of his essays on political, social and economic issues.

In his B.A. Final year, a student from Bareilly, Tinny joined the classes because his father recently got transferred to Hapur. Since he opted for an English medium like Romesh, both came closer to each other and discussed contemporary national and international studies. But this new student Tinny Gaurav was also interested in playing Cricket, Ping Pong and Tennis. Unfortunately, Romesh had to return to his village as soon as the classes were off. But Tinny, being the son of S.D.M., stayed in officer’s residence and could afford to reach the playground of the college after having his cup of coffee and a potato sandwich. However, this young boy created his interest in games and sports as questions were asked on sports in Social Science papers. Quite often the experts asked questions on sports from the prospective candidates and their opinion was taken on the progress of particular sports. Romesh compromised with him on this issue.

Quite often Tinny used to smoke cigarettes and not Romesh. His friendship grew with girls of the classes and that was something Romesh failed to relish. Studies were taken non-seriously by Tinny though his father inspired him regularly to become a civil servant. As the worthy father had no time for the son, the latter became a bit moody and careless towards his career. He felt delighted as and when he won a cricket match on the playground and mostly talked of various famous players, actors and actresses. On the contrary, Romesh wanted to discuss national, social, international problems that citizens face in different parts of the world. Anyway, Tinny managed to get first division with 80 percent marks and Romesh secured first division with the first position at CCS University, Meerut. As a topper, Romesh was invited to attend the university convocation in Meerut but not Tinny. Due to jealousy, Tinny didn’t congratulate Romesh on the latter’s brilliant success. But the university prize and gold medal elevated the status of his father Raman Shrotriya and the latter asked him to work hard further for future success.

After getting nearly eighty per cent marks, Romesh applied for admission to Delhi University as he wished to join M.A. English there but failed to be admitted on merit basis. He had no option left but to continue studies in SSV College, Hapur where he was supposed to study twenty-four books for four papers in the previous year. It was easier to appear in four papers in the previous year whereas he was to prepare thirty-eight books in Delhi University for two semesters. There he was to clear nine papers in a year positively. Again, he had no money to buy twenty-four books here but the teacher told him to get all the books issued from the college library through the Book Aid scheme. He applied for scholarship and got five thousand rupees as a scholarship. Unfortunately or fortunately, he also bought a smartphone with this money so that he may use Google to seek answers to the questions on General Knowledge.

Due to the economic hardship of his father, he thought it better to teach tuition to a few students and adopted the policy — ‘Earn while you learn’. It was just a matter of chance that his cousin Shivangi Shrotriya also joined B.A. part one that very year. Since she wanted to write and speak in English, in spite of being poor in this foreign language, she opted for English Literature along with General English. She had secured second division in Intermediate with forty-seven per cent marks and yet thought highly of herself. After attending a few classes of English Literature, she realized her mistake but her ego didn’t allow her to change the subject. Ultimately, she requested her father to ask Romesh to help her in English. Romesh obeyed his uncle’s order and she contacted other three girls to join her in taking help from Romesh. Each one of them, except Shivangi, was to pay a thousand rupees per month to him. Now he could place orders for other necessary books with Amazon supply service. He was happy for getting the best position and then his aim was clear to him.

But Shivangi had no interest in studies and was taking a B.A. degree as a qualification necessary for marriage with an educated young man out of the town. Here she was fed up as there were no facilities for games, sports, singing or dancing in Simbhaoli college. No seminars and debates were organized throughout the year. Since teachers were paid low salaries, they were not fully qualified. The college library was poor though most of the students had lost interest in buying books and enjoyed various episodes on smartphones and often teased girls.

As a student of M.A. previous, Romesh got intellectual pleasure from the essays of Francis Bacon and learnt the art of spending money properly. At the same time, he learnt from the essay On Regiment of Health, how to take care of his health. The essay Of Studies proved highly useful as he could learn how to be exact and ready for conversation and what to learn and what to neglect. The essay On Friendship made him alert against false friends. But the essay Dream Children written by Charles Lamb made him emotional and sad because he felt forced to become conscious of his own poor surroundings. Yet the essays of Addison and Steele enlivened him and explained the difference between fear of poverty and shame of poverty. These essays created his self-confidence that all was not lost as yet. He could imitate the character of Sir Roger to some extent though he was no landlord.

After having studied two essays from Bertrand Russell entitled Ideas That Have Harmed Mankind and Ideas That Have Helped Mankind, he condemned growing regionalism in India, rampant economic corruption, widening gap between the rich and poor, blind faith in regional languages, narrow national prejudices and the feelings of separateness between the North and the South. Yet, he admired the concept of Indian culture as it united different races in twenty-nine states and union territories. He appreciated the federal structure of the Indian Government as powers were divided between the Centre and the States. Elections were held in the country fairly and ballots decided the fate of leaders and not bullets. Indian constitution was a detailed document in which the fundamental rights of Indian citizens were mentioned and people could go to the Supreme Court of India if their rights were violated. To his surprise, he found a clear division of administration among Legislature, the Executive and the Judiciary.

Of course, these three organs of government were responsible to the people and felt related to each other in the complex situations as mentioned in the Indian constitution. There is a full chapter in the same on Directive Principles of State Policy and each Indian State is advised to keep them in mind while looking after the administration. As a student of Political Science, he could judge the worth of all political parties specially during general elections. Gandhi’s concepts of cottage industries and Panchayat Raj were acceptable to him though he supported the presence of heavy industries and cottage industries for a decent Indian economy. In seminars of the college and the university, he expressed his faith in democratic socialism.

From the book Talks With Students written by J. Krishnamurti, Romesh learnt the answers to various ethical questions such as — How to satisfy the doubts of his inner mind? What role does fear play in human life? Why are common masses afraid of the future? How to take initiative in any plan? How to compare two concepts such as communism and socialism, good and bad, rational and irrational? How does jealousy prove fatal in one’s life and how to protect oneself from this evil? What is the significance of moral and spiritual powers in life? How does personal and social discipline help society in national life? And he had examples of Japan for this. How to pacify and control one’s heart in moments of excitement? What is real bliss in life? How does knowledge differ from wisdom and prudence? Of course, he accepted language as a medium to get learning and regarded the latter as a noble means to gain the aim of life. There is no limit to knowledge and books are numberless and hence, he now decided to make a rational choice of books only aimed at civil services examination.

As mentioned by Sigmund Freud in his noble book The Interpretation of Dreams, Romesh agreed that seeing dreams is very common throughout the world and people of all age groups see decent and indecent dreams. A child may cry after seeing his teacher beating him with a cane for his incomplete homework. In her dream, a woman may see her husband flirting with other women and then beating him. An old man may dream of himself making love to a young film actress. Similarly, Romesh saw himself being beaten by his uncle for cutting the lock of Shivangi. Another night he found himself in the Garden of Eden wandering with Shivangi’s friend Sadhana Reutela. But then God banished both of them from heaven as she had plucked an apple from the forbidden tree of knowledge.

He was crying — ‘Oh God, forgive me for this. It won’t be repeated.’

As he cried loudly in the dream — ‘Oh God, forgive me,’ his mother came to his bedside. She failed to understand these four words of English and asked him — ‘Come to senses my son! What is wrong with you?’

After he got up, he failed to share his dream with his loving mother and simply pacified her by saying — ‘It was just an ordinary dream. Take it easy!’

She replied — ‘Silly boy, seeing dreams like children.’

How could he explain Freud’s theory to his mother and tell her that some dreams are complicated and have a relation with the impressions that settle on the human unconscious mind? It was of no use telling her that there are three minds- conscious mind, subconscious mind and unconscious mind and all of them are interconnected. But mind continues to think and plan good or bad round the clock. Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, Henry James, Dorothy Richardson and Mohan