Glittering Grey

July, 7th, 2015. The day of final presentation of my M. Tech dissertation. The moments before the presentation was shrouded by mixed feelings of nervousness and alacrity. The presentation was held in Seminar hall, CESE Building, IIT Bombay. Addressing the chairperson, I started my presentation sharp at 11.30 AM. The hall was fully packed with the audience. The examination committee was seated in the first row. The External Examiner of my examination committee was Mr. V. M. Motghare, who was Joint Director at Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) in Air pollution division. I presented each and every slide in the presentation in a simple assertive manner.

These were the 23rd and 24th slides of my presentation. Everybody in the hall was overwhelmed and clapping. As soon as I completed my presentation, Internal examiner of my examination committee was very happy and he said, "I haven't seen this kind of work, atleast for the last 10 years". After the presentation, everyone was greeting me, one of my friends said, "No M. Techs, none of the  Ph. Ds have ever got so much of media attention in their work. You, have done really a great job, we are proud of you!". That was really a million dollar moment for me, but I never forget the amount of hardship I faced to achieve that.

My project guide was Prof. Rashmi Patil and co-guide was Prof. Rakesh Kumar. Prof. Rakesh Kumar was Head of National Environmental Engineering Research Institute's Mumbai zonal lab. He was an Adjunct faculty at IIT Bombay. Earlier, during the project meetings, Prof. Rakesh Kumar had talked about the devices which would control air pollution in the open atmosphere. Control of air pollution in open atmosphere is rather, a very critical area. The roadside pollution levels are increasing day-by-day, more and more people are suffering from asthma, bronchitis and many other diseases due to air pollution. But there was hardly any solution found yet. We were thinking of making a device which can be installed over the road dividers, which will be able to reduce the roadside air pollution in my M. Tech project. The project span was from January 2014 to June 2015. The month of July passes, but there was no appreciable work done in that direction. The first stage assessment of the project was held in mid September and there was hardly any work done yet to show.

Actually, I was also preparing for UPSC Engineering Service exam, as I have expressed in previous blog posts. The  written part of exam for the exam was held in June, 2014. This part of the exam requires a lot of dedicated efforts and so I had a little chance to dedicate required amount of time to my project work. I had considered doing more work after the UPSC exams to makeup project schedule. The UPSC exams were over and I decided to give extra efforts in my project.

I decided to learn Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software to  design the air pollution control devices. Let me tell you, these software were one of the toughest software used in engineering field and they were based on theory which was originally related to mechanical engineering. I started learning the software with the help of limited tutorials available on the internet. Meanwhile, Prof. Patil offered me visit to Newcastle University, United Kingdom through a joint project known as UKIERI, whose project proponent was Prof. Viren Sethi. The visit was due in month of February, next year. As travelling was one of the activities I always loved the most, I accepted the offer of going for the UK visit. I was pushing my limits and putting dedicated efforts towards my project.

The first stage assessment of my project was help in the month of September and it passes away with some vexation, as there were some gaps pertaining to the format of the project report and I had to reproduce it with corrections done.

After the fuss of first stage report assessment was over, I wholeheartedly started to endeavor my project work. Until now, I had perfectly understood the aim of my project. It was to design and make such workable stuff which can be installed in the open atmosphere an to reduce air pollution. I had googled a lot, but I could hardly find any weak trace of such devices around the globe. My energy and excitement was increasing day by day and I had made to very clear to myself, "Until and unless, I won't make such a workable device in my M. Tech project, I won't leave this institute with a degree". In other words, I was ready to make a sacrifice of my degree, and a dream to become an IITian for such a cool idea. But why won't I? After I successfully passed my 8th class exam, my father took a decision to take a cable service first time; alas only for 2 months of vacation. In that short period of delight of cable TV, I used to fight with my siblings to watch Discovery Channel and National Geographic Channel. I still remember a 100 pages short notebook, in which I has sketched designs of possibly how an bike engine and steam engine would work. Murmuring sound of bike always fascinated me, as of how does such a small device gives so much power to wheels. Just a few seconds of animation showing a piston moving up-down inside a cylinder trigger an answer for a mammoth question of bike engine since childhood. That day, hours and hours were spent in searching possibilities, as of how the bike engine would work. That book, I have still preserved with me. Since childhood, I had dreamed of making such machines and similar kind of stuff. This was the motivation for me, burning inside my heart to materialize chance of my M. Tech project to create such devices. Creating and making devices and machines. Doing a work, which would be useful to some one, and not for the sake of getting good grades and simply occupying space in the library.

I had sketched an approximate plan in my mind. To finish CFD modelling to design and estimate the capacity of the devices to reduce the air pollution till mid-December and then on basis of that, start fabricating the devices in the month of January. For non-technical people, modelling is nothing but mathematical calculations to estimate the effect of some phenomenon or a process. I had made this planning on the assumption that, UPSC interview would pop up in the mid-February and I would have enough time to prepare for it. Also, as soon as UPSC interview was over, I would complete my UK visit and back to fabricate the devices I had designed. Bit by bit and little by little, I had started having command over CFD modelling. I had started sketching preliminary drawings for modelling of the devices.

UKIERI, was an initiative to connect educational and research institutes in India and United Kingdom. IIT Bombay and Newcastle University from UK was a part of it and it carried out many activities including programs such as Student exchange. And through this student exchange program, I was going to go for a visit to UK. Prof. Sethi was the project proponent of this project. September, 2014, delegates from Newcastle University were visiting IIT Bombay. My guide, Prof. Patil asked me to plan a meeting with them an express my research plans with them. Within the busy schedule of seminars and discussion sessions, I managed to get an appointment with Prof. Namdeo from Newcastle University. I prepared myself for the scheduled time of the meeting. I arrived at the place of the meeting. For my surprise, the third person except me and Prof. Namdeo was neither my guide nor my co-guide, but he was Prof. Sethi. I was about to explain my research plans but until then, Prof. Sethi started asking me question.

Prof. Sethi: Okay, so your work is based on CFD modelling
Me: Yes, sir
Prof. Sethi: Have you completed your CFD modelling work?
Me: No Sir, not yet. But I am very close to it.
Prof. Sethi: But have you?
Me: No
Prof. Sethi: Any professor helping you in your CFD modelling work?
Me: No sir, but I am taking online tutorials and taking guidance from mechanical engineering students also.
Prof. Sethi: I don't think, you may succeed in your work and I even doubt that, you may be able to complete your M. Tech.
Me: No sir, I am very close. Please trust me...

The meeting ran hardly for 4-5 minutes and I was clearly labelled as a dumb and ignorant person who is not even competent enough to complete his M. Tech degree. Thereafter, each and every meeting, with my guide, I was humiliated. I was always cursed for incompetency. I felt like crying, I did not see any way out. Finally, a month later, I was informed verbally, I wasn't going for UK trip. Just, two days before they informed me, one of my senior had informed me about this. He also told me, who was going to go instead of me. That was Prof. Sethi's student. After a bit of research, I came to knew that Prof. Sethi's student, who was going to UK instead of me, was preparing for UK trip well before my the meeting with Prof. Namdeo and Prof. Sethi. I was stunned. If they did not wanted to send me, then why was I humiliated.

And suddenly, everything became cold and quite, as if nothing was happened. Everyone suddenly felt, I was a good student and doing a good research work. Between all this chaos, I attended UPSC interview at Dholpur house, Delhi.

At Dholpur House, UPSC, after the interview

My interview was very nice and peaceful as contrast to the chaos in my academic life. I returned back to Mumbai the day after my interview was over. After coming back, I met Prof. Rakesh Kumar.  Prof. Rakesh Kumar, Head to NEERI, Mumbai, my co-guide, was kind enough to give me a second chance to complete my project. I meet him in his NEERI office in Worli.

He was very calm and composed and explaining me how time was a constraint in my project. He introduced me some staff  who would help me in my project and also gave me some money for the project. I was so overwhelmed, my happiness knew no bounds. I started working my fingers to the bone. I used to work day and night. I used to make plans, designs and gather information for procuring material in nights and physically used to go and find the appropriate material, cut it, shape it according to the design and test it during the day time. In this due course of time, many times I used to forget to take meals. Many time, due to overwork and fatigue, I used to be get demoralized. But I used to remember Maratha soldiers fighting in the battle of Panipat under the leadership of Sadashiv Bhau Peshwa and get back to the work.

On the 5th of March, 2015, I was with some of my friends in my hostel. I never used to forget to spend some time with my best friends. Many times, they used to be my real motivators. Time was about 7-7.15 PM and I was consistently checking Facebook group of candidates selected for interview and UPSC website for IES results. Suddenly, while checking my FB group, I noticed someone had posted, 'I got XX rank'. I was stunned for a second. Next second, I told Daulat Ram Meena to check UPSC website, if IES results were out. He hitting upsc.gov.in bookmark, he found that result was out. He then clicked to download the list of selected candidates from the UPSC website. It would have taken 8-10 seconds to download the list. And I don't really remember, if my heart was beating for that 8-10 seconds. Replay of memories of hard efforts put by me for this selection started playing in front of my eye. Daulat downloaded the list and pressed CLTR + F command to find my name in the list. And he screamed, "Abe, tera selection ho gaya, All India Rank 59", (translated: You got selected, All India Rank 59)". I was living my dream. Within few minutes, phone calls started, they were greeting me for selection. I don't remember but till 10-10.30 PM, I got almost 100-120 calls saying congratulations. The selection made my spirits go high and I started doing my work more energy.

Until end of the May, the device was almost completed and we were going to test it near IIT Main gate traffic intersection.

Device being readied for experiments

We started testing it near IIT Main gate junction. We used to run the device for only traffic peak conditions when the pollution level used to be very high. We had to battle soaring temperatures during morning peak hour of our work. Sometimes the temperatures used to as high as 43°C.

Snap of  temperature and carbon monoxide sensor 

I had two helpers to help with my task. I used to tell them to sit in a shady place and count vehicles, while I used to stand in hot sunlight to measure pollutant levels. This we were doing to find the effectiveness of the device we had made to reduce the pollution. So, this was one of the main component of the research and we had to do it in any cost. For five consecutive days, we were battling soaring sun and high physical stress. Every evening, after the work was over, I used to feel as if there was fever in my body. I knew, others who had got selected with me in IES would be living a lavish life with doing no work other than giving interviews on dailies and giving talks in schools and colleges in their natives.  But I did not mind working in that condition. On the sixth day,  morning I got a call from the guys who were helping me saying."We are very tired and exhausted due to work, we won't come today". Nevertheless, I had other tasks to do which I completed then.

On the seventh day, we were back on work. After completing the morning session of experiments, I was resting in my hostel room. And  then my phone rang,

Person on phone: Am I talking to Mr. Vinayak?

Me: Yes. 

Person on phone: Hi, I am Nikita Arora, I want to know about your project. Dr. Rakesh Kumar has told me about this

Me: Thank you for you interest. My project is based on....(I went on telling)

Nikita: Okay, so I will be coming to see your device and experiment.

Me: Okay, you may come at 5 PM. 

I didn't knew who was she. I thought, she might me some research scholar from NEERI. At 4.30 PM, again Nikita called me,

Nikita: Hi, I am on Main gate of your institute. 

Me: We have not started our experiment, can you please wait. You may come inside and wait. 

Nikita: No, they are not letting us inside.

Me: What is the issue.

Nikita: We have NDTV tag on our vehicle and so they are asking for permit from public relation office.

That was a real WTF moment for me. What! I am going to be interviewed. I don't believe this. I went there with formal dressing. They were ready with the cameras and other personnel. We started out device and they filmed it. The whole interview ran for about an hour. 

June 5th, 2015, World Environment Day was going to be celebrated at Mantralay, Mumbai by Government of Maharashtra. There was also green environment related exhibition at Yashwantrao Chavan Centre, Mumbai. I got an opportunity to exhibit my device there. At around 11 AM, Hon. Minister of Environment, Government of Maharashtra, Shri Ramdas Kadam,  Hon. Minister of Environment, for state, Shri. Pravin Pote, and other secretaries visited out stall. We had made our stall, where the device was to be kept, ready in the early morning itself. The minister was very happy to see such a device which reduces air pollution. He inquired about the cost of this device, the influence area and other important parameters of the device. He also said, we will first test the device at five intersections in Mumbai, and if successfully worked, will install this at atleast 100 such intersections in Mumbai where pollution levels are very high.

After the minister left out stall, many news reporters came to us and started gathering information about the device.

Mumbai Mirror, 6th June, 2015

Hindustan Times, 6th June, 2015

Mumbai Mirror, 6th June, 2015

DD News, 7th June, 2015

And this,

NDTV, 19th June, 2015

And many more. Many news  agencies, who flashed my devices on their channels, I didn't even get a chance to recover the photos or videos of the report.
Then after month long, writing thesis report, it was submitted on 30th of June, 2015. On 7th July, 2015, final presentation of my dissertation was held in Seminar Hall, CESE, IIT Bombay. Many were present just to see, why did the did caught so much media attention.
By the grace of God, I successfully completed my M. Tech and waiting for IES joining.

And the moment of our Convocation

Inevitable thoughts...

What is it, that makes every person smile although he know he has suffered a lot in past, although he knows, it is not going to be easy again in the future. I really admire people pulling carts loaded with nearly hundred kgs of weights on the busy streets of Bhendibazar in Mumbai in scorching afternoon heat. I really appreciate the courage of people travelling around 50-60 km from Kalyan and other parts to Mumbai to earn their living, in local trains so crowded that barely one can breath properly. How does an auto rickshaw manages to wake up early in the morning, ride an auto in crowded and inhospitable streets of Mumbai for 10-11 hours a day. Where does they bring so much of energy? What motivation do they have to survive in such an arduous journey?
Can't we do anything for them? Can't we bring any change in their lives? No.. I am not talking about charity. Giving something free is not always good. It kills the societal spirit. But that's not the point I am making here.
I have done my Civil Engineering graduation from Government College of Engineering, Karad and presently doing my M. Tech at IIT Bombay. Both the colleges being government institutes, students here are typically hardworking. One of my classmate here in IIT Bombay is working in his lab continuously for one and half year, from morning 9 to evening 6 or 7. Yeah, literally, even more than that, many times. I don't remember, last time when was he absent in the lab, chilling out in hostel playing snooker or chess. And there are many more similar stories in my batch of just 15. I really adore them, respect them. But, when it comes to me...no man, I am simply a lackadaisical or even something more. Same or slightly different words were said to me by a professor at Government College of Engineering, Karad after she took my viva during my 6th semester exam. Looking at the toppers in the class, I just never understood, why do they work so hard. Just for grades! I thought, I would never work so hard in my life. Never ever.
Many times, you misunderstand your own personality, leave about understanding others. Just one year later, I was studying civil engineering, to reach acme of it's knowledge. I really started my IES preparation from scratch. I was waking inches towards miles. I did not knew, that would I be able to reach the target of clearing IES exam. I never even thought, what would be the consequences if 'I Fail'.
After the second semesters were over, during my M. Techs here, I worked like a hell for the IES written examination. Day and night. The time was getting escaped just too fast. Whether is was morning or a dark mid night hardly affected me. I was just laboring over the civil engineering syllabus for IES. In any case I didn't wanted to give any chance for failure. Finally the written exams were over and we breathed an easy air. Afterwards the days past and also the energy we had.
Now the next target was to reinvigorate my M. Tech project. My project topic was "Air quality management related to vehicular traffic". Few months were spent figuring out, what is really 'air quality management'. Like any other M. Techs or PhDs entering in IIT or any other premiere college in the work, I was like,

Leave about the whimsical part of joke in the above meme, I wanted to do in my M. Tech project, atleast something which will useful to someone, somewhere in the world and not only the librarian in the institute. 

In third semester during M. Tech, I with my friends wanted to some good courses in Economics and Management. But we failed to enroll ourselfs in any such course of the institute due to non- availability of the seats. Finally we enrolled ourselfs in a course named 'Ecology and Environment' offered by CTARA(Centre for Technology Alternative for Rural Areas) department of IIT B. This department was working in a rural areas. They organised a compulsory field trip during one of the weekends to a tribal village named Aghane, in the mountains of Bhimashankar wild life sanctuary. Initially, we were reluctant to go. But the visit was compulsory and we had to go. 

The journey started at around 5.30 AM from IIT Bombay. Being a study tour, we were damn sure, it has to be boring. We were well prepared for that. We traveled along Mumbai-Pune expressway upto Talegaon and headed towards Manchar, a dusty town of around 40000 population. 

The guy to the left in the photograph joined us in Manchar. Initially, we were least interested to know about him, as we were busy in our cheers. The we headed towards backwaters of the Dimbhe dam. The dam is located in Ambegaon tehsil. Wait, but where is this Ambegaon town on the earth. It is submerged under this dam's backwaters. Alas, thousands of families displaced. Where did these families go? Now let me introduce these guy. The on the left on the photograph is Mr. Anand Kapoor, IIT Kharagpur B. Tech, 1974. Co-founder of Shashwat, an NGO which has significantly changed this area. Shocked? Left his highly paying job to work for the tribal people displaced during the construction and commissioning of Dimbhe dam. He has almost laid his entire life for the the upliftment and betterment of Mahadeo Koli, Kathkari and Thakars tribal of the Bhimashankar wild life sanctuary area. 

When a town or village is submerged, they usually prefer shifting their houses on the upper stretches of the mountains. These people lack access to roads, education and many other basic amenities. They become landless. Here they started cage farming. The Dimbhe Jalashay Shramik Adivasi Machhimar Sahakari Society Maryadit, Digad was set up in 2006, to bring together all the tribal people and cooperatively earn their living. 

Cage farming practiced at Digad. Source: http://www.indiawaterportal.org/articles/farming-fishing-journey-tribals-dhimbe

Cage farming explained by local people

Ornamental fishes nurtured in the farm

They started 'Padkai Cultivation', that is cultivation of paddy crops on the steps of the mountains as the dam backwater recedes. This was done by 'Shramdan', which mean volunteer labour. This increased their food production. From building schools to building housed to the oustees. One man has changed the face to the area to such an extent that it was really impossible to imagine the life of these tribal people without this one man.
After visiting many such projects by Shashwat and attending Gram Sabhas, we headed towards the Aghane village where we had to stay overnight. While on the way to Aghane, we came to know that a truck was broken down on the way and the road was blocked. So we had to walk a few kilometers before we reached a school run by Shashwat at Aghane. It was a primary residential school, the only one school for 10-12 villages in the mountains. We had a chance to interact the school children and learn many things from them.

School children from Vanadev Vidhyalay, Aghane

The confidence and enthusiasm of these guys was simply incomparable. They were away from their parents and they were enjoying the schooling. Also had a chance to interact with the school staff. I really appreciate the efforts made by these people educate tribal people, living in such remote mountains with negligible or no modern facilities. They run around 30-35 such primary school, 5-7 secondary school. I salute their work.The next day, we again visited many other places, attended gram sabhas and discussed the problems they faced.
After a long day, we had chance to have informal discussion on various issues with Smt. Kusum Karnik (Kusum Tai, Founder of Shashwat NGO and wife of Anand Kapoor.) Then we returned IIT, late night.
The next day I found myself changed. I remember, just few days after, we were celebrating our classmate's birthday. A new fad getting common among people is applying cake over the face of the birthday boy/girl. Same happened then, and I was so heartbroken that I started thinking, ' Oh god what kind of people are these. There, people don't have proper food to eat and these stupids are wasting food for just no reason.'
I started reasoning each and every activity of mine as what do I do that can be used for the benefit of common people. The only thing I could do was that with my M. Tech project. Later in few months, I was developing a machine which would purify Ambient air. This machine was take up the air in the atmosphere, purify it and leave it back back in the atmosphere. We started it from the scratch.

This was from trying new filters, trying different sizes of pipes, different position of pumps with respect to filters, thermal oxidizers etc.

We tried and failed hundred times. Finally we came up with a structure something like this.

Then after measuring some vital parameters of the systems, we finalized the design and then gave it an industrial look.
Then comes name of the unit. The name and the logo of the machine designed by me was somewhat like this

Finally the WAYU is

Then we started testing this machine on a busy road just outside the IIT campus. We were working day and night to find the influence of the WAYU on air quality. We were working so hard for the last six days, that today on 31st May, 2015, two of our teammates are unwell. But nevertheless, we are resuming our work tomorrow morning 8 A M,  at IIT Main gate area.
Yesterday, 30th May, 2015, we were visited by NDTV reporters while we were working. They came to know about our work from NEERI, Worli office, Mumbai. They interviewed us, filmed us while doing the experimental work with the machine and also learned the principle on which the machine works.

Me (center) with the NDTV crew. 

Recently, I have also cleared UPSC IES exam, with all India rank 59. The department allocation is yet to be declared by Ministry of Railways, but most probably, I would get my first preference i.e., Indian Railway Services  of Engineers (IRSE). After joining this service, I will be undergoing 1.5 years of training. After the training part is complete, on first posting of an IRSE batch officer, the work jurisdiction will be about 400-600 km of railway track and around 800-1000 technical and non-technical staff will be reporting him.
Sources:
1. IRSE: Wikipedia
2. Blog written by railway engineers
3. Quora answer on job profile of IRSE officer
I remember, the day I started preparing for IES, my first motive was to train myself to work harder, more and more harder...till such time my body gives up. To learn to push myself to the limits of nature. I totally forgot, what I was. If I were a cool dude, if I were good looking or not, if I were intelligent or not. I just knew, I am nothing, I want to achieve perfection. Day and night, awake or asleep, a single thought that occupied whole of my mind, "I want to achieve perfection, at whatever cost". In the course of time, I forgot that at some point of the time, I hated studying. Yeah, but never to ignore, I was ready to fail. Rather in different words, I had lot to lot to gain, but nothing to loose.
I remember a very famous quote of Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Really, the first and most important thing before you choose to do anything, under the sun, you need to trust yourself. Just trust yourself that, you can work very hard and achieve whatever you want. Each and every word in the meme above is highly relevant to all of us. 

The last blog post, I have written, about my IES preparation in detail. Not everyone needs to prepare for IES or IAS. It's just okay to have other kind of dreams. That doesn't really matters in your life. What really matters is, how crazy does your ambition makes you. Just have a motive in your life, dream of it, explain it to yourself, why you dream of it, what is that you will feel after you achieve it, why and how does that really matters in your life, how will you able to achieve that and just go for it!. You may share your dream with someone else, but more that you share, more number of naysayers you will come across. Naysayers, they will find every possible way to convince you will not succeed. Just remember, they are naysayer and you are not, that whats different here and this will lead you to success. 

Make you own game plan, and start working. Remember, while you plan, consider the fact that 'you can fail'. Many people forget this and they fail. Start working day by day, night by night. Every second you spend, that should be directly, indirectly rooted to your goal. 

Lastly, I would say that life is not a rat race, rather it is a chance to explore yourself. Just select any goal, any ambition, push yourself to the limit and then judge yourself. 

My IES journey

My IES journey

Few minutes ago, I received a call, "Hello sir, I am XXXX XXX from Kolkata. First of all congratulations for your grand success in IES exam. Please guide and motivate me, I am also preparing for the same exam". Suddenly these types of calls became normal in life. Suddenly I realized that something has change in my life. I really don't know, its good or bad. This is really unusual for a person like me who has seen a tons of failures in my life. Some point of time, I was really thinking, ohh I cannot believe that all these incidents have happened to me and today I am here.

Recently I cleared Engineering Service Examination held and controlled by Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), a constitutional body which recruits elite group of officers in India. Nearly 4-5 lakh candidates apply for  few hundred seats every year. The service is divided into four group of engineers, Civil, Mechanical, Electrical and Electronics. The selected candidates are then appointed to different departments of Central Government of India as a Group A Gazetted (or lower depending upon case) officer after rigorous training and probation period. 

Those were the days, in Government  College of Engineering, Karad where I have completed my graduation. Placements had began in third year. First company to come for college campus recruitment was Shapoorji Pallonji Engineering & Construction ltd. It was a dream company for many. Many of us were extremely excited. My performance in my graduation was 'average' and even can be said as 'below average'. I was not very confident, as my grades were low, I was not good at English nor was I good at aptitude exams. Finally the day arrived, they conducted screening test and I failed. Not even they selected me for the interviews. Defeated, I started rethinking about my future. I had nearly accepted, I weak in technical, I cannot get selected in any company. Thereafter, I did not apply for any company, saying I have different plans in my mind. There were no plans at all, really no plans. I started thinking about learning building planing and design and assisting some local contractor. My parents knowing my condition, insisted on doing Post- Graduation. I was least interested in learning further. I remembered, I along with my friends had applied for MPSC (State PSC) exam, I passed it preliminary screening test, without any preparation. This became an only ray of hope that days. 

Days were frustrating and colorless, I had become more and more worrisome. I know I had to take some brave steps, otherwise life would be difficult for me.  Within few days, my classmate Akshay Desai,who was also my childhood friend came up with a very new idea.. Surprisingly they were very confident about me and they assured my full support despite my average performance in my graduation. I remember, the Demand Draft of Rs 42500,  which was to be paid as fees to the coaching class in Delhi through post, which was made after golden neck chain of my father, which he gave very happily. The admission to the institute was confirmed and within few days, arrived our final exams of graduation. 26th May 2012, was the last day of the examination. For others, it was a great moment of celebration, for me it was a beginning of a new struggle.

Me (Right) and my friend Akshay, nearly when we decided to prepare for IES exams

He told me about a coaching institute in Delhi for UPSC Engineering exam. I quickly made my decision but now the biggest concern was of money. That day, first time in my life, I was taking to my parents with a lump in throat

My lectures at coaching institute in Delhi were going to start on 31st May, 2012 and so we (me and my friend Akshay)decided to reach there on 30th May morning. We had booked a train ticket for us from our home town Karad. Hardly we had any time after the final exams to celebrate, we left for Delhi on 28th May night. It was a 31 hour journey and I was extremely nervous as I was going to stay away from home for first time in my life. I didn't had any idea, what is living in Delhi like or what problems would I face. Next day in the train, I met a soldier. He was from a village from Goa and travelling to his posting in Jammu and Kashmir. He was a nice guy and very happy to serve the country as a soldier. Asked about why is he doing so difficult job, he told about the respect one gets after martyrdom in his village. I was really impressed with that guy who was ready to shed his blood for the country without any special gains as such. 

The following night I spent thinking, 'why do I really wanted to join IES', was the money the only need, if so what about the teachings of my mother do serve the nation, what about the thoughts I used to share with my college mate to serve the society and lot many other 'whats'. If I really wanted to serve my country, it is not required to fight on border, there are many faces of our enemy who remain in the system and are responsible for poor roads, poor education system and poor public distribution system, whom we need to fight against. No, I am not talking about witch hunting, I mean you join the system and serve in such a way that your daily work itself will be a service to the nation. We need to fight our internal enemy first, then external enemy. During the stay in Delhi, only this thought persisted with me, everything other perished, even closest of close friend did. 

Next day morning we reached Delhi. It was hot like a kiln, as I described it the way we walked out of the station. The moment  I stepped in Delhi, my struggle started, struggle to find accommodation, struggle to manage with my friends, struggle to have food, struggle to manage expenses and overall struggle to cope up with the study pressures. But, time never stops, it keeps on, day after night and night after day. Really, a sunny day comes after deep dark night, and on Thu, May 30, 2013 at 5:59 PM, I got a mail saying "Congratulations, you have been selected for IIT Bombay M. Tech Programme". The effect was such that I could not sleep there for three consecutive days. It may not be a great thing for many of us, but having seen a series of failure almost every walk of my life, that was really a dawn out of a dark cold night.

Visit to Rashtrapati Bhavan with my friends in Delhi (me extreme right). Only casual visit after GATE exam

But, this was not a final dream and I had a long journey ahead. I kept on studying for IES examinations. Finally the day of examination arrived. The exam was held on 28th June to 30th June. I had to join IIT Bombay on 10th July, so I had booked tickets to return to home on 5th of July. We had worked a lot, but everything did not go well in exams, and I returned home. My parents were extremely happy, yes ofcourse upto some extent due to admission at IIT Bombay, but they were more happy because now I will be staying within their reach. 

Initial few days, we enjoyed our IIT campus a lot but the joys started receding with the college schedule becoming increasingly intensive and laborious. I hardly found any time to prepare for IES exam again as I knew that my examination was not that well and I may have to reappear again this year.  Many of my classmates wanted to join me in my IES preparation but the but academic schedule did not allow all. Really, the first semester course work was ho huge that many of us thought of quitting and preparing for IES, but none did.

Classmates at IIT Bombay, one of a chearful moment within a hectic academic course

Time passed, and in the month of October, IES written examination results were out. I was called for interview on 31st Dec. I was totally away from by IES preparation for last few months and hence the interview was not very. Slowly, the hopes of getting selected diminished. 

I returned back from interview from Delhi and started preparing again for the next year exam of IES to be held in June 2014. Within few days, results were out and I was not selected. I felt very sorry for myself, I remembered that tough days, when experiencing huge amount of problems but I never gave up. I fought back fiercely all the problems, but why did I failed? I was not sure, would I be able to prepare all again, such huge task, all alone? I started becoming more worrisome. My well wishers assured faith in me and gave me courage to fight again. I started my hardwork again and within few days, there joined my friend, Shashank Bharadwaj. Till now he was also preparing alone and giving his first attempt in 2014. He was really very hardworking, very ambitious and most important of all, very cheerful guy. We used to inspire each other to work harder. I remember, we had devised new tricks to study for IES during college lectures are going on. We used to hide our IES notes below the lecture notebook and read when professor is not looking at us. We had tried and studied almost every place in the campus as we use to compulsorily carry some notes wherever we go and start studying at any time any place we got during lecture, during project work. We were really proud, that we are doing ateast one thing in our lives with our greatest commitment. Then arrived month of May. Our semesters were over, and now we had all the time to study for IES. I slept at 4 AM and rose at 8 AM to find a book adjacent to my pillow. I remember, I wished I had a bigger day than 24 hours, as it seemed very short that days. Then June arrived. 20th, 21st and 22nd were the three days of exams. We had planned each and every minute of those three days, rather we had 'Engineered' those three days, when to sleep, what to each and what to think during that period. Yes we did all this and we executed all the plan very successfully.

Exams were over and we both visited our homes after a long. The time was boring as there was nothing to do with such passion and enthusiasm. Finding normal college routine boring, Shashank started preparing for civil services. I chose to work harder on my project. Again, few months passed and written results were declared in the month of November. Many of classmates had appeared for, but only Shashank and I managed to clear the written exams. Again we started our preparation. First of all, we completed all our syllabus. Then after filling of Detail Application Form (DAF) we started preparing for general awareness pertaining to our home town, home state and current issues. Then we took a brave step, not to attain any coaching for interviews and mock interviews. I knew the actual arrangement in the interview room at UPSC as I had appeared earlier for the interviews. According to that, we recreated the interview room in our hostel library. We kept a big round table, and all the chairs on one side and only one chair on other side. We issued a video camera and a stand from our college. We used to take mock interview of each other. We used to set up camera, table and dress up and reach the interview location on predetermined time. We tried to recreate the whole interview environment in our hostel library. We used to analyse the recorded footage of the interview, comment on body posture, walking style, talking style and also way of answering. This way, we almost did as many as 10-12 mock interview. 

Surprisingly, we both got the interview call for the same date and same panel, 13 January 2015. We stayed Gurgaon for the interviews, at Shashank's relatives. Finally, the day arrived. We were given reporting timing of 1 PM. We started from Gurgaon at 9 AM via metro. We reached Dholpur house (UPSC Bhavan) at around 11.30 AM. We met other fellow candidates appearing for interviews. Other coming out from the UPSC bhavan from previous were interviewed by the people from coaching institutes. I was filled with energy and enthusiasm and need not to say, bit nervousness. We hurriedly read newspapers and memorised important news,there on Chai shop just outside the UPSC building. They allowed us to enter at 1 PM after checking our invitation letter. 

As we entered, we were made to sit in a waiting room, which just below the dome of UPSC building seen usually in photographs. We were made to sit st a table along with other candidates appearing for the interviews before the same interview panel. Yet the name of the interview panel chairman was not revealed. They checked our documents in no time. No one was wearing a wrist watch as we were clearly informed not to bring it and hence there after we were unaware of time. After some time, one person came and a candidate (not in our panel) was called for the interview. A bit of nervousness started showing on in myself. My was the second and Shashank had sixth turn to go for the interview. Still no one in our panel was called. Suddenly, a person with a paper came near to us and he called name of the candidate who had to go first for the interview. Within no time, the temperature rose to such high that it was no surprise to see everyone had made their faces red in colour. Shashank and I were sitting close to each other, saw each other faces and laughing saying "bete, tu toh nervous ho gaya hai" meaning, 'you are getting nervous'. I took long breaths and calmed down. I remembered my loving parents and guru. It really made me feel comfortable. Finally, the same person came calling my name. I got up, went to the door of waiting room, they checked me again and they he guided me till the office of Prof. David R. Syiemlieh who was the chairman of the panel of my interview. I waited there for few minutes and then walked inside wishing every member of the interview panel. The interview continued for unknown time.

Few minutes after the interview at UPSC Bhavan

The interview was good, I was happy because they asked me questions which I had already prepared and I was able to answer them confidently. I was extremely happy that day. Next day I returned to Mumbai for continuing of my M. Tech at IIT Bombay. 

Thereafter, the countdown for final results began. We both were very hopeful. Really, waiting for result is very distressing. Every single day, every hour I used to check UPSC website to look for results. One day, I was in my friends room, discussing some happy moments of Government College of Engineering Karad, where I had completed my graduation. Simultaneously I was checking the UPSC website. And, the HOLY CRAP. IES results were out. I jumped upon my friend sitting front of the laptop, "Abey result aagaya, jaldi dekh" meaning 'hey, results are out, please look for it'. Only 97Kb file, was taking just too long to get downloaded. And the file was downloaded, my heart was beating with enormous rate. All India Rank 59. It was really a situation I have no words to explain.

Just after the of results were out 

Phone started ringing with well wishes, one after other. In succeeding one hour of the results, I received almost, 70-80 phone calls. 

And thereafter, everyday I get up and then realize I have got selected and this is not dream. Its real !!!

A recent photograph with me(right) and my friend Shashank Bharadwaj at my hostel at IIT Bombay