VinayakPadalkarBlog

Friday, 27 March 2015

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

Thursday, 20 November 2014

Make It Clean Ideas Campaign

Source: http://economydecoded.com/2014/10/swachh-bharat-mission-stride-towards-clean-india.html

Very rightly said proverb, ‘Cleanliness is next to Godliness’. Keeping this principle in mind, Gandhi spread the awareness for cleanliness among the countrymen in the times when country was under foreign rule. Sant Gadge Baba, a saintly social reformer, a wandering mendicant who held weekly festivals with the help of his disciples across Maharashtra.

Sant Gadge Baba cleaning at Goregaon, Mumbai
(Source: http://socialreformers.sgbaulib.com/index.php?view=detail&id=42&option=com_joomgallery&Itemid=64)

His reforms and visions for villages in India is still a source of inspiration for various political parties and non-government organizations. Enthusiastically Hon. PM. Modi declared for the Red Fort during Independence Day Celebration about the launching of Swach Bharat Abhiyan (Clean India Mission). However the political parties may politicize the campaign, my kudos to him for all valid reasons.

The first and foremost thing about littering is lack of zeal among the fellow countrymen to keep the surrounding clean and dispose the waste in a responsible manner. However strict laws you make, if everyone decides to break it, no government in the world can save it. Same is the case with the littering in public places and on the roads. We have a very well framed clause about the littering in the public places, we all violate it. No one can really help the Government in implementation of the law. So how do we deal with that? Is it enough to add some pages in the textbook talking about the cleanliness? How good will it work? Who will teach these highly educated morons who throws out the wrapings while driving out of a McDs and Pizza Huts? So only uneducated people cannot be blamed for this settings.

But actually the real problem lies somewhere else, in the minds, in the hearts which allows us very easily to openly urinate and litter. We are trained in that manner to think, it no crime to do so. So what a supreme leader of a country can do in state of affairs? Take a broom and start cleaning, same as the saints overs the years have done. Mr. Modi is a celebrated leader. He enjoys full popularity among the masses more that his party does. Thus Modi taking a broom in hands and cleaning street is a big act. People are bound to follow him. Also he invited many others celebrities and luminaries for doing same. This created an air for the movement and suddenly everyone started talking about cleanliness. If this movement continues in same enthusiasm, it will not take much longer for everyone to be aware of cleanliness and it will be woven in the fabric of social morality. Then people will demand more meaningful laws related to cleanliness and they will love to follow it.

As per the Constitution of India, Cleanliness and Sanitation is a state subject. Maximum the Centre can do is prepare directives to the states regarding making new laws and amendment of the existing laws or amend Directive Principles of State Policies (Part IV of Constitution of India). The states should act proactively, ensure participation of people working in the field, different NGOs and other elements, play a role of an initiator, guide, mentor and mediator to bring different business, non-business models in the play and start a serious business of cleanliness. The Government can best do is that crowd source ideas for the people itself, provide a platform, involve people and work with them to create a beautiful India.

Friday, 3 October 2014

Its our turn: For development

The month of September is the month of Modiplomacy, sounding pretty successful in bringing the foreign investments into India and making the Indian Economy rejuvenate with his markup program Make in India. With Japan, China and US set to make a lead into this, Modi has also promised foreign, Indian entrepreneurs and NRI’s to facilitate and boots the business friendly environment in India. The current scenario shows that India’s GPD to increase by 5.6% in current financial year and by 6.5% in next financial year as per some independent survey agencies. Also already Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC, an American financial services company has revised India's rating from "Negative" to "Stable". If Modinomics plays well, the India’s GDP is about to increase many folds in near decades. This is ought to create jobs and increase standard of living, life expectancy and other vital parameters if we see a holistic picture of the Modi Government’s policies including Skill development, Jan-Dhan Yojna and Swaccha Bharat Abhiyan.

Many has raised concerns over industrialisation of Indian economy on the issue of Global warming. The more of the discussion is about that the industries look towards the developing countries as a dump yard of emissions. Kyoto Protocol, does not have any sanctions on emission for the Non-Annexure I countries, which includes India. The most of the develop world which boast on its economy have developed their economies by exploiting their colonies, emitting very high amount of carbon in their industrialisation period and left no space for others to develop. They not only exploited the natural and economic resources of their colonies, but also left these nations fight with many social problems such as illiteracy, poverty and high population growth.

Today as country, India is third highest emitter of carbon in the air behind US and China. Even EU is ahead of India.

Total carbon emission shown by size of balloon

For India to become a developed nation, to reach the development to the grass root level, considering current reforms by the new government and its response by the industrial sector, it would take atleast another 3-4 decades. Adding new dimension of global to the set of existing rules for the global warming will make the development a distant dream to the third world. Also we should not forget the per capita emission of the developing countries is very less as compared to the developed countries who are reaping the fruits of development.

Per capita carbon emission by size of balloon

They carbon emission should be certainly based on the number of people of the country, because in the modern day principle of equality, every individual has an equal right to lead a happy and comfortable life. If discrimination is made on the basis of the country he lives, he will be denied of many of the important rights required for his personal liberty. Just for instance, if we consider that India undertakes a massive mission to decrease its dependency on fossil fuels and exploits all its renewable resources of energy in next five decades. We have to also consider that the energy need of India will increase but improvement in the technology will increase the efficiency which will offset the energy demand. This kind of study suggest that after 50 years, we will achieve only 37% of our energy coming from renewable sector and we will still depend on fossil fuel for the energy on large basis. But the worst is, the energy cost will increase five-fold. This is a very massive implication that we cannot blindly go for all greener technologies.

Also the technologies regarded green yesterday may not be proved that green today. The photo-voltaic solar panels, we studied as a green technology in our schools are produces recalcitrant sludge during its manufacturing phase. So if we perform Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) on thermal power plant and PV power unit, thermal power units turns out to be cleaner and greener.

Global warming skeptics

We all know, global warming is happening. But is it happening due to emission due to burning of fossil fuels? Greenhouse gases constitute a very small fraction of our atmosphere. The water vapour is the major gas causing Greenhouse effect. A small fraction of theses GHGs is carbon dioxide.

The carbon dioxide is a natural gases. This is emitted by almost all terrestrial animals during their life supporting process of respiration. Also the volcanos all over the world emit a large amount of carbon dioxide than we all together. Also there are many others facts which proves that global warming is not due to anthropogenic emission of carbon.

India’s role

So the question is, what should be India’s role in the current scenario regarding global warming. What I feel is that, today the science does not completely prove that is really global warming really anthropogenic or not. So maybe we might invest huge money and time by avoiding all that activities leading to emission of GHGs and then looking after our development and if after few decades, it is proved that global warming has nothing to do with anthropogenic carbon emission, we are at great loss!!!

So India should continue its march towards industrial and economic development keeping in view the holistic picture of our country. If at all the developed world cares for global warming, it should leave some space empty to emit carbon for the developing world and bring the whole world on same table f development.

Tuesday, 29 July 2014

Our environmental policies: Explained

A scenic view from Kashmir Valley

India is a developing country and facing all such problems common to a developing country including that of environment. As a large section of India's population devoid of basic amenities, environmental issues remains largely unanswered. Though there is a long way ahead to achieve in this area, we can structure our policies and laws in such a way that will increase our pace towards our goal.

Environment is a broad area made up of different biotic and abiotic factors. The question that what in the environment should be protected most should be essentially answered based on cause effect analysis. This will be based on many factors such as whether people directly use that particular source of water directly for drinking purpose, what is the fate of the of the pollutant if released, how does it affect the surrounding ecosystem etc. All these questions converges to a simple question that what amount of population is affected, by what severity and due to what amount of pollutant. This analysis can be simply carried out by converting all the damages either to humans or to the other living beings into monetary values and then comparing that if protected what will have least loss. So a prioritisation can be made on the choices of the pollution reduction alternatives. For e.g., If an industry has a load of pollutant released in the liquid stream as well as that of gaseous pollutants. If the industry is located far upstream of the human settlement, them the water pollutant mainly released as BOD may not cause much harm as that of the air pollutant if worked out as said above and hence air pollution abatement given the first priority.

The above was the discussion related to the policy framing for the pollution abatement. Also a strong administrative structure is needed for policy implementation. In India, Public health and sanitation comes under state list of powers. The most of important tasks of public sanitation such as construction, maintenance and operation of solid waste disposal systems, wastewater and drinking water systems and others are done by urban local bodies in urban areas. Most of the times we see that the Urban as well as rural local bodies incapable of managing the solid waste resulting it lying on streets.

Also the garbage lying outside the boundary of Municipalities and Grampanchayats on the highways, agricultural fields, railway etc., remains unattended.

The local governmental bodies lack expertise and many times incapable of handling such kinds of large projects of constructing the facilities for this purposes. So here I advocate that the construction, maintenance task should be undertaken by the Public works department under a separate wing of expertise in this subject. This is more advantageous form of policy implementation program as they task force have more experience and expertise in the same work and also they have more confidence to use newer and more efficient technologies whereas the agency doing it for the first time will go on the safer side and only try the old trusted technology though it may not be very efficient.

Water treatment plant at Malkapur(Karad Dist- Satara, Maharastra)

Although Maharashtra Jeevan Pradhrikaran in Maharashtra is state level departmental organisation working in the field of water supply and sanitation for planning, designing and operation-maintenance, all other tasks of public health and sanitation remains in the hands of local bodies and which are inadequately answered. Also Municipal Solid Waste handling rules, 2000 makes it for the municipalities to look after the collection, segregation and scientific disposal of the solid waste, some studies says around 50% of our solid waste remains uncollected. This lies on the roadsides, open lands, railway tracks etc. If this responsibility is given to a state body as said earlier, they may plan and implement larger and smarter collection, segregation and disposal techniques which are not only environment friendly but also cost effective as they can be built for two or more adjoining towns or villages and also attract employment and eco-tourism.

Same is in the case for water and air pollution management, that policies work more effectively if we implement them at state level rather than at local level.