Making of the Steelframe

Delhi Diary
By RK Rishikesh Sinha

In the din and bustle of Mukherjee Nagar in New Delhi, the throng of Civil service aspirants rejuvenates every passerby. The innumerable bookstalls, Photostat centres and the boys distributing leaflets for various coaching centres makes one get easily into the groove of competitive examination fever.

25 gaj homes with one room and one kitchen, crowded lanes and markets, all witness the conquering vigour of young minds in the form of unending discussion. If you eavesdrop, you will hear tricks and fundas to crack almost all examinations whether it is Civil service or SSC. You will read handwritten messages like “Need a roommate/ flatmate. Only Civil service aspirant, Call…”. Their endless conversations stretch to diverse fields from politics to economy, from history to literature…you take a walk and you will surely hear various topics of discussion that are brewing around you. You feel these examinations are not hard to crack. You have to just follow their so-called steps religiously.

And if you incidentally converse with any one of them, you will unexpectedly come to know the person you are talking to have passed many such toughest examinations twice or thrice…and still striving for the ultimate goal. Their perseverance and belief shake your disbelief. Often, it seems appearing and passing in any all-India level examination, is a fundamental right for these candidates which they want to exercise again and again! Their unwaveringly confidence of the preparation make them quiet perceptive to predict their result before sitting in the examination. They know the dynamics of these examinations.

The air at Mukherjee Nagar makes you feel the two worlds that exist in India. One world where students confidently cherish the only wish to appear in the toughest competitive examinations one after another; and the other, where young graduates can’t even imagine these examinations. For them, taking the names of these examinations would break out in a cold sweat.

This is Mukherjee Nagar in New Delhi where aspirants from all over India with dreams in their eyes come to prepare themselves to crack the Civil Services examination. The local economy sustains and supports the big student community by providing them everything from room to bookshops, to vegetable market, to coaching centres, to Photostat shops.

The marketing strategies being adopted by coaching centres is worth to mention. No space is left vacant in single wall or pillar. With the announcement of any all-India level examination, Batra, the main business centre, get baths with pamphlets. GTB Nagar Metro Station, the nearest metro station to Mukherjee Nagar welcomes you with eye-catching advertisement with the names and photographs of successful candidates with their All India Rank (AIR).

Once asked a candidate what drives him to pursue this unpredictable fate resigning his secure government job, the quick reply will break your myth, it’s not the salary but, “it is something beyond it…the post and the drilling itself”.

You ask them: How one should start preparing for the all-India level examination? “Start with NCERT books …this will clear the fundamentals of your preparation…and simultaneously go on with …(the names of books)”.