I remember a hilarious incident which happened inside a train in Kerala years ago when a passenger occupied a reserved seat where he was confronted by, "Nee aaraada, Collector aano"? ("Who are you? Are you the Collector"?) This incident gave me the impetus to pursue civil service to some extent as I realized the power of being a Collector.
I passed out from Chennai IIT with a BTech in chemical engineering in 1991 which saw the advent of liberalisation. After more than a year of preparation, when I joined the civil service in 1993 there were two more Malayalis from IIT Chennai who joined civil service. Vinod Thomas who is currently the vice-president of Infrastructure Leasing and Finance Corporation Investment Managers Limited and Jayakumar Nair, the present DGM of retail business head in Kerala of ICICI Bank.
In India during those days, a technocrat had to be a bureaucrat as well. Now it has changed and it's a different management altogether. Take for example, Delhi Chief Minister-to-be Arvind Kejriwal and wife Sunita who too were in my same batch in the civil service. Unfortunately in India, we don't give much respect for research. For technocrats there is a level up to which they can rise, but bureaucracy is a different ball game altogether.
I took Mathematics and Physics as optional subjects as either you get zero or 100, nothing in between. Mathematics is a tough subject and my senior Raju Narayana Swamy had scored the highest score in Mathematics in the history of civil service. He got more than 200 marks. The General Knowledge paper was comparatively easy as I was a person who kept abreast of current affairs through my reading.
Unlike the present generation of Malayali IAS officials, I had enrolled at Brilliant Tutorials for correspondence course so as to collect some study materials. Those days it was a fashion to enroll in an IAS coaching centre in North India, especially in New Delhi and Bihar.
You never get bored with IAS job and there is always a charm to it. Variety is one advantage which no other job can rightly claim. Flexibility and freedom are also quiet high compared to North Indian States. Now it is man management which has become crucial and these days IAS has got a mix of professionals. So Human Resources has become the key component as identifying core competencies of a professional is the need of the hour, even in Secretariat.
One of the drawbacks among Malayali IAS aspirants which I have noticed is that they tend to mingle among Malayali crowd more. When three Malayalis join together it becomes a 'Malayali Samajam' which should be avoided! One needs to come out from the comfort zone.
During my earlier student days, one official whom I considered as a role model was the 'demolition man', Alphonse Kannamthanam. But I believe every person has got something unique to give to the society.
Malayalis have been born and brought up in a protective environment. So, the fear of unknown is definitely high and so they shy away from pursuing IAS. Earlier Malayali IAS aspirants lacked self-confidence. If you don't have self-confidence, no coaching will help as it it's only a tool. One should have the feeling that you are no lesser mortal and fortunately things are changing for better.
