A sceptical essay (1997)

They say failure encourages philosophy. Actually, the statement shuts a lot of questions which if rose would be difficult to answer.

The IAS result started many thoughts in my mind. I went to see the result with a friend who had earlier taken an unsuccessful interview for the same and I saw mostly gloomy faces and only few happy ones. Well, if I were to take the factor of result into consideration there would not have been much cause for concern for success is analogous to happiness and failure to sadness. But the fact that I wasn’t to be affected by the resulted allowed me a neutral viewpoint – an eagle’s view to the whole issue and thought in my mind, such that my mind could dwell on certain aspects that have hitherto, either escaped a lot of minds or have been unduly disregarded.

As I saw the faces around me, I thought to myself if there really was something that made a good administrator that the gloomy faces lacked . I could not fathom it. What I did feel strongly though, was that most of us are too result oriented (the consequence of the fast and competitive life these days I guess). I waited for my friend to react to the result (who was part of the gloomy faces) and he shrugged it off saying he hadn’t done well in the written and that the paper was tough. This I felt was ‘the hindsight syndrome’. When I look back at the exam I took for my present job, I feel it was easy. It is only when I think of my first attempt at the same that I feel it isn’t all that easy after all. Hindsight is a peculiar aspect of human character. It is, more often than not blinded by success / failure - the result. But something else that struck me, shook me. I was about to ask him as to what kind of questions were asked in the paper when it dawned on me that none of the questions that may have been asked were to be of any consequence in determining the requisite qualities required in an IAS officer as far as the nature of the job is concerned. Isn’t this an irony even with all the due consideration to the fact that the number of candidates taking the exam is overwhelming and given such a situation there has to be a way of straining out only as many as are required for the posts. So, at least the thing that emerges is that the initial emphasis is more on the quantity and not so much on quality. Is it that the organization is more concerned about selecting only the number of people required to fill in the vacancies and not so much on selecting the ones who are most suitable for the job? I say so since I am sure we don’t just want book worms or academic geniuses. Nevertheless, I feel, more strongly than ever, now, that in our country very often, immediate success and achievement is of greater prominence than aptitude or worth. Alternatively, if I may say, we judge ability by achievements. That is probably why for most of us ends matter more than means (anything else). Today Mohammed Azharuddin is not that great a batsman ( I wrote this in 1996) but just let him score a hundred in the next world cup match and he shall become one of the best batsmen once again (as he was when he entered international cricket). Prof Amartya Sen is a good economist because he has been awarded the Nobel Prize. Similarly, one would never have called Arundhati Roy a gifted writer had she not been nominated for the Booker Prize and then won it.

Anyway, just accompanying a friend to check the IAS results tuned out to be a revelation for me. Of course a lot of the problems in our country arise from our great propensity to produce children ( I wish we had this generosity elsewhere as well), but if everything were to be seen so deeply then our society is too frail to allow any satisfactory deduction and where all arguments and theories fail one maxim easily explains it all. NOTHING SUCCEEDS LIKE SUCCESS.