Tables turned

Nowadays, I am recruiting tech interns for technology team of Cohortplus project. We gather resumes, shortlist candidates and conduct some telephonic rounds. This is followed up with some face to face interviews. The process of recruitment has provided me an opportunity to put on shoes of Interviewer and see things from his angle.

I have appeared in numerous interviews since my under-graduation. A good tech company takes around 5 to 6 rounds of interviews. By some rough estimate, I can claim to have appeared in nearly 100 interviews till date. This would include my internship effort during under-graduation, placement efforts, M.S. internship efforts, Research assistantship interviews, Civils mocks interviews and occasional appearances in interviews in last 6-7 months. Number of times, I was thrown out unexpectedly at last juncture. I always wondered about my mistakes. The current role as interviewer allows me to evaluate my own failures in more objective fashion. I am compiling some observations below.

1. Always go full throttle in the interview. Don't be subdued. Don't show modesty. Interviewer may mistake your modesty as your lack of content.

2. In the technical rounds, take care of various use-cases, null scenarios, dry run, cleanliness of code.

3. Don't tell your weakness to interviewer. Even if he insists.

4. Don't be indecisive and confused. You should be able to inspire confidence in your interviewer.

5. No body knows the solution. Even the interviewer does not know the solution. So keep trying different things.

6. Approach the problem in a systematic manner. Every one likes systematic approach.

7. Think louder. Keep talking and keep telling the interviewer about your problem solving approach.

8. Give multiple solution to the problem.

On top of all this, One must be thorough with his subjects.

Boring life

Sometimes, I wonder what is the difference between a rickshaw puller and all these great engineers working in big companies like Microsoft and Amazon. The only visible difference to my mind is chance. The one who pulls rickshaw is no less hard working. He pulls rickshaw almost 8-10 hours a day. He toil hard under burning sun or in the freezing cold. In many ways, his effort requires greater physical and mental will power than the work of a software engineer sitting in air conditioned office.

From my experience, I can say "Environment is great influencer is shaping minds of people". The biggest example is of NRI's working abroad. When in other country, they would think twice before jumping a queue but when they visit India, they become sheep in the herd.

The events of second world war led to two greatest revelation to colonial power. First is Environment can brainwash even the sanest of the mind. Hitler created an environment where the whole nation became complicit to holocaust and imperialism. Even those who were relatively powerful, could not resist his thoughts. The propaganda campaign clouded thinking power of whole generation of rationale animals and brought out the real animalistic instinct. People complied, obliged, obeyed and lay supine in front of Nazi agenda.

Second big revelation was that real asset of future is not minerals or metals. It would instead be man power of the nation. The Empire of future would be empire of minds. With this vision in mind, Colonial power relinquished their claim over colonies. With this, nature of imperialism changed from financial to knowledge imperialism. A trend of brain drain started where western countries poached the best mind of colonies and provided them with an ecosystem where they can fulfill their biological and security needs in wholesome manner. The colonial hangover in colonies ensured that NRI tag would enable fulfillment of esteem needs as well. Thus brain drain sustained itself and spiraled over time. The sense of certainty in their lives lead to belief that they are makers of their destiny.

While there is nothing wrong with this view. It is certainly a very good belief system because this way person can inculcate "can do attitude" and avoid being fatalistic. But this leaves me wondering about "how does the western philosophy explains the factor of chance in people's life?".

Nowadays, I am reading Gita. I read about Karma Yoga. It talks about relinquishing desires in life and working without expectations and desires. This leave me confused about the whole philosophy of pursuing goals and following purpose in life. How can some one work without any desires. I tried. But I don't understand the system. Without desire there is no motivation. The will power is crippled. I understand that I should be unfazed with the end result and rather one should learn from outcome be it success or failure. But having no desire in the first place is perplexing.


Anyway, this was some random compilation of my thoughts. Will write something more substantive next time.

Lending hand to some one is better than giving dole

There is a famous Chinese adage which says "if you give poor man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach him how to fish, you feed him for life". Once the person knows about fishing skill, he or she can function independently. On the other hand, doles or donation for charity will only empower him for the duration for which the charity lasts. Unless the person does not know how to use the charity in productive fashion, It will be of no help in the long term.

This wisdom applies to all walks of life. Consider the scenario of flood situation, Most of the time people open their wallet whole heartedly to donate for people who have become victim of flood. However, such doles are not put to its productive use most of the times. Instead, if people could come and help in managing services in relief camps then it could bring bigger difference to the lives of flood victim.

Doles are some times unnecessary evil. There are certain situations where we do not have enough hands to help people. In such scenarios, doles could act as stopgap arrangement for dealing with manpower deficit. A classic case in point is Indian employment sector. Today a large population is unskilled and state is not able to generate enough jobs. Even private sector is lethargic in this context. In such scenario, It would be better if we could ensure some minimum well being or we could provide some social protection to unemployed people. The problem occurs when people consider dole as their entitlement and donors use the excuse of dole as cheap way of shirking their responsibility in lending hand to people in need.

This responsibility-shirking behavior is visible in various dimensions. For example today rich nations are shirking off their responsibility towards poor nations. They provide some cheap loans for building infrastructure through institutional mechanism. However, when it comes to sharing technological competence, rich countries develop cold feet. Had they provided technological know-how to smaller, poor nations then poor countries could have use this in multiplicative fashion to build much more infrastructure.

Even in individual sphere, enabling some one with skills to use and generate money is much more transformational and empowering in comparison to simply giving money to some one. If person has skills then he can survive on his own. But if person has money but he does not know how to use it then it is certain be spent in unproductive manner.

Apart from the mental strength, a helping hand to some one in need, has much stronger emotional sentiments attached to it. According to a famous parable, once a person was attempting to commit suicide. An old man was sitting on the other bank of river noticed the suicide victim. He came and enquired about cause of sadness. The suicidal person said, he has lost job and he has no business. The old man introduced himself as Mr. Ford of Ford motors and asked the person to not worry about his success and failure. He is there to help him always. With these words, the suicidal victim started re-building his life again. Once he became successful, he came back to the same river bank and found the old man sitting on the other side of bank. He walked up to him and thanked him with words "Mr. Ford, your assurance helped me in rebuilding my life." The old man chuckled and told the young man, he is not Mr. Ford. He lied for the sake of igniting confidence and hope in young men's life. The moral of story is "it is not always the monetary help or physical support that helps people in rebuilding their lives". More important is the emotional connect and mental assurance that ignite the hope, and gives the desired purpose and focus to our life.

Some established political schools also opposes the concept of dole. According to neo-liberal school, doling out benefits and giving subsidies leads to wastage of resources in unproductive sphere. Political philosopher F.A. Hayek terms the concept of social justice achieved through subsidies and doles as mirage. He advocate free market and competition. He terms this as fight for struggle where only fittest should survive. By giving doles, We do not make some one fitter for competition. Instead we make people more servile and dependent. Therefore, lending hand in terms of imparting skills, giving mental strength and emotional stability is much more important.

In the Indian context, today We stand at an inflection point of our political-economic history. Today We have large number of poor population. Nearly 25% of population is surviving on daily remuneration of Rs. 26 in day in Villages and Rs. 30 in Cities. This is definitely insufficient for them to live a dignified life. Thus it is essential to provide various amenities as dole. However, such dole-out subsidies should be become permanent feature of our economy. With the scale of population which we have today, such dole is unsustainable. Therefore it is essential that we empower people by way of skilling them. Today nearly 80 Lakh Indians are entering into job market. Therefore it is essential to skill them.

Doles breed servility. While lending hand creates bonding among people. Doles induces responsibility-shirking behavior. While lending hand leads to responsibility sharing. Doles leads to hierarchy creation between donor and taker. On the other hand, lending hand helps in building friendships and relationships. Doles are some times necessary evil but they are only short term arrangements. In long term, lending hand to some one is better than giving dole.

PM's pakistan visit

Prime minister has again stumped his opposition with his political tactics and idiosyncrasies. His stopover visit to Pakistan has been acclaimed and criticized equally across the country.

His fan army is positioning this visit as a show of increasing trust and bonhomie between Indian prime minister and his counterpart Mr. Nawaz Sharif. They claim this meeting as a new beginning and thaw in India-Pak relationship. It is seen as an effort to delink such occasional visits from routine outcome-focused approach.

On the other hand opposition both in India as well as Pakistan is portraying this visit as pre-planned meeting. According to inner sources, this meeting was facilitated by Business tycoon Sajjan Jindal who had played pivotal role in earlier Dhaka meeting of two NSA's.

Whether we can term this visit as successful or failure depends on the purpose of the visit. From the official brief, Visit was impromptu without any specific agenda. So government can claim this as continuation of Atal-Sharif friendship. But a larger question looms over such visit which is "Could India Pakistan visits be actually de-linked from their outcome?". Can we really ignore the pre-history of India-Pak relations in such visit? Can we move away so abruptly from Kashmir or state facilitated terrorism to warmth and personal friendships?

I remember Sushama Swaraj gave a rhetorical speech to media when one Indian soldier was beheaded by some unknown sources from Pakistan. She exhorted to get ten heads in revenge of one Indian head. All the heat generated by rightist BJP around India-Pak relations seems so superficial now.

Till recently, BJP suspended talks with Pakistan over Pak ambassador's meeting with Hurriyat leaders. But suddenly Modi has gained this new-found wisdom and he is ready to forget all of blood stained history revolving around Pakistan and thinks talks are the best solution to India-Pak issue. This reflects that Modi is missing an institutional understanding of the issue.

If he had understood nature of India-Pak relations then either he would not have suspended talks earlier or he would have refrained from such unplanned fruitless visits. His move shows whimsical individual oriented nature of Indian foreign policy.

If the visit had no purpose then wouldn't it be better utilization of time, had Modi visited Akhlaq's home in Dadri. Why waste huge public resources on such fanfare and selfie campaign with world leaders who stabs in your back? If the visit had any purpose then what is the result in terms of 8+2 agenda of India and Pakistan. These open questions ought to be answered.

History is evident that India Pakistan relationship passes through a cycle of talk and violence. Often talks reach to near resolution of Kashmir but a sudden terrorist attack with involvement of state element from Pakistan derail the whole peace process. Talk are suspended. Then they start talking about talks. Slowly they engage in talks. In parallel, violence starts. Talks and violence go hand in hand. After a breaking point, talks are suspended and only violence prevail. Once both are exhausted with violence then again they start talking about talks.

The moral of story is Pakistan is not as democratic as India. While democratic institution keep pushing for talks and engagement, simultaneously, military institution like ISI promotes violence. That's why it is often remarked that road to Islamabad goes through Rawalpindi (Military headquarter).

A recent trend witnessed in India is political use of Pakistan bashing for hiding internal policy failure. This was a tested technique in Pakistan. However recent Bihar election showed that national leaders used reference of Pakistan to turn away the attention from government failure in meeting people's expectation.

Time will tell, what Modi has in store for us. He is full load of promises. but very little has happened on the ground. Or even if it has happened, very little is communicated to the people. I wish, Modi shows some commitment and character in dealing with Pak issue rather than becoming agent of RSS or other Hindu groups. He has the persona to take this relationship into unchartered territories but India-Pak issue is much more complex than he seem to imagine.

Book Review: Man who mistook his wife for a Hat: Oliver Sacks

There are some books which are so powerful that they can impact your world view forever. This book is one among those. This is a truly classic read for number of reasons. But before getting into that, let us know who is Oliver Sacks and what this book is about?

Oliver Sacks is one of the most renowned Psycho-neurologist world have had. He spent 6 decades of his life studying various psycho-neurological disorder and authored numerous books on the subject. His approach has reignited the tradition of case-history which was earlier pioneered by Freud, Charcot and others but later receded to background due to excessive focus on empiricism. He started the tradition of narrative reconstruction and street neurology in studying psycho-neurological disorders. His approach is marked advancement over soulless neurology or bodiless psychology. It compels us to look within ourselves and our surrounding with new vision and empathy.

This book is recounting of large number of solved or unsolved cases which Sacks came across in his career. He divided the book in 4 segments namely Losses, excesses, transports and world of simple. Each part compiles a set of cases related to the broad category. He starts with case of Dr. P who mistook his wife for a hat. This was case of visual agnosia where person lost his sense of vision or representation but simultaneously developed a taste for music. He criticizes neurology for ignoring the concept of "judgement" in the pursuit of categorization in cases similar to Dr. P's.

Author has used his artistic vocabulary to elucidate various human expressions, emotions of patients and their relatives and capturing humor in complex cases. His writing also showed the importance of empathy and sensitivity which a doctor must exercise in his tone while interacting with his patients. The cases are strange and bewildering. For example, In the Lost Mariner case, he elaborates on the case of a mariner who lost any memory of events after second world war (1945) in his life. The case of disembodied human being, lazy left leg or number wizard twins Jhon and Michael force us to think about power of mind and perception.

The book also describes innovative approaches used by him to solve confusing cases. For example, case of Medaline J. where he asked the nurse to let the patient starve for food by placing it just outside her reach. This enabled nerve movement in the patient. Similarly, He used mirrors to solve problem of phantom limbs. The book drops innumerable references of Luria, Hughling Jackson, Sherrington and other great neurologist of their time. It provides post-script to various cases describing what future development happened in each case and linked his cases with some other cases.

Each case is so unique and explained in such an engrossing manner that it is difficult to leave the book unfinished. The variety of cases ignite the sense of realization that "there is nothing called pathological state of mind". Each way of life is valid and normal in its own way. If people behave in angry manner then they may have their share of fair reasons like biochemical excesses or deficit for this. if some one likes shopping then it may be driven by neurons in the brains. You never know whether it is a voluntary or involuntary behavior. There is nothing called right or wrong way of life. There are just different ways of life.

The cases described in section of "world of simple" shows there is special talent hidden within each of us. If we are able to connect with soul of other person then we can sense it. For example, Oliver Sacks noticed how twin brothers supposed classified as severely retarded by category of science, played the game of "next prime number" stretching up to 20-digits scale. Mind you, the computers of their age could calculate prime numbers up to 10-digit only. The case of Martin A. who suffered from fatal meningitis but possessed amazing memory and taste for opera music. He earned the fame as "walking encyclopedia". Such stories of idiot savant tells us that chance is a bigger factor in driving our life than our own karma.

The discovery of talent take unconditional love, empathy, non-judgmental behavior and understanding from significant others and society. Reading this book can help us in understanding that abnormality could be a special sort of gift. We should focus on gift instead of stigmatizing abnormality.

The cases under Transporter section highlights the limited understanding of human life by science. For instance the case of Bhagwanandi S. "Passage to India", where despite a malignant cancer, she kept smiling and remained calm. She even told doctors that she is travelling to other world which most of the staff members seemed to believe. Many of the cases remain unsolved till date.

The case studies reignited the tradition of narrative medicinal studies. The case of wiccy ticcy ray or cupid disease of Natasha highlights the amazing mystery of brain connections. It is so strange that on one hand we have reached Mars and aiming for Jupitor and beyond but on other hand we have not been able to understand the human brain completely. This book is a must-read for some one in the field of cognitive neurosciences or psycho-neurology or neurological research. Others may find it little difficult to absorb due to use of some scientific jargon. It would be a very interesting read for some one who wish to discover or understand power of mind.

Most important of all the book would help in widening your horizon and make you more humane towards so-called abnormality of life. My only wish remains is if book could have dwelled little more on idiot savants.

Book Review: 10 Judgements that changed India: Zia Mody

The year is nearing its end. I have lot of pending work. One of the important among them is pending book reviews for all the books I devoured this year. So here comes another one.

Finished book by Zia Mody on 10 judgements that changed India. I finished this one during the flight back home from Portland. One reason which got me excited about this book was a similar question asked in 2014 UPSC general studies paper-2. It asked for five judgements which changed India. This book described ten of them. Moreover just few days before taking flight, I was listening to FM Jaitley speech on judgements which changed India. This ignited some curiosity about this book and among the available six to seven books (courtesy Kiran Ji), I chose this one to become part of my cabin baggage.

Anyway, coming to substance. Book lists ten judgements which proved pivotal in Indian judicial history. The judgements are chosen not merely for judicial innovation but also for the political, social, environmental impact generated by them. The book is easy read. It describes complicated judicial cases in layman language. It balances legal jargon with common day explanation of cases.

Zia Mody's chart is topped by predictable Keshvananda Bharti. She described pre-history of each case without getting into unnecessary details of the case. The description of cases is supplemented by her own thought on developments of the case and thoughts of various legal luminaries on the issue. She has frequently quoted lines from court verdicts. She also does a comparative analysis of various court cases.

She has exercised caution in criticizing some judicial failure but this has not kept her from highlighting judicial failure in certain cases. As she goes into the pre-history of each case, she happens to cover a large canvass of judicial history of post-independent India. For example, Her description of Menka Gandhi case mentions ADM Jabalpur, A.K. Gopalan, Satwant Singh and reference list of large number of related cases.

She has covered a huge spectrum covering women empowerment, free speech, due procedure of law, environmental activism or second generation rights like in Olga Tellis vs BMC. She has captured the essence of each case with an apt-heading. For instance, Shan Bano was described by line "Whose Law Is It Anyway?" or SCARA vs Union of India as "Courting Liberty".

However, Indian judicial history is so vast and dynamic that any attempts to condense it in 230 page would eventually leave some important cases. One very striking omission was no mention of S.R. Bommai Case of 1988 which re-defined application of article 356 and appointment of governors. Similarly FM Arun Jaitley emphasized on role of free speech cases in Judicial history. This is not emphasized enough. Free speech cases are given a soft pass in the book.

Book has captured some cases from 21st century like Aruna Shaunbeg case. However, recent activism of supreme court requires a separate book in itself. Cases like National Judicial Appointment Commission vs. Union of India, Death penalty case of Machchi Singh/Bachchan Singh case of 1980's which defined rarest of rare doctrine in India, judicial activism against corrupt politics on Representation of People's act requires a second book.

Overall, this book is a must read for law students. It is also a informative read for civils candidate. The easy language and pre-history makes it a good read for common readers. Zia Mody has done a good job but she could also contemplate writing 10 cases where judiciary failed to change India or a sequel to this book which list the recent themes of 21st century.

Year 2015

Another year is coming to a close. This year was full of excitement, fun, struggle, disappointments, frustration, happiness, activities, confusion and new experiences. My discovery of self continued. Undoubtedly, I can term it as most versatile and unforgettable year of my life. Most of it for negative reasons.

A quick recap of the year. It began with placid morning of new year. In the coming week, my sister was visiting India so I spent some time at home but begul of Delhi Election kept drawing my attention. I left company of my sister and came to Delhi. In Delhi, I participated in Election Campaign. In between 26 Jan parade and Barmer trips were fun experiences.

Immediately after elections, I left for spiritual-recreational-religious tour of Bihar and Nepal. It was a grassroot unplanned trip. I was lucky to get some last minute reservations and thus began my back-pack voyage. I travelled to Sammed Shikhar, Kundalpur, Gaya, Nalanda, and Nepal. In Nepal, I attended 10 days Vipasana camp in Lumbini. After Lumbini, I toured Kathmandu on Activa. From there, I went to one of the most scenic destination of Nepal, Pokhara. The detailed travalogue of trip demands couple of full blogs in itself so here I would limit myself to general summary. On my return trip, I visited Gorakhnath Temple in Gorakhpur. 

I met many inspiring, and amazing people. Most people I met wondered about the insanity of travelling alone. In my experience, travelling alone brings new insight, enable greater joy and provide opportunity to introspect and to connect with nature and your own soul. I still remember the sound of dhols and bells which were played at Pashupati Nath temple. I can feel the breeze of air which touched my skin while I was meditating in the middle of a lake on a boat in Pokhara. Just thinking about those sensations has a very cathartic experience. With Holi celebration at home, I came back to Delhi with my back pack which consisted of 4 set of cloths, one pair of shoes and some electronic gadgets.

Anyway, soon after the trip, I began with the pursuit of disciplining my daily life, a struggle which continues till date. I got engaged in numerous activities. For instance, explored cultural life of Delhi, helped an NGO with material preparation for Magazine , attended my psychology classes and finished psychology assignments, started gymming, running, blogging and meditation on daily basis. In the mean time, idea of going for Kailash Mansarovar trip caught up in my mind. I started preparation for the same. But somehow, Srini was able to convince me about idea of Cohortplus. We had been intellectually farting over the idea for six months. Time was running and the desire to do something constructive and productive was building up heavily. Eventually, I chose to work on Cohortplus over going to Kailash Mansarovar.

Meanwhile Civil Services Mains results were out after much delay. A brief experience of happiness occured. After 2 consecutive mains failure, the interview call was a pleasing experience. However once bitten twice shy, I was aware of unpredictability of civil services from my first year experience.  Thus,  Next 3 weeks were completely dedicated to make the most out of the opportunity.

April 30, My interview date. Interview went Ok. Definitely not the best but not the worse either. Immediately after, I moved to Bangalore. Me and my back pack. After 7 years, once again I travelled ticketless for 36 hours evading possible encounters with ticket examiners, slept in closed wooden box which was used for stuffing bed sheets and pillows for passengers and enjoyed hot railway meals.

The quest to build application began. For next 5 and half months, me, Srini, Rahul, Karan worked hard to make this App a reality. I had many moments of dis-belief, frustration and confusion in this pursuit of uncertainty but I salute Srini for holding on to his conviction, reposing his trust in me and working on the idea to make this a reality. Looking back, I think these 5 months were crucial in reigniting my interest in technology after such a long break. And I must sincerely thank Srini for this.

In between, lot of water flowed under the bridge. I visited Delhi almost every other month. Purpose was different each time. Once it was a family function, next time it was Psychology papers assignment for which I had finished in March. Me, Sushant, Prathmesh and Vikas undertook two fun trips to Amritsar Golden Temple, Bagha border and Dehradun, Hrishikesh. I travelled to Vaishno Devi with my parents on a memorable and blessed trips. I consider myself fortunate for getting opportunity of getting darshan of Vaishno Devi shrine 3 times in period of 24 hours and also visiting ArdhaKumari without waiting for even 3 hours. Most people get waiting time of 36 hours for ArdhaKumari. Sometimes, luck falls on my side. But most of the time, it is a sail against tides. Few days after visiting Vaishno Devi, I had my results out and as usual it was "not found" result for my roll number. Heart breaking, sense numbing but life has given me enough lessons to take these hiccups with ease and calm. I celebrated the failure with ice creams and some hip shaking in the Night. Next morning, I visited Nandi Hills with my sister, her intended and her friends.

All the emotions and entropy generated was channelized to Cohortplus. We had a target launch date and We badly wanted to not miss it. Company of Anup, Shekhar and Srini made my stay very fulfilling. I thoroughly enjoyed my stay with them. We explored lot of local food joints and discussed randomly about movies, books, travels, entrepreneurship, politics and random ideas. Most of the time, I was only an active listener to their conversation. It was really fun and education to listen to them. The apartment was located in rich society with facilities of Tennis, Swimming, Gym etc.
I started my swimming, running, gymming and meditation schedule on more regular basis. But my struggle to discipline my schedule continued. Start ups are always demanding experience so my schedule became obvious casualty of night outs or stretched working hours.

Amid all this excitement and learning of entrepreneurship, disappointment of civil services, fun company of learned flat mates, struggle of maintaining my schedule lay the confusion. Confusion of what to do for rest of my life. Should I aim to become a teacher or IT professional or political psephologist or researcher or entrepreneur or just continue with the pursuit of civil services? The vividness of my dreams, incompleteness due to failure in civil services, desire to do something meaningful, something where I can discover same momentum, same energy or similar conviction as I possessed during civil services haunted me.

Its not like I did not know what to do or if I was short of options or skills. It was my ambitious attitude which wanted to make maximum out of opportunity in my alternate career. At the same time, a part of me remained trapped in lofty dreams of becoming IAS. Almost 100 times, I had reached to the conclusion that pursuing career in IT as professional or teacher would be my best bet. But whenever I read something thrilling about other fields, a part of me wanted to drift in other direction. Srini was putting constant effort in looping me for start up thingy. Reconciling this inner conflict was one of the biggest challenge I faced after civil result. Way more challenging than dealing with frustration of repeated failure or seeing my luck beaten by hundred others who appeared for Interview.

In between came this unexpected trip to USA. This trip turned out to be a novel experience which enriched my overall journey of 2015. It demands a separate blog in itself. Will write about it some other time.

Right now, I am in Amsterdam, waiting for my connecting flight back home. Will be heading to Bangalore to fulfill my commitment with Srini. He has been very considerate and helpful throughout. Now time has come to pay him back.

With the end of year coming to close, I have also sort of crystallized my thoughts for my future endeavours. Become an IT expert, learn as many technologies as possible, settle in Noida, help students in civil services preparation for free, run in marathon, write regularly, read daily 10 pages of a book, meditate and read poems. But one prerequisite to this is need to settle at one place and to discipline my mind.

It was one wonderful year where I simply flowed with the flow. Overall It was one of the most unforgettable year of my life. But an experience which is gud once in a decade only. Civil Services results left an indelible scar. There is no bitterness or wounds but scar remains.
To sum it up, I can say, "In this year, I learned to flow with the flow".

Annugachchti Pravaham :)