Aagaaz (or aaghaz or aagaz) is a common Urdu word which means start, the beginning.
There must be a convincing reason for a person to write a blog and more than that a yet more convincing reason for a person to read it. Plan to write this had started long time ago but actual process started some time back after I got the coveted rank which has enabled me to be an IAS officer (AIR 80).
Overcoming my fear that no one (except your close friends who have no other choice) would read your blog, has been an eternal tussle and hence the delay. Further, now there is a business case for writing this, am planning to deliver some sessions in a fortnight and I think apart from other promotional campaigns, writing your heart out is a very effective way to communicate your obvious and not so obvious ideas. Coherency in my thoughts is in a mess (they always were, but since last few days, have hit a bottom low). Simply put which means : I am a much better writer than these initial scribbles (oh really !!!).Please bear with me and expect much better (being elusive always helps, you see).
I am an engineer (NIT Surat, Electronics Engineering, batch of 2005), then an MA in Human Resource Management from TISS, Mumbai. I was associated with KPMG Advisory Services (Mumbai/ Gurgaon) with their Advisory vertical as a consultant for approx 2.5 years.
I still remember the day that I arrived in Delhi (1st week June, 2010), after an ‘illustrious’ career in Mumbai. I was looking forward to the days in Delhi for various reasons. Apart from the obvious reason of preparing for the civils, I was simply too tired of the hectic consulting life. Leisure and Seistas were something that I was very much looking forward to and what better ‘mahaul’ than preparing at Delhi to fulfil all such lazy wishes.
The very first day when I reached Delhi, the most vivid face is of one of my very close friend, because of whom I learnt many things, some pleasant some not so.
Two years later there are various images which have become imprinted in my memory. Right now the feeling is of numbness which is pleasantly disturbed by the myriad phone calls and the local reporters. The happiness on the face of mummy and papa is conspicuous, which is a rare phenomena something like the rare moon of yesterday and mom’s double fasts (vrats) which so pleasantly coincided with the felicity at home. Doiwala (Dehradun) is a very small place where every person knows every other. This is a big event for every person living there and I feel so like a celebrity proudly carrying all the newspaper cuttings, at times again and again peeping at the photos published of me and the family. It apparently is very big news at least locally but they say greed has no limits. Ok, more on this thought and the reasons of me not getting top 10 after I actually devise words to give appropriate excuses after seeing the marks. I so hope that my interview board is spared of my ‘would-be’ wrath.
Occasionally, I check UPSC website looking for my name again in the list, thinking that it shouldn’t get erased.
On second thoughts also, this seems to be a dream run (first thought obviously, this is). Quitting a well paid job at the starting of your career where you were known, leaving your darling (More on Mumbai, sometime later) and coming to your wife (I so wish that the task of Cabinet Secretary at Delhi is sexy and not so mundane as I dread it to be)was not easy. But alas, all is well that ends well. My scribble on the first page of every notebook has the same story to tell i.e. ‘with a good beginning, cometh a good end’. Of whom do I think of as I sit back and ponder. There will be a separate post for this.
UPSC Preparation (I am in the process of updating the links and study materials for future aspirants, pls bear with me for a while)
Future Aspirants : I will be commencing Sociology lectures for IAS Mains 2012 in June 2012. You’ll get to know about the details in a few days through newspapers and other promotional campaigns. You can touch base with me through this blog, my personal email id : goel.vibhu84@gmail.com or my facebook page (lets start a new Jasmine revolution).
Optional Subjects : Sociology and Public Administration
Looking very much forward to the fun ahead.