National Civil Service Day- April 21, 2021

Online webinar conducted on April 22, 2021

NISARGA, the 65th College Union of Mar Theophilus Training College, conducted an online talk session for civil service aspirants doing their BEd(Civil service examination, conducted by UPSC, will conduct its prelims on 27th June 2021). The guest invited for the talk was none other than the famed translator of political speeches and the proud mother of a 9-year old boy- Adv. Jyothi Radhika Vijayakumar. 

The brainchild behind this session was none other than the union advisor Dr. Gibi Geevarghese ma'am. Uthara from English did the comparing for the event, Roshna, from social science put a start with her prayer song, and Gayathri from English gave the welcome speech. 

Jyoti ma'am started with a good message that mothers are equally important as fathers, even if the latter is a famous personality, while describing a person as the daughter of someone. Your names should have your mothers name along with your father's name, as Jyoti ma'am said, she wished to be known as Jyoti Radhika Vijayakumar and not just Jyoti Vijayakumar.

Some points:

-Preparation for the exam should begin one year before the exam. There should be passion and there should be a proper strategy.

-Understand what the job is about, what are the qualities of a administrator, because UPSC is not just a test for assessing your knowledge. This job demands  more decision-making than any other jobs.

    Eg: Covid- one cannot talk about it as just a health issue. It can also be explained by how it had affected the social aspect of our society, like how it made class differences in society explicit- people with fixed jobs have the advantage of working from homes, but what about migrant labourers, small scale shopkeepers, domestic workers, transport sector, manual scavengers, people residing in slum areas( in one room , can we imagine how many are staying?), can they afford to have physical distancing, clean water? So covid has brought out the class inequality in our society. Many women have lost their jobs or not getting properly paid. Divorces and domestic violence cases have gone up.

-Focus on current affairs- watch sensible news discussions, good speeches etc.

-Read NCERT books.

-Join an institute for proper guidance.

-Be mentally prepared to face failure- people might make it till the interview, but then fail by two marks or so and again then start from the beginning. So understand that the UPSC exam is a tough nut to crack.

-And your preparation itself can change you. This preparation helps you to tackle other exams. Your personality is developed through the knowledge you have acquired.

-Practice intellectual honesty.

-Be in civil service for the right reason and not for fame and publicity.

- Practice is must for change.

After the talk, there was a brief Q&A, followed by a feedback from Dr. Benedict sir. And then Deepa from physical science gave away the vote of thanks, which marked the end of the online meet. 

It was a wonderful and fruitful  session for us.