Chapter 13

“Wake up you lazy bum” Joshi shouted as by the time Chandy and Joshi were back Arjun had dozed off on the chair.

“Had a tiring day and the chilled beer is quite soporific” Arjun woke up and stretched his hands.

“Mr Joshi Williams, have you brought some good food” Ajun asked

“Oh yes. As tomorrow is a holiday we have decided that we could have fun the whole night” Joshi replied while he was unpacking

“See we have bought a full bottle of Mc Dowels No 1 whisky” Joshi took out the square bottle with tile like design

“Where is the soda?” Arjun asked

“No Soda. We have chilled beer and the combination is really great” Joshi replied

“I presume that you are going to sleep here tonight. “ Arjun said

“I am going to be here tonight and none of us are going to sleep. Somesh Nair will also come in another 10 mts and we will play 28 the whole night.”

“Guys, I have told you my plans, rather dreams. Tell me what are you guys cooking?” Joshi asked as he opened the whisky bottle and poured into each of the glasses.”

“Pour me a small one” Chandy interrupted

“Why small. Today is the day for large” Joshi laughed aloud as he poured half glass for each of them

“Arjun, I thought you were planning to appear for Indrapresta Civil Service” Joshi asked

“I gave it a serious thought. Last week when I went home I met Aby uncle. As you know he is senior IAS officer. He is currently the Secretary to the Government of Indraprasta”

“He is a much respected officer. He is honest and upright and not swayed by political pressure. He is also a very good administrator and a visionary. So he holds a commanding position in the Government” Arjun continued.

“I discussed with him my plans. He had an interesting take on this. He explained in this in his gentle and serious manner” Arjun went onto imitate his Aby uncle

“Son this is a very honourable profession. You are expected to do a lot for the society. But with the kind of political interference we hardly get a chance to get at least 20% of what we would love to do. But even the 20% can make a significant difference.”

“Why only 20%. Isn’t it left for you to take the initiative and get things moving?” Arjun continued his play acting

“Yes and no. On one side you get caught up with so much of administrative mess that is created by many your colleagues and political masters with their hidden agenda. On the other side the same combination will hinder and block the progress of your initiative if it doesn’t suite their purpose. It will be two steps forward, one step backward and sometimes three steps backward. There is no point in fretting about it. Get moving with what you believe.”

“That can be frustrating Uncle”

“Then as you are aware. This job does not pay. Look around. The house I stay is palatial. Courtesy GOI. But the furniture is sparse as this is all I can afford. When I retire in a couple of days, I will move to my small flat in the outskirts of Indrapuram; because that is what I could manage with my salary. I am not regretting. I am telling you the fact of life. If you are a person who loves material comforts, I suggest that you try to get into IMI. When you graduate, your starting salary could be higher than what I get as a secretary. On the other hand if you are willing to sell your soul, sky is the limit for an IAS officer.”

“Quite an interesting point of view” Chandy commented

“You don’t have to sell you soul. You can sell yourself to a rich father-in-law”  Joshi laughed as he took a deep swig.

“Oh yes. I am not in any way planning to sell myself.” Arjun replied

“I am not going to study now. I have decided to enjoy my life for some time” Chandy said and took a sip from his glass. “I have asked my uncle who is the CFO of our company to get me posted to the Computer Centre. I will have a chance for on-the-job training on Computer Applications.  If I manage this, which I am sure I can, I will stay back in this company for a few years and get some good experience. I feel IT is going to the growth area for future. Later I will try to get into a reputed IT company which offers international posting. In the meantime I will get married to a nice girl from a well to do family. As the demands of this PSU job will not be much, I will be able to have a long honey moon here.  As my uncle is the CFO I am not going to have too much trouble from my bosses” Chandy described his plan with a grin.

“You are too smart Chandy. And also connected the right way. I am sure you will get some smart girl from a well to do family to get married soon. “ Joshi replied

“I don’t have such guardian angels and ancestral assets to protect my future. I am going to work hard on getting into IMI. With the background we come from it is not going to be easy” Arjun said.

“You will manage. You are a go getter.” Joshi replied

“Remember all of us flunked royally in the admission test when we tried in our final year.”

“Oh then none of us had done any preparation at all” Joshi said with a laughter.

“I bought some study material and took some practice tests. My God! The outcome was pathetic. I could not complete even half of the maths section in which we are supposed to be good” Arjun said dejectedly

“On the other hand I could not even recognize half the words in the vocabulary section.”

“Man you need a different strategy and a lot of preparation to crack this exam” Joshi was sharing his experience on the basis of the GMAT preparation he was making

“In many of the sections, there will be few questions which may be easy to crack, but which will definitely waste lots of time. The trick to leave these questions and go forward. If you get time at the end, then you come back to these”

 “That makes sense. Let me try that idea and see how I manage” Arjun had a gleam in his eye.

“In GMAT the time for each section is 30 minutes. What I try to do is to attempt to do it in 10 minute. This stricter target will help you to be more alert” Joshi was giving further ideas.

“But getting my English Language skills, especially vocabulary up is going to be a gargantuan task. As you guys know I studied in vernacular medium in an ordinary school and hence my exposure in English is not up to the mark.” Arjun lamented

“Don’t worry, you will crack it” Joshi said in encouragingly