Bureaucracy is not only about doing your work diligently and hogging your place under the Sun. It is also about guiding the next breed of diligent civil servants. IPS officer Mr. Suraj Singh Parihar has been conducting webinars for the candidates appearing in UPSC examinations.
He cleared his UPSC examinations in Hindi Medium twice, in 2013 and 2014 scoring All India Rank of 334 and 189 respectively. In an exclusive interview with Indian Masterminds, Mr. Parihar elaborated about how he has been helping the UPSC aspirants in preparing for the all-important exam.
Always willing to help
UPSC is one of the most difficult exams in the country requires good guidance to be sailed through the vast syllabus. When the country was locked down due to the Covid-19 pandemic, coaching centers too shut down for some time.
It was then, that Mr. Parihar decided to help the candidates in need. “One-to-one contact is difficult in times of Corona, and technology is an enabler. It multiplies your productivity. You can connect to a number of people at one point in time without being in physical touch.
He says, “While talking to my family on Zoom one day, it struck me that I could do the same thing for candidates too, especially the Hindi Medium aspirants because they do not get proper guidance. Back in my day, I had to wait for 3 or 4 years to get answers to one little query and I didn’t want them to go through it. So, whatever experience I have, I tried to navigate them towards their intended destination.”
Contents of the seminar:
The webinar that Mr. Suraj organizes contains various things that include frequently asked questions from the previous years and the doubts that most of them usually have.
Usual questions that Mr. Suraj receives are:
Where to begin? (By fresh candidates)
How to start my preparation?
“The first thing I tell them is to go to the UPSC website and turn on their post notifications because that is the most authentic source. Unless you are aware of all the know-hows of any examination, how would you prepare?” says Mr. Suraj.
Some of the tips that Mr. Suraj provides are:
You need to strengthen your basics first.
Start with NCERT books.
Download the syllabus of exams and cover each and every point.
Stick to the topic and don’t indulge in gaining unnecessary
knowledge.
Rather than reading hundreds of books and landing nowhere, be a
a good manager and do a proper analysis of the question paper
Manage your time well.
“These are some very basic tips but they are the real game-changers. They create the difference between the winner and the loser”, he claims.
Webinars conducted till date:
Being an extremely diligent police officer, it is not really possible for him to be very regular in conducting seminars. But as soon as he gets some time off, he tries and organizes one. “When its Saturday evening or Sunday, I record one. So far, I have conducted four webinars and once I get free from these upcoming elections, I will start conducting them again,” Mr. Suraj told Indian Masterminds.
Challenges:
Sitting at home and conducting webinars is not always a bed of roses. It has its fair share of challenges too. The biggest is the issue of network. Mr. Suraj‘s present posting is in a new district carved out of Bilaspur in Chhatisgarh. It is a remotely far-flung area lacking in good facilities compared to towns and cities, which results in extremely poor network connectivity. “The network here is not good. At times, the speed is so slow that it becomes difficult to connect in time. I have to keep trying again and again and after a lot of trials, it finally does. Many times, either I am not visible properly or my voice doesn’t reach the candidates easily”, sighs Mr. Suraj.
Another challenge that he has to face is the stereotypes pertaining to a bureaucrat’s life. “No matter how good you are at your work, people judge you only on the basis of work that you do. They don’t remember that you also have a personal life. I am doing this to engage and motivate youth. When they will see that an extremely busy police officer is taking out time from his hectic schedule to help them, they will also feel motivated to help someone, someday”, claims Mr. Parihar.
Message for the youth:
Mr. Suraj wants the UPSC aspirants to focus on the things that inspire them, motivates them, and the kind of company they keep. All these minute things are going to help these guys in the long run and will impact their preparation and results. Also, focus on what you can give to the society and follow your basic duties as the citizen of the country and once you start thinking in this direction, you will unleash your real potential, he says.
Indian Masterminds wishes Mr. Suraj Singh Parihar, the best for all his future endeavors!
