Ten things meme

Civil Services (Mains) exams are done! And, here are ten things I learnt in the past fourteen months of preparation about myself:

1. My attention span is 40-45 mins. When I start reading a topic, my concentration and absorbing capacity falls steeply after 40-45 mins. This body clock is amazingly accurate.

Funnily though, in exams, its only after 1:30-1:45 mins. Till then, I can concentrate well. Then I have to drink some water or stop for a few seconds and then go again.

2. Sudarshan Kriya (the breathing technique of Art of Living) makes me concentrate better. When my mind is tired or I have just argued on some issue or watched something on TV that is distractingly entertaining, I used to do Kriya, or at least the preparatory part of Kriya. The contrast was very clear. I could easily work well for the next 40-45 mins.

3. Without physical activity, even Kriya cannot be of much help. That's why Yoga is always coupled with any meditative activity. Since I couldn't do Yoga due to my knee, I had to go to the gym. And the contrast was clear - after-gym concentration was superior to that before going to the gym.

4. I love all fields of knowledge. I became an engineer due to circumstances. I could just as well been a biologist, anthropologist or a geologist and succeeded just as well. At a certain depth, all fields are equally engaging to me.

When I was choosing my optional subjects for Civil Services, I was asked to consider if I would be interested in studying that optional. I had thought that Anthropology would be very boring to me. That couldn't be farther from truth. Anthropology is very engaging and relevant to everyday life.

5. I don't have much of an eye for details. I go for the big picture. But I do not 'get' the big picture unless I have looked at the details.

For example, there was a lot of debate on whether the nuclear deal should be discussed and voted on in the Parliament. BJP wanted the discussion under Rule 184, which entailed voting. Left wanted it discussed under Rule 193, which did not. Though I read these news items, I never noted the numbers. And when in a mock exam, the question asked, "What is Rule 184 on Parliamentary debates?", I was confused if it was about the Left's stand or the BJP's stand.

But then, in Geography, when we dealt with the topic of holes in the Ozone layer, I couldn't accept the theory unless I had looked at it in depth and saw the actual chemical reactions involved. It's not that I tried to understand all the reactions clearly, but I had to 'see' them to understand why there are holes in the Ozone layer.

6. Peter Principle - work expands to fill the time available - is true in my case. One of my exams was postponed. Before it was postponed, I had two days to prepare for it. After it was postponed, I had seventeen days. I managed to fill all seventeen days with work!

By the way, Peter Principle was a criticism of bureaucratic style of functioning :)

7. Cheap thrills are important to keep up motivation to work. When it is a long-term project, its important to boost ego through artificial means. When we were discussing 'Judicial Activism' in one of the classes, the lecturer praised my interpretation of the topic. That's a cheap thrill for me. And it made me work a bit more.

I once dished out a letter to The Hindu, dissing their editorial piece, which I thought was very partisan. Though there was no response from them, it was a cheap thrill in itself.

8. Fear. Fear is a concept in itself. It requires tomes to be written on how it manifests itself and what its consequences are.

Fear can make you see how interesting History is when you should ideally be studying Anthropology. Fear can make you love old friends when you should ideally be trying to figure out patterns of questions in previous years' papers. Fear can make you think of ideals when you should be practical about the exam coming up.

Fear is subtle and devious.

But then, fear is like salt, they say. You need it in small doses. Right doses. Else, work expands to fill available time and sometimes non-available time.

9. Carbs are easy stress-relief for me. When stressed and wanted an easy way out, I ate high-fat kajas, laddus, and what-not. I needed them at the 23rd hour of the day, when I would have already tried Kriya and working-out.

Result, I put on 7kgs since I came to India.

10. I don't care much for movies, TV etc., but am hooked to Internet. Can't live without surfing useful and useless stuff. Need to check my email compulsively. I am so hooked to email and internet that I haven't taken to SMS yet. My friends ask me my mobile number, they get my email id instead :)