Richness is in giving, not in possession. In our garden, the flowers bloomed radiating fragrance and beauty to the onlookers and passerby; honey to the hovering bees; and shade to the sparrows who seek rest on the moist soil below.  “Give”, is what flowers teach to others by “doing.”

HOOK THE BOARD TO YOUR HOBBY....IT IS EASY

• The Question now is how to hook the Board to your hobby? IT means how to ensure that the B0ard becomes "CURIOUS" AND INTERESTED TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR HOBBY? It is a challenge to a candidate facing the Board.
• First things first...Are you genuinely in to a hobby? Or picked up one so called hobby for the interview?
• If you belong to the second category, you have to work hard and really hard to get to the bottom of the hobby selected for interview.
• You must internalize the selected hobby. Find out famous personalities with the same hobby and Read about them.
• Buy books on the selected hobby and try to internalize the information related to the hobby so that "it should appear " to the Board that you are sincere with your hobby.
• Gardeing....for example ...you have selected as hobby for interview....what you should do now?
• Go to a garden. Be there physically and study the garden plants. Talk to the garden keeper ..on types of plants, seasonal plants,, etc.
• Get more information from the net on the famous gardens, their characteristics, location etc.
• Why this hobby? how does this help you as an administrator?
• Another hobby...say...cooking...types. you are specialized in....Indian, Chainese, South Indian, etc.
• Informaiton on veg and non veg food habbits,,,etc may be relevant.
• Why cooking? For a male candidate, this hobby may fetch positive impression if he could convince the Board that cooking is gender neutral.
• Names of famous male cooks from India...perhaps useful.
• THE BOTTOM LINE IS "GENUINENESS" & "AUTHENTICITY" IN YOUR ANSWERS. THIS PERSONALITY TRAIT WOULD CREATE POSITIVE IMPRESSION IN THE MIND OF THE BOARD.

HOBBY...ITS SIGNIFICANCE IN INTERVIEW...cont....

• What is a hobby?
• That activity, which is not a part of routine daily activities, which is consciously selected for relaxation, to be with one self, and for other than routine result.
• Hobby is a stress buster...if nurtured consciously.
• Hobby is a source of complete relaxation by temporarily de-linking an individual from the "rut" of the routine work.
• Hobby is a source of new "contacts" for sharing new ideas NOT linked with one's profession.
• Hobby is just for the "heck" of it. Nothing is expected of an Hobby.

WHAT ARE THE HOBBIES WHICH ARE ROUTINE AND BORING...NOT HOBBIES IN THE STRICT SENSE.

1. ........NEWS PAPER READING
2. ........CHATTING WITH FRIENDS
3. ........WALKING AND JOGGING
4. ........LISTENING TO MUSIC....????( MOST POPULAR WITH CIVILS ASPIRANTS)
5. .........OBSERVATION
6. ..........NATURE LOVING...????
7. .........COOKING
8. ..........GARDENING
9. ........BLOGGING
10. .........CHATTING
11. ..........NET SURFING
12. ..........YOGA AND MEDITATION
13. ........Reading books......puw...

HOW MANY OF YOU HAVE CORRESPONDING HOBBY AS SHOWN ABOVE?

........BE CAREFUL ....AS YOU WILL BE TRAPPED DURING INTERVIE IF YOU HAVE OPTED ANY OF THE ABOVE HOBBIES.

..........Please examine your hobby from the five bulletts mentioned above.

Finally please be clear about how your hobby would make you a better administrator? Also, whether you are going to enforce these hobbies on your subordinates.

A unique hobby draws the attention of the Board to this personality trait of the candidate.

• some of the hobbies of selected candidates include,

1. Transactional Analysis
2. Spending time with children

.....................to be continued ...........

1. .........

HOBBY...and Civils Interview.....its significance!!

HOBBY...AND CIVILS INTERVIEW.

• What is your hobby,.? As filled in the Mains application?
• What is hobby? Are you clear about it?
• What is its role in the life of an administrator?
• Do you rellay need a hobby to be an able administrator?
• WHAT IS YOUR REAL HOBBY? That which is not cooked up for the UPSC interview?
• Do you have a hobby? Is it genuine and are you sincere with it?
• The Board tests your sincerity with a hobby. A convincing hobby may not fetch you any marks but creats "positive" impressioin in the mind of the Board about your sincerity of purpose ...of a hobby.
• A hobby indicates expanded personality of an individual. This is an important point during interview.
• If you have no hobby and yet indicated something as your hobby in the Mains application, please do prepare sincierly for the hobby.
• Go to the depths of this selected hobby. know all facts, personalities, intricacies of the hobby.
• Examine how the selected hobby helps in your administraiton .
• Be honest if you have no hobby.
• Not having a hobby may not be a negative point. But pretending to have an hobby certainly creates negative image about you in the Board.
• Be careful and honest.
• If you have no hobbies , tell so authentically.
• good luck.

UPSC'S MAIN JOB IS TO SELECT ELIGIBLE CANDIDATES FOR IAS....FIRST...

• UPSC selects candidates for IAS...first....and selection for other services such as IPS, IFS, IRS etc is incidental.
• The main focus of the Interview Board, hence, is to test the suitability of candidates for IAS only.....
• If so, the order of preferences given by a candidate in the Mains application is very important factor. If a candidate gives IAS as his/her first choice, for the Board, it is a common factor. If the candidate's first preferences is not IAS, but say, IFS or IPS is his/her first choice, then the Borad becomes "curious" about his/her choice of preference, as the Board has now to test the suitability of the candidate for IFS or IPS...which becoms interesting.
• The candidate prefers IFSor IPS to IAS has to prepare well to convince the Board about his choice. The answes must be true to his/her personality with solid reasoning behind it. Why do you want to be an IFS officer or IPS officer? Why did you not choose IAS ?
• The order of preferences by a candidate is an important area for the Board to draw its attention. Be prepared.

LET US CONTINUE WITH OUR EXPLORATION OF SELF ...

• WHY DO YOU WANT TO JOIN IAS? WHAT IS YOUR ANSWER? BE HONEST...WITH YOUR SELF....WRITE YOUR ANSWER FIRST. READ IT YOUR SELF AFTER A WHILE....ARE YOU CONVINCED OF YOUR ANSWER?
• IF CONVINCED, GET IT INTERNALIZED,....YOU DREAM IT, BREATH IT, LIVE WITH IT......LEST...YOU MAY CHANGE IT WITH TIME.....
• YOUR ANSWER MUST STAND THE TEST OF ....SUFFICIENCY AND REASONABLENESS...OR CONVINCIBILITY...IS IT A GENUINE AND IN-BORN URGE OF THIS CANDIDATE TO GET IN TO IAS OR JUST A "DRAMA" FOR THE SAKE OF "INTERVIEW"
• REMEMBER----INTERVIEW IS A TEST OF YOU "PERSONALITY" NOT "KNOWLEDGE"....
• BUT THE ONLY "WAY" TO KNOW YOUR PERSONALITY IS THROUGH PUTTING QUESTIONS TO YOU....TO ELICIT INFORMATION TO KNOW....ARE YOU AUTHENTIC IN YOUR ANSWERS? (AUTHENTIC=ORIGINAL, YOUR VIEWS BASED ON COGENT AND SUFFICIENT REASONING); AND ARE "YOU" CONVINCED OF YOUR OWN ANSWERS?
• INTERVIEW PREPERATION IS "NOT" READING MORE AND MORE.
• IT IS ORGANIZING YOUR "THOUGHTS"....ORDERLINESS; CLARITY; FACT BASED AND REASONED ANSWERS; NOT MORE AND MORE INFORMATION......
• WHAT EVER YOU KNOW AS OF KNOW IS ADEQUATE FOR THE INTERVIEW....PROVIDED YOU "ORGANIZE" THE SAME IN A MANNER THAT BRINGS IN "CLARITY", "COGENT" AND "CONFIDENCE" IN YOUR PRESENTATION.
• REMEMBER...C....C....C......(CLARITY= THOUGHTS, VOICE, ; COGENT=LOGICAL AND SEQUENTIAL ARRANGEMENT OF INFORMATION AVAILABLE WITH YOU; AND CONFIDENCE=SELF BELIEF AND FAITH IN ONE'S ABILITY TO PUT FARWARD ONE'S OWN VIEW EVEN IN ADVERSE SITUATION)

PREPERATION FOR THE INTERVIEW...cont

your preperation for the interview must start with your

• ANSWER THIS ......WHY DO YOU WANT TO JOIN IAS? Please answer this question...honestly...to your self..Get convincing answer to this question.
• ORDER OF PREFERENCES GIVEN IN THE MAINS APPLICATION.
• THE RECRUITMENT IS basically for IAS....YOU MUST ACCEPT THIS FACT.
• IF YOUR FIRST CHOICE IS NOT IAS, YOU MUST HAVE CONVINCING AND SUFFICIENT REASONS TO PLACE BEFORE THE BOARD.