Interview with Minal Karanwal, Rank 35, UPSC CSE 2018

The Civil Services Forum had the pleasure of having a no-holds barred conversation with Ms. Minal Karanwal. Join us, as she talks about her service, Stephanian experience or even some tips on acing the current affairs.

Q 1: How have you been coping with the perverse conditions the lockdown has created? What would you suggest to the aspirants as to groom themselves regarding the aforementioned?

“It is natural to have anxiety, there is a lot of uncertainty involved with previous year examination results. Having the feeling is completely fine, which should not be allowed to overpower you at any cost. This is a huge crisis we are facing now, and it is not only the aspirants who have to face it but also people like safai karamcharis. Everyone is facing it and battling the uncertainty. However, UPSC has announced the plan a month ago and hence people would be working on it now. Since you have more time, I suggest you practice answer writing as well as the topics you were not comfortable with earlier. For examinees who are awaiting their results and interview, there is no need to freak out or be anxious. You would have done well regardless of the pandemic. We are not alone in this crisis and we have to calm down and battle it together.”

Q 2: From where would you say the endeavour to work in the administration of the country stemmed?

“Initially during my school days, I was enamoured by the career profile and the sense of recognition brought by this job. But as I got exposed more to it in college, I realized how much I could do with this job, both with regards to self satisfaction and working for the people. In fact, they are interlinked. The job profile is extremely fluid, flexible and dynamic and we have been trying to do our best in this regard. For example, we addressed the training of anganwadi workers teaching their children, who are not able to attend school during lockdown better.”

Q 3: How was your life as a Stephanian? Do you miss your alma-mater?

“I miss my Stephanian life 100 percent. It was a great thing back then. Entering the Rudra gate, being a member of Rudra and Allnut South as well as hanging out in the Cafe are memories I cherish. The set of people back then were the most wonderful people I had met. They were extremely talented, not only academically but also in the extracurricular sphere.”

Q 4: Analysis of the current news from every aspect seems essential. What method(s) would you say are conducive for college students in order to understand a plethora of news from a holistic perspective?

“There is less information about Corona or the collapse of the Global Order in the mainstream. You would realize what I mean, if you know what kind of news you are looking for and what topics you have to search for. If you are very ardent in learning about news, for example the percentage of asymptomatic cases in India or the failure of the US health infrastructure, if you really want to understand good things; you have to have the spirit of curiosity and read with conceptual clarity. News reading is not factual reading, but conceptual analysis. Any broad topic, for example Ladakh-Galwan Valley debate, not many would know about the issue, the border dispute or even the formulation of the LAC. It is not that there is not enough news in the market. The problem is that not many people know how to read the news. The UPSC demands conceptual clarity and the why, how, when aspect of the news. Contextualize the important news. You need to structure and approach it with curiosity. I remember reporting to an IAS officer called Chhatrapati Shivaji in Maharashtra Cadre. The first question he asked the 9 of us was, “How many of you have googled me?” We were clueless. He pointed out that none of us were information hungry. The attitude of laziness needs to go away.”

Q 5: Despite the two unsuccessful attempts in the CSE exam, you persistently kept preparing. Did auxiliary scenarios—such as the thought of doing post-graduation as a backup—bother you?

“I did not think of a backup, placement or postgraduate exam. It was a very personal choice and I was ready to face the risk too. In 2019, I got through UPSC. I was extremely committed to clearing the exam. If you think you can make do with it, you will. If you think you cannot, you never will.”

Q 6:What similarities and differences did you encounter between the phases of preparation for the exam and the consequent training at LBSNAA?

“The foundation course has people from all services and it can be thoroughly enjoyed. With professional training, there is focus on training the officers with the appropriate skills. I somehow expected this, and more or less, all the needs have been met.”

As an IAS officer, according to you, what do you think are the main issues that need to be improved upon? How do you posit the bureaucracy deals with them?

“I’m very young to answer this. Very, very young. I’m still in my training. But I would just say that a little more, greater understanding and greater depth of issues. If every officer could prioritize one area of work, let’s say education or health. We’re generally supposed to work across fields, but if there’s one area where we could, like, really commit ourselves to work, I think that would be great. Apart from that, I’m too young to comment.”

Q 7: As a woman, how accommodating do you feel the service is towards your gender? If you think that some changes may be made, what would they be?

“This is an interesting question. There have been times which my seniors have cited. I haven’t seen this, personally, but a couple of my senior women officers have cited that some collectorate offices didn’t have a washroom for women. Apart from that, the most interesting thing is that there are a lot of men within the service who have gone to lengths of commenting that it is very difficult for women in the service to get married because they will have their career, their ambition: something that is not conducive to family life. So, they seem very open about marriage. Someone who either prefers staying at home, or someone who is a doctor or a teacher so she can move around with them. So, I have heard such comments, and there are officers who are worshipped by their family. So, there are a host of things here that I never expected to hear out of people who progressed.

I think this is, totally, a retelling of the kind of society we are: it can’t just happen in bureaucracy. A larger and longer cultural change in the society is needed rather than the bureaucracy itself.”

Q 8: What have been your most memorable moments in the service so far? Alternatively, what is the most trying or difficult situation you have ever been in?

“Oh, absolutely training, yeah. अभी तो कुछ हुआ ही नहीं है (nothing has happened, yet). I absolutely loved my training, Phase I, meeting these new sets of amazing people from all over the country, playing sports with them, having ‘India day’, dancing on the stage, conducting debates, and doing things that from the last three-four years I hadn’t done.

The difficult situation would be to try to become a professional. I’m a student who has never had work experience, so just bringing that formality and professionalism where I know exactly how to talk to seniors and colleagues and conduct myself, I’ve learnt a bit but I’m still learning.”

Q 9: How do you handle the stress that comes with the myriad responsibilities associated with being an IAS officer?

“The thing where so many people want to be, I’m already there at that stage, when there is some stress or some anxiety, I just chuck it aside and continue to focus on my training. I firmly believe there’s no problem in the entire world that’s bigger than you, and the saying goes with becoming an officer.”

Q 10: After cracking what is often touted as the toughest exam in India, did there seem to be a disparity between your expectations and experiences (in training or in person)?

“I had no expectations of how my training would be, I was happy that I’m going to LBSNAA and meet new people: I’m going to chit-chat, meet new people and have some fun. I was excited, but I didn’t have much experience. Howsoever, there were some faculties in the academy that I really liked, especially my Phase-I training with the simulations. So, there are simulations of court-case, for example, where we are taught how exactly court functions work. So, stuff like this was very interactive.”

Q 11: What insights into the common populace are offered to an IAS, which may, perhaps, not be apparent to people in other professions and the society, in general?

“I personally feel that people in the administrative services and all the negatives they talk about and the constant comparison with foreign nations and private models, and everything. I noticed the latest aspect is that coming in the district, they realize that there’s so much the bureaucracy does. The positive side also needs to be discussed in the larger media. They keep on talking negatively, but there are so many positive debates about it that need to happen, now; and specially in the times of Corona when the bureaucracy really stepped up and there’s so much of crisis management. So, I think that needs to be very apparent in the mainstream.”

Q 12: To sum up, what words of wisdom would you like to offer to the present and future Stephanians, as well as other aspirants, who hope to crack the CSE?

“The first is to not take your college years for granted. We enter College and think St. Stephen’s is such a prestigious institution. Trust me, it’s no longer the institution it used to be and that’s because we make the institution. We contribute to whatever it becomes. I had this phrase for College long back when I was there as a third-year student “so much glossy hollow walls St. Stephen’s has, all shiny from the outside”, और अंदर क्या कर रहे हैं बच्चे, क्यूँ कर रहे हैं, कैसे करना है? मतलब इतने clueless कैसे हो सकते हैं? (and what are the kids doing, inside? Why and how are they doing that? As in, how could they be so clueless?) When you go to the library--I don’t know if it’s the same scene now--I had a batch of 350 and you would just find 30 people in the library at max, which is an irony.

You have one of the greatest libraries in the University, you should go and read things ranging from something to anything for your reading. But what do we find people doing? Sitting at the cafe, sitting at the cafe tree, whiling away their time in the SCR Lawns, whatever, and I always wonder. It’s an important aspect of the College life, but so is this. Anything in excess of that, including playing. I always suggest that in the three years of College life, build upon yourself and your personality, add value to your life. You were an “X” kind of person when you entered College just out of school but you should be “Y” kind of person when you exit College. And most of our peers stay of the X kind only, they don’t change, they don’t add anything to their lives and leave. There are some around your College you can avoid, avoid them.

You’re in a great place, keep wanting to do that, and always be keen on learning and self-criticism and just keep your mind open. Think about where you want to go and what the goal requires for you to change about yourself, and always be on the lookout. I think that’s what separates an engineer from IIT from Delhi University students is this one particular quality of them being continuously critical of what they are. So, I think that kind of concern needs to desperately come to Stephen’s.”