My Entry into the IAS (12)

 

12. My Entry into the Indian Administrative Service

(My Journey in Public Service)

By 1978, I was married; in 1979, I had started working in the Secretariat; and by 1980, after passing my B.Com. with distinction and after Lakshmi’s third homecoming, my domestic life had started settling into rhythm.

Gazetted through GPSC 

Then, one day in March 1981, my eyes fell on an advertisement by the Gujarat Public Service Commission (GPSC) published in the newspaper.

At that time, I was still not 21 years old, so I usually didn’t pay much attention to competitive exam notices that required a graduate degree.

But that day, when I read the eligibility clause — “the candidate must have completed 21 years of age on or before 1 August 1981” my eyes lit up with excitement.

According to my records, my date of birth was 28 July 1960, so by just three days, I was eligible to apply!

I read the notification carefully.

It described a written exam of six subjects, each of three hours, followed by an interview. Gujarati, English, and General Knowledge were compulsory. The other three had to be chosen from a list of optional subjects.

Statistics was my strong subject. I had studied Accountancy in Pre- and First-Year B.Com. For the third subject, I chose Political Science, since I was fond of India’s freedom movement and constitution.

I filled out the form accordingly.

At the time, there was one open (unreserved) Class I post for District Registrar, and another reserved for Scheduled Tribes, so there was no opening for Deputy Collector.

The main recruitment, therefore, was for Section Officers in the Secretariat and for Mamlatdars and Taluka Development Officers in the districts. As Secretariat staff ourselves, our eyes were naturally set on the Section Officer posts.

The exam was held in December 1981. My seat number was 2703 (No. 3) and it proved lucky for me.

The interviews took place in the summer of 1982, and when the results came in July–August, I was astonished to see that I had been selected third in the state on merit!

When the Gazette notification was published in December 1982, I had officially become a Gazetted Officer at just 22 years of age.

When I saw my subject-wise marks, I realized my written exam scores were excellent, and my interview marks had further boosted my ranking, placing me among the top candidates and making me a known face in the Secretariat.

However, some candidates who were dissatisfied with their interview marks, including Janak Bhatt, went to the High Court, which caused a delay of about nine months in our appointments.

Meanwhile, I also appeared for the GPSC Assistant exam (now called Deputy Section Officer) and cleared it on merit. After my appointment as Assistant, I underwent training at SPIPA (Sardar Patel Institute of Public Administration) in February 1983 and joined the Irrigation Department.

Now I was only waiting for my Section Officer appointment.

Finally, when the court approved the selection of top-ranked candidates from the merit list, I was appointed Section Officer (Probationer) in the Narmada and Water Resources Department, where I reported for duty on 16 August 1983.

Our training took place at SPIPA (old campus at New Mental area), Ahmedabad. At that time, the Deputy Director, Shri Bhagyesh Jha, served as our Course Director. As part of our “Gujarat Darshan” tour, we visited Saputara, which remains a memorable experience.

During that journey, at Zadeshwar (Bharuch), I tasted batata poha for the first time in my life.

At Ukai, we stayed overnight in the Irrigation Guest House, how could one forget that! The mosquitoes there were so fierce that even though we tucked ourselves tightly under mosquito nets, those giant insects managed to feast on us all night long. By morning, every exposed patch of skin was covered with red welts!

At Saputara, we visited the Ritambhara educational institute, and I can still recall the taste of their nagli papad and bamboo pickle — flavors impossible to forget.

Inspiration to aim at IAS

My first posting in the Secretariat was in the Home Department, and our Secretary at the time was Mr. Chandramouli. Two others Mr. Gopalaswami, followed by Mr. Anand Bhardwaj served as our Joint Secretaries.

Outside their chambers hung nameplates that read their names followed by the letters “IAS.” In those early days, I often wondered, what is this IAS? Having completed my B.Com., I thought perhaps it was some sort of degree, like a postgraduate qualification!

Occasionally, I would overhear discussions in the Secretariat about one or two people passing the UPSC Preliminary Exam, but I didn’t pay much attention. Still, along with two of my close colleagues A.D. Patel and Kanti Prajapati I filled out the UPSC form when the advertisement appeared in December 1981.

At that time, my focus was mainly on the Gujarat Public Service Commission (GPSC) exam, so I wasn’t serious about the UPSC one. I had no idea about its pattern or preparation, and everyone around used to say, “It’s a very tough exam.” So, I didn’t take it seriously.

But then, in the last week of May 1982, an incident changed everything.

I used to take the point bus from Hathikhai-Ahmedabad to Gandhinagar, and among the passengers was a man named Haribhai Patel. He boarded from Bapunagar Point, while I got in at Hathikhai, so we didn’t know each other personally. But one day, everyone in the bus started congratulating him. I joined in, and out of curiosity, asked what the occasion was. Someone said, “He’s cleared the UPSC exam and become an IAS officer!”

Haribhai was working as a Section Officer in the General Administration Department, Planning Branch. I asked him for some guidance. He simply said, “Punambhai, come see me during the lunch recess.”

That afternoon, I went to meet him. Without much talk, he opened his drawer, pulled out a copy of Employment News, handed it to me, and said, “Everything you need is in here.”

I took that copy back, sat down, and read the entire advertisement, eligibility conditions, subject list, and syllabus in one go. The more I read, the more it felt like just another exam — not some mythical monster as people said. I thought, why not give it a try?

My First UPSC Attempt (1982)

That Sunday (30 May 1982), I visited my friend A.K. Parmar, who had taken the exam before. Since he had recently passed the Bank Officer exam, he was no longer interested in the Civil Services, and kindly gave me his multiple-choice history practice booklet about 100 pages.

The Preliminary Exam was on 10 June 1982, giving me only ten days to prepare. I took eleven days of earned leave (EL) and headed to Kankaria’s Nagina Wadi garden, a peaceful study spot where UPSC aspirants gathered to read.

I had only one resource that small expected questions book on History of 100 pages.

For my optional subject, I chose History, even though, as a Commerce student, it was a subject I hadn’t studied since school.

By luck, I met a few aspirants who had University Granth Nirman Board books. I requested them to lend me whatever books they weren’t using at the moment. They agreed and I began reading 13 hours a day, averaging about 50 pages an hour, or roughly 650 pages per day. In nine days, I had read around 7,000–8,000 pages in total!

My school and college discipline came to my rescue — I had a habit of working systematically and trusting in hard work. I told myself, “Yahom kari ne padho fateh chhe aage!” (Study with all your might victory lies ahead!).

And so, I appeared for the Prelims on 10 June 1982.

When the results came out in August, to everyone’s surprise including my own I had cleared the Prelims!

The Main Exam and Lessons Learned

The Mains Exam came in October–November 1982.

I kept History as one optional subject, but for the second optional, copying Haribhai, I had chosen Accountancy which turned out to be a huge challenge.

Despite my best efforts, I couldn’t complete the vast syllabus in time. I couldn’t afford taking leave from the job. When I went to write the Accountancy paper, a storm hit that day.

At Prabhudas Thakkar College, where my exam was held, the iron windowpanes were broken, and the shutters kept banging loudly in the wind. The noise, cold air, and flying papers made it almost impossible to concentrate. I could barely hold my paper steady.

Both papers that day were ruined, and when the results came, I had missed the interview cutoff by just a few marks.

The Turning Point

Still, I had gained two important things:

1. The taste of success — clearing the Prelims on my first attempt.

2. The lesson — how crucial subject selection and preparation are.

I met Mayank Patel, a friend’s friend, who introduced me to his father, Professor Jashubhai Patel, a History lecturer at Swaminarayan College. He gave me some of his own books and allowed me access to the college library.

I became a member of the Sheth Maganlal Library, got a reader’s card, and even searched for old books in Gujri Bazaar near Richey Road and Victoria Garden.

There was no Google then — our only search engine was our own mind.

I collected materials from here and there, pieced them together, and kept studying.

I couldn’t afford to miss office days — so I studied during bus rides, office recess, free office hours, and holidays. The GSRTC point bus seat became my library, and my training academy.

During my posting in the Narmada and Water Resources Department, my Section Officer, Dilipbhai Rawal, even allowed me to study during office hours when possible a kindness I will never forget.

My Reading and Preparation (Attempt 1983)

My reading was extensive but scattered. Since borrowed books had to be returned and I couldn’t afford to spend even a paisa on books or notes, I realized it was necessary to prepare my own notes from whatever I read.

During our GPSC selection case, when we went to the High Court, I observed advocates Niranjan Pandya and Bhaskar Tanna argue their cases while holding their notes folded between the papers — as did most lawyers. 

My elder brother, Kanubhai, who had moved from working in a textile mill to becoming a clerk at the Bank of Baroda through an employment exchange interview, helped me in this effort. He would bring me partly used writing pads from his bank branch. 

I folded each sheet in half, and jotted down brief points and notes. After finishing each topic, I would quickly review my notes again. On exam days, these concise notes served as my handy tool for a quick overview.

I cleared the Preliminary Examination in June 1983, then passed the Main Examination in October–November, and appeared for the UPSC Interview in Delhi in April 1984, where I was selected for the Indian Revenue Service (IRS). Since my height was 163 cm, I was not eligible for the IPS, though my merit ranking was high enough to qualify for it.

That interview was my first visit to Delhi and to Gujarat Bhavan. I still remember relishing the khichdi–kadhi served there. I had gone four days in advance, so I spent two days standing outside Dholpur House, talking to candidates coming out after their interviews to get an idea of the questions being asked.

Although I was happy living in a joint family with my parents, and my Secretariat job was permanent and stable, I chose not to report for IRS training in Mussoorie (FC) and Nagpur (Phase-I). I applied once for an extension but decided to wait for a chance to join the IAS in Gujarat. Around that time, an opportunity through GPSC Class I recruitment had also arisen.

When I saw my 1983 Main Examination marksheet, I realized that if I had scored three marks more, I would have been allotted IAS (1984 batch). 

In papers that I thought had gone very well, I had scored low because I stuck too rigidly to the word limit mentioned in the question paper. Even though I knew more, I wrote only within the prescribed words and lost marks. I could see my mistake clearly — I had knowledge but let the word limit make me seem less capable.

Attempt 1984

Then came the June 1984 Preliminary, the October–November Main, and the April 1985 Interview. I cleared all three stages and was selected for the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in 1985.

This time, I took only casual leave (CL) for the exam days and yet improved my ranking and find the place in IAS.

Just before that interview, something remarkable happened. I had gone to Kantibhai Sharma’s barbershop to get my hair cut before the interview. There was a queue, so I sat outside on a bench. A few old magazines lay beside me. Browsing through them, I came across an article analyzing the reports of various commissions on Subhas Chandra Bose’s death. I read it carefully.

In the 25-minute interview, when I was asked to compare Subhas Chandra Bose and Mahatma Gandhi and discuss the theories about Bose’s death, that reading proved decisive, it sealed my success.

That year, as a backup plan, I also appeared for the GPSC Class-I examination, in which I was again selected in the general merit list.

But by then, no one could take the IAS and the Gujarat cadre away from me.

It was a great success achieved at the cost of nothing more than the postal order fee required to submit the application form.

Jobs in Pocket 

Between 1979 and 1985, during those six years, I had received twenty-two appointment orders.

In the Banking Service Recruitment Board examination, which I had taken casually, I was ranked third in merit in the entire West Zone for the post of Probationary Officer.

In the Staff Selection examination for Customs Inspector, after clearing the written test, I had to appear for a cycling test at Vadodara. Since I didn’t know how to ride a bicycle, I borrowed a low-height bicycle from a peon, gathered some courage, learned to ride, and managed to secure that appointment order too.

Apart from these, I had been successful in Centralized Recruitment, Railways, GPSC, UPSC, and almost every recruitment agency that existed at the time.

Everyone who wished me well was delighted by my success.

By then, my name had become well known in the Secretariat. Inspired by my example, many colleagues went on to clear Class-I/II GPSC, UPSC, and other competitive examinations.

However, my success in being selected for the IAS also stirred jealousy in one of my colleagues in the Secretariat — a jealousy that, in the future, would turn into an obstacle for me.

18 September 2025