sunday, january 4, 2009

The Steel frame

House of steel frame

It is perhaps an understatement to say that joining the IAS, is the dream of every young middle class Indian. And therefore every aspirant to this premier service, dreams of walking up the road to the Lal Bahadur Shastri Academy, Mussoorie, as I did on a sunny October afternoon.The Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy for Administration(LBSNAA) is located in the old Charleville Hotel. Ruskin Bond writes that the locals always referred to it as the ‘Charley-Billy’ Hotel, which he thought was an obvious mispronunciation. But the laugh was really on him, because according to the records, the original owner had two sons, Charley and Billy, and he had named the hotel after them.
The LBSNAA comprises three distinct, picture-book campuses: Charleville for the probationers, Glenheys for the staff and Indira Bhawan for the mid-service courses. After the fire in 1984, the Karmashila Block was reconstructed and now accommodates the auditorium, library and computer lab. There is an open air theatre as well, set right amidst the clouds, with the Mussoorie skyline for a backdrop. The Mess is run by a trainee officers committee and there is a fine dining hall. The crazy walkways and endless steps connecting the main hostels Ganga, Kaveri (the girls block) and Narmada, mean aching calves and sore ankles for the probationers in their first few weeks.
The road to LBSNAA is long and arduous. Over 1 lakh aspirants take the Civil Services Preliminary exam conducted by the UPSC in June each year. Just 7000 qualify for the mains in December. I600 odd get called for the interview leg in May, while only 400 odd are finally selected for the IAS, IFS, IPS, IRS IAAS, CISF, Customs, IFtS, IRTS, IPOS, and other allied services. I checked out the profile of the batch selected in 2001 on the LBSAA website. Details of the 2002 batch had not yet been uploaded. 38% were below 25 years while 55% were in the 25-30 age group. Of the batch of 226 probationers, who took the Foundation Course here, 164 were male while 62 were female. 143 came from an urban background, while only 62 were from rural India.
Just outside LBSNAA used to be Baretto’s, now replaced by a Chopsticks and of course the Ganga Dhaba and Midway Restaurant that provide a respite when probationers tire of campus food. The owner of the provision store just outside the Indira Campus is a doppelganger of Hans Raj Hans. Hari tailor still stitches bandgalas for scrawny young probationers. The stationery store just outside the Academy is where every probationer gets his first service letterhead printed. The Academy is the venue for many probationer twosomes. Some relationships mature into marriages and enduring friendships. Batch after batch, of trained officers, leave the portals of this Academy to provide India its permanent civil service.
Punam Khaira Sidhu Posted: Feb 22, 2003 at 0000 hrs IST

published originally in Indian express