Acharya Prashant: Kaustubh is saying he wants to be an IAS officer, and there is a huge burden of expectations and that is just draining away his life.
Kaustubh, do you want to be an IAS officer or is it out of expectations of others?
Please understand this: You are just beginning your second year of a B.Tech programme, have you really seen life? Do you really know what it means to be a bureaucrat? What makes you come to the conclusion that you must be an IAS officer?
If it is the expectations of others then you are condemning yourself to a lot of suffering.
You see, I was born in a family of bureaucrats, from both my mother’s and father’s side, and as providence would have it, I was a topper, topped the state, stood all India third rank.
When I cleared my class ten exam, and the result was declared, and the NTSE result also came and I was a NTSE scholar, I was asked to choose, ‘What do you want to do in class eleven?’ Now, as the time come to choose your stream, I was being brought up on the diet of these journals — have you read of Competitions Success Review (CSRs) and all? — they would carry the picture of the IAS topper on the cover page, and my house was always full of bureaucratic discussions and such things, since class five I had been reading the interviews of IAS toppers. After class ten, I took up science only because I saw that the last five to ten years toppers were all from IIT, so I said I will go to IITs, because IITians go to IAS.
