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My JourneyBy Supreet Singh Gulati [2002- BTEE]
Supreet Singh Gulati ('Super') got the second rank in the Civil
Service examination this year,and is headed for a high-impact
career in the IS! In this article, he descri"es his formative
experiences at II# $adras!
As a child I wanted to make rockets. I still remember
screaming in delightwhen India successfully launched its first PSLV
in 1!. "ut some dreams arene#er to be. I lost mine to my own
ignorance. After all$ wasn%t getting into II&an ultimate
achie#ement for a 1' year old( )hat%s a childhood dreamcom*ared to
o**ortunities that education at II& would o*en u* + money$
fame$girls and tra#el( I ne#er *ursued it and as I graduated at ,1
years of age I wasa *roudly confused youth-
My first year at II& can be summed u* in one word + des*o. I
was a "loody"ranch /hanger0 after first year. &he second year
was about bunking thattakes a lot of effort after des*oing for one
year2$ *laying &&$ skating$ andtaking long walks through
the woods of our cam*us. Please don%t ask my 3PAfor 4rd and
!th semesters.
&hird year ga#e me two distinct highs. &he first one
came through turtle walks organi5ed by Student Sea&urtle
/onser#ation 6etwork SS&/62. 6ot only did my interest in
wildlife find a direction through theseregular walks$ I also met
*eo*le who e7*anded my interests to include issues facing us today.
Myassociation with & S Shankar my 8unior at II&2$ 9r. Susy
Varughese and 9r. 9ili* Veeraragha#an fromthis *eriod onwards has
*ro#ed to be one of my biggest strengths till date. &he second
high came throughwinning gold medal in skating. 6early 1:; students
from another hostel rooted for me to win the last raceof the
com*etition. It felt like hea#en to *erform and win in front of a
cheering crowd.
ually ta7ing.)e achie#ed our immediate *ur*ose during the month$
and launched Prakriti soon after with the desirethat good work
would be continued by 8uniors once our small grou* graduated.
&he e7*erience that I am *articularly fond of is the one we
had with ?Piddlu%$ a blackbuck fawn. @ne finee#ening$ Shankar came
to the hostel carrying the fawn in his arms. Its mother had fled
from an attack ofdogs lea#ing him behind. @ur efforts to return it
back to its mother failed. Also$ we did not find any suitable*lace
in the city to rehabilitate him. 9etermined to return it back to
its natural home$ we + & S Shankar$
Ashok 3o#indara8an$ 6andakumar and myself + hel*ed ma%am
Susy Varughese to raise u* the fawn till itcould be set free. 9r.
=ribakaran$ the #eterinary$ was of immense hel* during this *eriod.
I missedPiddlu%s rehabilitation in the 3uindy 6ational Park as I
had graduated by then. )e all ho*e that he is a
fine buck by now with its antlers attracting the females in
large numbers-
&he lows came in torrents too. )ithin a s*an of fortnight I
lost my mother to cancer$ my eagerly awaitedfirst 8ob to global
recession and a real threat of not graduating that year loomed
large due to myunder*erformance in ".&ech. *ro8ect. I managed
to scra*e through the tough *eriod largely due tosu**ort gi#en by
Ma%am Susy Varughese$ 9r. 9ili* Veeraragha#an$ "estial Ashok
3o#indara8an2 andShankar.
I wrote earlier that I graduated as a *roudly confused youth.
Proud youth because I had ideas and idealsand had seen some of them
work in the small setting of our cam*us$ confused because I had my
interests
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in issues that we face daily on one hand and also a career in
electronics industry that I wanted to be a*art of. &his
confusion continued for about two years during which I was em*loyed
as a software engineerin a M6/. I couldn%t reconcile both the
facets and reached a *oint where I had to make a decision in oneor
the other direction. I took lea#e for two months from the com*any
and worked with /entre for Scienceand n#ironment /S2 + a nonB*rofit
63@ B as a #olunteer during this *eriod. &he e7*erience
wasenough to make a decision and I chose /i#il Ser#ices as my
*referred career o*tion. Its ad#antage is thatalong with the
o**ortunities$ it also *ro#ides authority and res*onsibility to
bring the change that we wantto see in our go#ernance
mechanisms.
It has taken me nearly four years to make it to the Ser#ices
since I took that decision. It has been a long*eriod and ha#ing
made it to the Ser#ices$ I%m determined not to lose my dream. I
ha#e reali5ed that asan indi#idual within a large organi5ation I
can only make small changes for the better$ but that doesn%tsto* me
from dreaming.
And I%#e finally understood what John )ooden meant when he
said$ Success is ne#er final$ failure isne#er fatal. It%s the
courage that counts.0 @#er the *ast decade I ha#e been o#er8oyed
and made lastingfriendshi*s whene#er I%#e shown courage. I%#e lost
*eo*le and selfBesteem when circumstances ha#esuccumbed me into
timidness. &he result has *ro#ed immaterial.
I%m ha**y that o#er the years I ha#e won confidence of a handful
of *eo*le who%ll kee* me on the correct
*ath. &hey%ll be the source of my courage for this
challenging 8ob.
