An old farmer – mature, seasoned, one day was very very angry with God; and he was a great devotee.
He said to God in his morning prayer, “I have to tell it as it is – enough is enough! You don’t understand even the ABC of agriculture! When the rains are needed there are no rains; when the rains are not needed you go on pouring them. What nonsense is this? If you don’t understand agriculture you can ask me – I have devoted my whole life to it. Give me one chance: the coming season, let ME decide and see what happens.”
God said, “Okay, this season you decide!”
So the farmer decided, and he was very happy because whenever he wanted the sunshine – there was sunshine, whenever he wanted the rain – there was abundant rain, whenever he wanted clouds – there were clouds. And he avoided all dangers, all the dangers that could become destructive to his crops.
He simply rejected them – no strong winds, no hailstorm, no drought – absolutely no possibility of any destruction to his crops. And his Pomegranate trees started growing bigger and flourished all over the farm. And he was very happy.
He thought, “Now I will show him!”
And then the fruits were harvested – but he was very puzzled. There was nothing inside the fruits – just empty shells!. What happened? Such big trees – big enough to have given fruits full of rich red seeds and sweet juice. But there was nothing in them.
And suddenly he heard laughter from the clouds.
God laughed and said, “Now what do you say?”
The farmer said, “I am puzzled because there was no possibility of destruction and all that was helpful was provided. And the trees were growing so well, and the crop was so lush and so beautiful! What happened to my crop?”
God said, “My Dear Farmer, you gave all comforts to your crop (good rain, good sunshine, and good wind). But you missed one Important thing – your own responsibility! You left everything to the mercy of good things that you got. You never visited your farm. You personally didn’t take care of the trees. Meanwhile, insects ate everything. Harvest was good, but you allowed someone else to take away your produce. You quit. And when you quit, don’t expect luck to favour you.
Dear Insightians,
This is the most common doubt we have received from aspirants in the past 5 to 6 days of INSTA plan. So we wanted to make a few things clear to you about the importance of INSTA Questions.
Every day a Team of Subject Experts and Prelims Top Scorers carefully draft the 30 Questions for INSTA Tests. Plan of the Test is divided into 2 major categories: Difficulty Level: Easy-Medium-Difficult;
Question Type: Conceptual-Factual-Abstract-Bouncer-Analytical. There is a good balance of all types of Questions (Comfort and Dangerous climate) is maintained in every Test. Everything possible is tried to align your preparation to UPSC demands.
Yes, it feels low for any aspirant to get low scores in the Tests. It makes us doubt about our preparation and it creates anxiety in us. To avoid facing that anxiety, we tend to miss the Tests. Because it is a natural tendency of humans to stay in a comfort zone and “All is Well” Mode. Just like a farmer in the story, you seek a good plan, timetable, quality questions and guidance as well – but if you do not make use of them, nothing will be useful. When you quit and go for the easy thing in life – you are already defeated. How can success be yours?
But if you face every INSTA questions with courage and conviction, with the only aim of LEARNING as much as possible, you will harvest great results and see your name in the final list of selected candidates for civil services. Go through challenges now to reap fruits later.
