It is during adversities that real heroes emerge. They are heroes because they see adversity as an opportunity to solve a problem, or to overcome a problem. It’s the courage, strength and wisdom to think clearly in the times of crisis that makes an individual emerge as a hero – to a family, to a community, to a nation and to the world.
On the other hand, the one who looks at adversity as a problem will never emerge as a hero. Because this individual has allowed a problem to enter into his head and is busy either figuring out how to remove the problem from his head or anticipating restlessly when the problem would end so that he can again live peacefully. These individuals look at the problem as a roadblock to their goals. They never realise that this problem is indeed their golden opportunity to reach their goal faster and also emerge as a hero.
The Covid-19 pandemic has almost affected the entire humanity. India being home to 1.3 billion people will be shortly facing its biggest ever crisis post-1947 partition. In these tough times, India and the world needs tough individuals. We need tough decisions. We need you, the future IAS or IPS or IFS officer, to be tough. If you can not be tough now while sitting at home preparing for this exam from the comfort of your room, don’t expect yourself to be tough when we again face bigger problems than covid-19.
Today in India, while people are locked down in their homes, it is government servants, especially IAS and IPS officers, who are battling out there in the field – knowing that they could be the next victims of covid-19 – to save the vast majority of humanity from death. Add to this thousands of doctors, nurses and other health workers who knowingly are fighting this deadly virus head-on. Most of them are not sacrificing their comforts or their own lives because the government has asked them to do. It’s for the love of service and it’s for the love for humanity that many IAS, IPS, doctors and nurses are at the forefront trying to save us all.
On the other hand, you, the future bureaucrat – should be inspired by everything that’s happening around you to get into civil services with utmost urgency to save humanity. This dystopian situation must motivate you to become a civil servant with a sense of urgency so that you can make sure that the world doesn’t have to suffer the same fate again whatever be the magnitude of the future challenge. You can stop the world from further degeneration. Today any local problem can snowball into a global problem and threaten the entire humanity. You can prevent this when you are in the civil services. As an IAS officer, that too as a tough and proactive IAS officer, you have powers to solve fundamental issues that our people face on a daily basis. It’s these fundamental issues like poverty, discrimination, hunger and inequality which make local problems global. It’s easy to blame globalisation, but if a problem can be prevented at the source, no problem can never become global.
What can be your bigger inspiration than ensuring lakhs of poor migrants get ttwo meals a day during times like present lockdown; what can be bigger inspiration than coming up with innovative solution to stop the spread of very dangerous disease from affecting huge number of population; what can be your bigger inspiration than working day and night staying awake in the middle of a crisis to make your nation safe and secure for everyone to live and flourish?
When this crisis finally gets over, we will read about a few brave officers, doctors and civilians who by then will be hailed as heroes. When the crisis gets over, you can also be a hero – at least for your family – by succeeding in this exam. The choice is yours. Once a family hero, you can go on to become a hero for millions even when there is no pandemic like covid-19. There are bigger problems that always exist and demand heroes for their final salvation.
Do you want to sit and still check the number of covid-19 cases that are adding up, or prepare for this unique exam with more vigour and energy to prevent such cases from ever happening again?
What lasts long is your legacy. Not the fear. Choose wisely.
