Struggle of a Tamilian Boy who cleared IAS exam.

Never underestimate the power of a dream that is propelled by someone’s fire in the belly. It can work wonders, like it did in the life of Balaguru, whose surreal life story is the stuff that scriptwriters churn out in tinsel town.

But Balaguru’s story is real, and more inspiring than any celluloid fare.
Chennai might have been a little too harsh on Balaguru, but it is from this city he prepared for his civil services.


As a 15-year-old, K Balaguru, son of a daily wage labourer, dreamt of becoming an IAS officer and he never allowed the dream to die, though he lived in a village, in a thatched hut, studied in a government school in Tamil medium, and could not join college due to family circumstances.

“Knowing the situation at home, I did not want to join college and be a burden to my family. So I decided to work and study.

“I also wanted my elder sister to be married and settled, before I started chasing my dream,” says Balaguru, 28, who cleared the tough UPSC (Union Public Service Commission) exam and made it to the IAS this year, in his fourth attempt.

After passing Class 12, he took up a job at Thiruthuraipoondi, about 300 km from his village in Karur district, that involved delivering furniture and household items to homes, and collecting the money in installments from the customers on daily or weekly basis, a business practice that is common in small towns and rural areas of Tamil Nadu.

The owner of the business was a distant relative. Balaguru stayed in a small room on the terrace of his owner’s house, along with few other co-workers. The owner provided them accommodation and food.

“We got no salary, instead the arrangement was that after 3-4 years, each of us would be given a separate territory and taken as partners in the business,” says Balaguru.

Balaguru has spent hours inside the government library in Chennai preparing for his civil services exam


He worked there from 2004 to 2008. Throughout this period one of his treasured possessions was the photocopy of an article, ‘How to become an IAS Officer,’ he had found in the Tamil edition of Malayala Manorama Yearbook

“I was waiting for the right opportunity to resume my studies and prepare for the civil service exam,” reveals Balaguru.

Right from his childhood he was fond of reading. He would read any book that he could lay his hands on. They never bought newspapers or magazines at home, but the local barber did, and he made use of the opportunity.

“I visited the barber shop every couple of weeks to collect the weekly supplement that came with the Tamil dailies. I took them back home for reading.

“Later, I found a barber shop near my school, where I went daily during the lunch break to read the papers. I also had my hair-cut there to develop friendly relations with the owner,” says Balaguru

Chennai's MTC (Metropolitan Transport Corporation) buses have ferried him to different libraries across the city


Balaguru’s thirst for knowledge made him listen to All India Radio programmes on his transistor radio. He was a regular listener to their current affairs broadcast and quiz programs.

In school, he earned a reputation as a well-read, well-informed student, and won the approval and love of his teachers.

Noticing his interest in general knowledge, a teacher suggested that he appear for the Tamil Nadu Rural Students Talent Search Exam, which was open for students whose family income was less than Rs. 1 lakh per annum.

He cleared the test while he was in Class Eight and received an annual scholarship of Rs. 1000 till he completed his schooling.

“It was a big morale booster for me. More than the money, which of course was a huge amount for me, it was the sense of accomplishment that I got when I walked home with the money that gave me more joy,” says Balaguru.
Balaguru stayed in a small room in Chennai paying a monthly rent of Rs.600


It not only gave him joy, but also the energy to drive him towards his goal. “By the time I was in Class Ten, my ambition was to become an IAS officer. I thought it was a course one had to study.

“It was only after I read the Malayala Manorama article during my 12th holidays, I understood the process involved in the selection,” he says.

After his sister’s marriage in 2007, he was ready to quit his job and start preparing for his IAS. The next year he took a settlement of Rs.1.60 lakh – which was paid to him in instalments – from his owner in Thiruthuraipoondi and packed his bags to Chennai.

“A friend invited me to stay with him for some time, but his roommates asked me to vacate the room after about a week. Only that morning I had registered for a correspondence course in BA (History).

“Desperate, I came out and started looking for a job. I saw a ‘wanted’ board that called for security guards. I joined the security agency because they provided free food and accommodation,” he says, candidly reminiscing his difficult days in the city not too long ago.

He was posted at Bilroth Hospital, where most of the days he was in charge of the lift. “It was a tough job. No one would respect a security guard,” he says, the pain in his voice quite apparent.

Since he worked in the night shift, he used the morning hours to visit the nearby government library, and registered for short-term courses in spoken English and basic computers.

A year later, he got a job as a helper in the pharmacy at Bilroth Hospital. “This job was more respectable, though the salary was lower and there was no free food or accommodation,” says Balaguru.

He found a small room with a thatched roof in a nearby slum for a monthly rent of Rs.600. He cooked his own food, went to work in the night, and prepared for his civil service exams in the daytime.

Balaguru sacrificed a cushy bank job to stay focused on his goal


In 2011, he got his bachelor’s degree in history and appeared for the UPSC exam for the first time. It was a failed attempt, but he cleared another competitive test and was selected for a clerical post in REPCO Bank.

“My salary would have been Rs.15,000 per month if I had taken up the job. I took a decision to sacrifice the job to focus on my IAS dream,” says Balaguru, who will be leaving for Mussoorie soon for his probationary training.

Four years and three attempts later, he has achieved his goal.

His determination, focus, and the training he received at various institutes like the All India Civil Services Coaching Centre and Manitha Naeyam IAS Academy played a key role in his success.

Balaguru’s story is bound to inspire countless others to dream on, till their dreams come true. 

The Power of Mentoring

The son didn’t like living in his father’s house. This was because of his father’s constant ‘nagging’;

 

“You are leaving the room without switching off the fan”

 

“The TV is on in the room where there is no one. Switch it off!”

 

“Keep the pen in the stand; it is fallen down”

The son didn’t like his father nagging him for these minor things.

He had to tolerate these things till yesterday since he was with them in the same house.

But today, however, he had an invitation for a job interview.

“As soon as I get the job, I should leave this town. There won’t be any nagging from my father” were his thoughts.

As he was about to leave for the interview, the father advised:

“Answer the questions put to you without any hesitation. Even if you don’t know the answer, mention that confidently.”  His gave him more money than he actually needed to attend the interview.

The son arrived at the interview centre.

He noticed that there were no security guards at the gate. Even though the door was open, the latch was protruding out probably hitting the people entering through the door. He put the latch back properly, closed the door and entered the office.

On both sides of the pathway he could see beautiful flower plants. The gardener had kept the water running in the hose-pipe and was not to be seen anywhere. The water was overflowing on the pathway. He lifted the hosepipe and placed it near one of the plants and went further.

There was no one in the reception area. However, there was a notice saying that the interview was on the first floor. He slowly climbed the stairs.

The light that was switched on last night was still burning at 10 am in the morning. He remembered his father’s admonition, “Why are you leaving the room without switching off the light?” and thought he could still hear that now. Even though he felt irritated by that thought, he sought the switch and switched off the light.

Upstairs in a large hall he could see many aspirants sitting waiting for their turn. He looked at the number of people and wondered if he had any chance of getting the job.

He entered the hall with some trepidation and stepped on the “Welcome” mat placed near the door. He noticed that the mat was upside down. He straightened out the mat with some irritation. Habits die hard.

He saw that in a few rows in the front there were many people waiting for their turn, whereas the back rows were empty, but a number of fans were running over those rows of seats.

 

He heard his father’s voice again, “Why are the fans running in the room where there is no one?” He switched off the fans that were not needed and sat at one of the empty chairs.

 

He could see many men entering the interview room and immediately leave from another door. There was thus no way anyone could guess what was being asked in the interview.

When it was his turn, He went and stood before the interviewer with some trepidation and concern.

The officer took the certificates from him and without looking at them asked, “When can you start work?”

He thought ,”is this a trick question  being asked in the interview, or is this a signal that I have been offered the job?” He was confused.

“What are you thinking?” asked the boss. “We didn’t ask anyone any question here. By asking a few questions we won’t be able to assess the skills of anyone. So our test was to assess the attitude of the person. We kept certain tests based on the behaviour of the candidates and we observed everyone through CCTV. No one who came today did anything to set right the latch at the door, the hose pipe, the welcome mat, the uselessly running fans or lights. You were the only one who did that. That’s why we have decided to select you for the job”, said the boss.

He always used to get irritated at his father’s discipline and demonstrations. 

Now he realized that it is only the discipline that has got him his job. His irritation and anger at his father vanished completely.

He decided that he would bring his father too to his workplace and left for home happily.

Whatever our father tells us is only for our good aimed at giving us a bright future!

A rock doesn’t become a beautiful sculpture if it resists the pain of the chisel chipping it away. 

For us to become a beautiful sculpture and a human being we need to accept admonitions that chisel out the bad habits and behaviour from ourselves. That is what our father does when he disciplines us.

The mother lifts the child up on her waist to feed her, to cuddle her, and to put her to sleep. But the father is not like that. He lifts the child up on his shoulders to make her see the world that he couldn’t see. 

We can realize the pain the mother undergoes by listening to her; but the father’s pain can be realized only when others tell us about it.

Our father is our teacher when we are five years old; a terrible villain when we are about twenty, and a guidepost as long as he lives...

Mothers can go to her daughter’s or son’s home when she's old; but the father doesn’t know how to do that...

There is no use in hurting our parents when they are alive and remembering about them when they have passed away. Treat them well always.

Organized Effort.

If a steamship lost its rudder, in mid-ocean, and began circling around, it would soon exhaust its fuel supply without reaching shore, despite the fact that it would use up enough energy to carry it to shore and back several times.

The man who labors without a definite purpose that is backed up by a definite plan for its attainment, resembles the ship that has lost its rudder. Hard labor and good intentions are not sufficient to carry a man through to success, for how may a man be sure that he has attained success unless he has established in his mind some definite object that he wishes?

Every well built house started in the form of a definite purpose plus a definite plan in the nature of a set of blueprints. Imagine what would happen if one tried to build a house by the haphazard method, without plans. Workmen would be in each other's way, building material would be piled all over the lot before the foundation was completed, and everybody on the job would have a different notion as to how the house ought to be built. Result, chaos and misunderstandings and cost that would be prohibitive.

Yet had you ever stopped to think that most people finish school, take up employment or enter a trade or profession without the slightest conception of anything that even remotely resembles a definite purpose or a definite plan? In view of the fact that science has provided reasonably accurate ways and means of analyzing character and determining the lifework for which people are best fitted, does it not seem a modern tragedy that ninety-five per cent of the adult population of the world is made up of men and women who are failures because they have not found their proper niches in the world's work?

If success depends upon power, and if power is organized effort, and if the first step in the direction of organization is a definite purpose, then one may easily see why such a purpose is essential. Until a man selects a definite purpose in life he dissipates his energies and spreads his thoughts over so many subjects and in so many different directions that they lead not to power, but to indecision and weakness.

With the aid of a small reading glass you can teach yourself a great lesson on the value of organized effort. Through the use of such a glass you can focus the sun-rays on a definite spot so strongly that they will bum a hole through a plank. Remove the glass (which represents the definite purpose) and the same rays of sun may shine on that same plank for a million years without burning it.

A thousand electric dry batteries, when properly organized and connected together with wires, will produce enough power to run a good sized piece of machinery for several hours, but take those same cells singly, disconnected, and not one of them would exert enough energy to turn the machinery over once. The faculties of your mind might properly be likened to those dry cells. When you organize your faculties, according to the plan laid down, and direct them toward the attainment of a definite purpose in life, you then take advantage of the cooperative or accumulative principle out of which power is developed, which is called Organized Effort.

The Road of The Truth-Teller Has Always Been Rocky

"On a recent rainy night, Carl Lomen, the reindeer king of Alaska, told me a true story. It has stuck in my crop ever since. And now I am going to pass it along.

'"A certain Greenland Eskimo,' said Lomen, 'was taken on one of the American North Polar expeditions a number of years ago. Later, as a reward for faithful service, he was brought to New York City for a short visit. At all the miracles of sight and sound he was filled with a most amazed wonder. When he returned to his native village he told stories of buildings that rose into the very face of the sky; of street cars, which he described as houses that moved along the trail, with people living in them as they moved; of mammoth bridges, artificial lights, and all the other dazzling concomitants of the metropolis.

'"His people looked at him coldly and walked away. And forthwith throughout the whole village he was dubbed "Sagdluk," meaning "the Liar," and this name he carried in shame to his grave. Long before his death his original name was entirely forgotten.

'"When Knud Rasmussen made his trip from Greenland to Alaska he was accompanied by a Greenland Eskimo named Mitek (Eider Duck).

Mitek visited Copenhagen and New York, where he saw many things for the first time and was greatly impressed. Later, upon his return to Greenland, he recalled the tragedy of Sagdluk, and decided that it would not be wise to tell the truth. Instead, he would narrate stories that his people could grasp, and thus save his reputation.

'"So he told them how he and Doctor Rasmussen maintained a kayak on the banks of a great river, the Hudson, and how, each morning, they paddled out for their hunting. Ducks, geese and seals were to be had a-plenty, and they enjoyed the visit immensely.

'"Mitek, in the eyes of his countrymen, is a very honest man. His neighbors treat him with rare respect.'

"The road of the truth-teller has always been rocky. Socrates sipping the hemlock, Christ crucified, Stephen stoned, Bruno burned at the stake, Galileo terrified into retraction of his starry truths – forever could one follow that bloodly trail through the pages of history.

Imagination and Self Confidence

The president of a well known college inherited a large tract of very poor land. This land had no timber of commercial value, no minerals or other valuable appurtenances, therefore it was nothing but a source of expense to him, for he had to pay taxes on it.

The State built a highway through the land. An "uneducated" man who was driving his automobile over this road observed that this poor land was on top of a mountain which commanded a wonderful view for many miles in all directions. He (the ignorant one)

also observed that the land was covered with a growth of small pines and other saplings. He bought fifty acres of the land for $10.00 an acre.

Near the public highway he built a unique log house to which he attached a large dining room. Near the house he put in a gasoline filling station. He built a dozen singleroom log houses along the road, these he rented out to tourists at $3.00 a night, each. The dining room, gasoline filling station and log houses brought him a net income of $15,000.00 the first year.

The next year he extended his plan by adding fifty more log houses, of three rooms each, which he now rents out as summer country homes to people in a near-by city, at a rental of $150.00 each for the season.

The building material cost him nothing, for it grew on his land in abundance (that same land which the college president believed to be worthless).

Moreover, the unique and unusual appearance of the log bungalows served as an advertisement of the plan, whereas many would have considered it a real calamity had they been compelled to build out of such crude materials.

Less than five miles from the location of these log houses this same man purchased an old worked-out farm of 150 acres, for $25.00 an acre, a price which the seller believed to be extremely high.

By building a dam, one hundred feet in length, the purchaser of this old farm turned a stream of water into a lake that covered fifteen acres of the land, stocked the lake with fish, then sold the farm off in building lots to people who wanted summering places around the lake. The total profit realized from this simple transaction was more than $25,000.00, and the time required for its consummation was one summer.

Yet this man of vision and imagination was not "educated" in the orthodox meaning of that term. Let us keep in mind the fact that it is through these simple illustrations of the use of organized knowledge that one may become educated and powerful.

In speaking of the transaction here related, the college president who sold the fifty acres of worthless (?) land for $500.00 said: "Just think of it! That man, whom most of us might call ignorant, mixed his ignorance with fifty acres of worthless land and made the combination yield more yearly than I earn from five years of application of so-called education."

There is an opportunity, if not scores of them, in every State in America, to make use of the idea here described. From now on make it your business to study the lay of all land you see that is similar to that described in this lesson, and you may find a suitable place for developing a similar money-making enterprise. The idea is particularly adaptable in localities where bathing beaches are few, as people naturally like such conveniences.

The automobile has caused a great system of public highways to be built throughout the United States. On practically every one of these highways there is a suitable spot for a "Cabin City" for tourists which can be turned into a regular money-making mint by the man with the IMAGINATION and SELFCONFIDENCE to do it.

There are opportunities to make money all around you.

Ford philosophy

Some years ago during the world war Mr. Henry Ford brought suit against the Chicago Tribune, charging that newspaper with libelous publication of statements concerning him, one of which was the statement that Ford was an "ignoramus," an ignorant pacifist, etc.

When the suit came up for trial the attorneys for the Tribune undertook to prove, by Ford himself, that their statement was true; that he was ignorant, and with this object in view they catechized and crossexamined him on all manner of subjects.

One question they asked was:

"How many soldiers did the British send over to subdue the rebellion in the Colonies in 1776?"

With a dry grin on his face Ford nonchalantly replied:

"I do not know just how many, but I have heard that it was a lot more than ever went back."

Loud laughter from Court, jury, court-room spectators, and even from the frustrated lawyer who had asked the question.

This line of interrogation was continued for an hour or more, Ford keeping perfectly calm the meanwhile. Finally, however, he had permitted the "smart Aleck" lawyers to play with him until he was tired of it, and in reply to a question which wasparticularly obnoxious and insulting,

Ford straightened himself up, pointed his finger at the questioning lawyer and replied:

"If I should really wish to answer the foolish question you have just asked, or any of the others you have been asking, let me remind you that I have a row of electric push-buttons hanging over my desk and by placing my finger on the right button I could call in men who could give me the correct answer to all the questions you have asked and to many that you have not the intelligence either to ask or answer. Now, will you kindly tell me why I should bother about filling my mind with a lot of useless details in order to answer every fool question that anyone may ask, when I have able men all around me who can supply me with all the facts I want when I call for them?"

This answer is quoted from memory, but it substantially relates Ford's answer.

There was silence in the court-room. The questioning attorney's under jaw dropped down, his eyes opened widely; the judge leaned forward from the bench and gazed in Mr. Ford's direction; many of the jury awoke and looked around as if they had heard an explosion (which they actually had).

A prominent clergyman who was present in the court-room at the time said, later, that the scene reminded him of that which must have existed when Jesus Christ was on trial before Pontius Pilate, just after He had given His famous reply to Pilate's question, "What is truth?"

In the vernacular of the day, Ford's reply knocked the questioner cold. Up to the time of that reply the lawyer had been enjoying considerable fun at what he believed to be

Ford's expense, by adroitly displaying his (the lawyer's) sample case of general knowledge and comparing it with what he inferred to be Ford's ignorance as to many events and subjects.

But that answer spoiled the lawyer's fun It also proved once more (to all who had the intelligence to accept the proof) that true education means mind development; not merely the gathering and classifying of knowledge.

Ford could not, in all probability, have named the capitals of all the States of the United States, but he could have and in fact had gathered the "capital" with which to "turn many wheels" within every State in the Union.

Fifteen Laws of Success by Napoleon Hill

Fifteen Laws of Success by Napoleon Hill

1. A Definite Chief Aim will teach you how to save the wasted effort which the majority of people expend in trying to find their lifework. This will show you how to do away forever with aimlessness and fix your heart and hand upon some definite, well conceived purpose as a life-work.

2. Self Confidence will help you master the six basic fears with which every person is cursed – the fear of poverty, the fear of Ill Health, the fear of Old age, the fear of Criticism, the fear of Loss of Love of Someone and the fear of Death. It will teach you difference between egotism and real self-confidence which is based upon definite usable knowledge.

3. Habit of Saving will teach you how to distribute your income systematically so that a definite percentage of it will steadily accumulate, thus forming one of the greatest known source of personal power. No one may succeed in life without saving money. There is no exception to this rule, and no one may escape it.

4. Initiative and Leadership will show you hot to become a leader instead of a follower in your chosen field of endeavor. It will develop in you the instinct for leadership which will cause you gradually to gravitate to the top in all undertakings in which you participate.

5. Imagination will stimulate your mind so that you will conceive new ideas and develop new plans which will help you in attaining the object of your Definite Chief Aim. This will teach you how to “build new houses out of old stones” so to speak. It will show you how to create new ideas out of old, well known concepts, and how to put old ideas to new uses. This is the equivalent of a very practical course in salesmanship, and it is sure to prove a veritable gold mine of knowledge to the person who is in earnest.

6. Enthusiasm will enable you to “saturate” all with whom you come in contact with interest in you and in your ideas. Enthusiasm is the foundation of a Pleasing Personality, and you must have such a personality in order to influence others to co-operate with you.

7. Self-Control is the “balance wheel” with which you control your enthusiasm and direct it where you wish it to carry you. This will teach you in a most practical manner, to become “the master of your fate, the Captain of your Soul.”

8. The Habit of Doing more than Paid For is one of the most important lessons of the law of Success. It will teach you how to take advantage of the law of Increasing Returns, which will eventually insure you a return in money far out of proportion to the service you render. No one may become a real leader in any walk of life without practicing the habit of doing more work and better work than that for which he is paid.

9. Pleasing personality is the 'fulcrum' on which you must place the 'crow-bar' of your efforts, and when so place, with intelligence, it will enable you to remove mountains of obstacles. This one has made scores of Master Salesmen. It has developed leaders over night. It will teach you how to transform your personality so that you may adapt yourself to any environment, or to any other personality, in such a manner that you may easily dominate.

10. Accurate Thinking is one of the important foundation stone of all enduring success. This teaches you how to separate “facts” from mere “information”. It teaches you how to organize known facts into two classes: The “important” and the “unimportant.” It teaches you how to determine what is an “important” fact. It teaches you how to build definite working plans, in pursuit of any calling, out of FACTS.

11. Concentration teaches you how to focus your attention upon one subject at a time until you have worked out practical plans for mastering that subject. It will teach you how to ally yourself with others in such a manner that you may have the use of their entire knowledge to back you up in your own plans and purposes. It will give you a practical working knowledge of the forces around you, and show you how to harness and use these forces in furthering your own interests.

12 Co-Operation will teach you the value of team -work in all you do. In this lesson you will be taught how to apply the law of the “master mind”. This will show you how to co-ordinate your own efforts with those of others, in such a manner that friction, jealousy, strife, envy and cupidity will be eliminated. You will learn how to make use of all that other people have learned about the work in which you are engaged.

13. Profiting by Failure will teach you how to make stepping stones out of all of your past and future mistakes and failures. It will teach you the difference between “failure” and “temporary defeat,” a difference which is very great and very important. It will teach you how to profit by your own failures and by the failures of other people.

14. Tolerance will teach you how to avoid the disastrous effects of racial and religious prejudices which mean defeat for millions of people who permit themselves to become entangled in foolish argument over these subjects, thereby poisoning their own minds and closing the door to reason and investigation. This is the twin sister of the one on “Accurate Thought”, for the reason that no one may become an Accurate Thinker without practicing tolerance. Intolerance closes the book of Knowledge and writes on the cover “Finished, I have learned it all.” Intolerance makes enemies of those who should be friends. It destroys opportunity and fills the mind with doubt, mistrust and prejudice.

15. Practicing the Golden Rule will teach you how to make use of this great universal law of human conduct in such a manner that you may easily get harmonious co-operation from any individual or group of individuals. Lack of understanding of the law upon which the Golden Rule philosophy is based is one of the major causes of failure of millions of people who remain in misery, poverty and want all their lives. This lesson has nothing whatsoever to do with religion in any form, nor with sectarianism, nor have any of the other lessons of this course on the Law of Success.