By Dr. Nagarjun B Gowda (IAS 2019)
Among several hill towns situated at the foothills of Himalayan mountains, ‘Mussoorie’ is known as ‘The Queen of hills’. This title can be attributed to the beauty of this hill town which makes it stand out among others. But for a UPSC aspirant Mussoorie is synonymous to Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration i.e. LBSNAA. If I recall my preparation days, I used to watch a lot of videos on Youtube on how the officers undergo training at this academy and I bet all other aspirants would have as well. Thanks to all the algorithms which they use, my feed used to be filled always with either toppers guidance videos or the LBSNAA training videos. These videos helped me de-stress, maybe due to the dopamine (feel good hormone) surge on learning that I might be there someday in this beautiful campus, this in turn motivated me as well. The standouts among them are, the beautiful academic setup, picturesque Kalindi lawn, fun filled faces at AN JHA plaza , Events at Sampoornanand auditorium, Himalayan trek, Bharat darshan videos etc. but very less information is available on what and how actually the training is conducted. To be explained in short, it falls somewhere in between two of the most common proverbs, ‘ The grass is always greener on the other side’ and ‘ The Best view comes after the hardest climb’ (here climb being obviously UPSC). This is to say that the training days are not completely a joy ride and definitely the best thing to happen after all the mentally and emotionally draining UPSC journey. The training for IAS officers is of two years and is divided into Foundation course (100 days), Phase 1 training ( 5 months ), District training (1 year) and phase 2 training (2 months). Out of these different training parts, the Foundation course (FC), Phase 1 and phase 2 are In-campus training conducted at LBSNAA, Mussoorie.
THE FC '94
The Foundation course (FC) starts around the last week of august. For our batch it started on 26th of August. We were supposed to report to the academy at the latest by 25th August. I, with a few of my batchmates, reached Dehradun railway station at 7 AM on 25th of August. Later on we had to take a cab till Mussoorie. Maybe this is one such journey in life which we would never want to forget. I silently recollected my whole UPSC journey as we ascended uphill to reach mussoorie. Incidentally it was raining that morning and that made the journey much more emotional.
On the first day there is registration of OTs and other few paper works. Your ‘Kundli’ will be written on the very first day , in the sense that all your details will be etched in your service records on this day and it becomes very difficult to change any of this later on. The training starts with an inaugural session and oath taking ceremony on the next day. Most of the aspirants might have heard “Hao Dharamete Vir” – Academy song during their preparation days. On this first day we were introduced to this beautiful song which eventually became so dear to us that on the last day of the FC many eyes were in tears while we were singing this song during the closing ceremony and even today we get goosebumps while we listen to this song. It has become a part of our memories of the academy. Followed by oath taking ceremony was the introductory session to the foundation course. More than an introduction it seemed like a warning session for us. We were given a glimpse of how the foundation course will be carried out, its contents, exams etc. The most important among them was the Discipline part. Our discipline incharge was a lady professor, highly strict and a task master at this. We felt like we were all back in the school again. Discipline also included our dress and behavior code inside the academy. To give a short insight into the Dress code, “ NO JEANS or WESTERN WEAR ALLOWED, SMART FORMALS AND ACADEMY DRESSES ONLY” (though academy had provided an elaborate list of clothes we need to bring for the training beforehand ). We were also given a full campus tour on the same day. So historic and pristine, the academy stands tall and majestic giving a sense of reason for its existence.
A regular day time table of foundation course used to be somewhat like this,
Morning PT – 6:15 AM to 7:15 AM, Morning session(1) – 9:20 AM to 11:10 AM, Tea break – 11:10 AM to 11:30 AM, Morning session(2) – 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM, Lunch break – 1:30PM to 2:30PM, Afternoon session – 2:30 PM to 4:30 PM, Some other compulsory activity- Post 5 PM till 7 30 PM. Post 7:30PM we are free for the night ( but might be bound by some or the other assignments to submit the next day ).
Morning PT
What was once a nightmare but now a fond memory, was attending morning PT at a hill station like Mussoorie (Particularly harder for south Indians like me). Our batch PT used to happen at polo grounds which is around 1.5 km trek from the nearest hostel. We all 300 OTs used to walk like zombies at 6 AM in the morning to the polo ground. Above this if we reach a minute late, by the evening we were served notice for the same. This was same for all the sessions as the biometric attendance was compulsory and there used to be manual attendance as well in all the sessions of the course. We could avail exemption only on some valid medical ground which needs to be certified by the doctor of the Academy hospital. These doctors were much stricter and made it almost impossible to skip any session. (Ha bhai kaisi lagi, aa gaya swad wala meme yaad aa raha hai? )
If going to PT was a challenge, coming back was the actual nightmare. It was an uphill trek of 1.5km every single morning after an hour of physical grinding. Having successfully completed this daunting task, it has for sure given many of the officers a sense of confidence and commitment to push oneself against daily challenges. But the best reward from this back breaking daily activity was that we got to watch a beautiful sunrise every morning amidst Himalayan mountains. It's a feeling better experienced than expressed. Once we were back to our rooms , we had an hour and half to get ready and have breakfast before classes commenced. Late sleepers like me used to snatch out some sleep in this small gap too. (Trust me it is difficult to get minimum of 6 hrs sleep everyday in the FC)
For academic purposes we were divided into 4 groups of around 80 each. I was in the B group. Our seating arrangements were such that our neighbors in class were from different services, this was done to promote a sense of bonding among different services. The same way our roommates were also from a different service. Today my neighbors in class and my roommate are among the best buddies I made at the academy. Rikita IRTS 2019 and Krishan Singh IPS 2019 now IAS 2021 were my neighbors in class and Achin Garg IPS 2019 was my roommate. Classrooms of the academy are named after great personalities of our nation , these are Tagore hall, Vivekananda hall, Ambedkar hall to name a few. Sampoornanand auditorium is the place where the classes with full strength of 325 used to happen. These were generally the first session in the morning of some eminent personality or an officer of senior rank speaking about their work. This is also the same auditorium which you might have seen in a number of academy cultural events videos. The other lecture halls were used to conduct regular classes of our training syllabus and classroom activities. A typical day will have 5 to 6 such sessions in different halls.
During FC apart from regular course related sessions which ended by 5 30 PM, we had some or the other compulsory activity scheduled post 6 PM. This would be either a performance by renowned artists or a clubs and societies related group activity/events. So effectively an OT will go back to his/her room only after the dinner i.e. around 8:30 PM. This tight schedule disconnects us from the outside world i.e. family, friends, relations throughout the FC.
Hostels
LBSNAA has many hostels where the OTs are put up. These are Ganga, Kaveri, Narmada, Mahanadi, Silverwoods, Happy valley etc. With Ganga hostel being the biggest among them half of the batch is accommodated here. Hostels are allotted on a sharing basis in FC and I was allotted room G 405 in Ganga hostel. My roommate was Achin Garg IPS, he is one of the most simple, humble, fun loving people I have ever met in the services. All the get-togethers and fun at the academy actually happens at the hostels and their lounges. Everyday there was some or the other occasion to celebrate, if there was no occasion we would still celebrate!!!. Another fond memory of the hostels is the ‘Trek’ which we had to do every morning to reach our classrooms. Academy is located on a hilltop and the hostels are downhill. So every morning it was a small trek up the hill staircase to reach classes. Only a few OTs could trek up without stopping midway to take some breath from the Ganga hostel (one of the prime reasons for OTs weight loss was this routine. ! )
Himalayan Trek
The highlight of FC for most of us was the Himalayan study tour. This was one such activity which tests our physical and mental strength and at the same time prepares us for the challenges life throws at us. It was a 10 day long trek and our group went to Badrinath, Hemkund sahib, Valley of flowers and Dronagiri mountain. Each group was assisted by a guide and SDRF personnel. The academy does give us enough training before going for a long trek. Right from the first week, every Saturday we were compulsorily made to do short treks of around 15 to 20 kms around Mussoorie like George Everest trek, Benong hills trek, Lal tibba trek and Kempty falls trek. These were difficult treks among themselves. I personally felt the Benong hills trek was much more difficult than the Valley of flowers trek. These exercises were done to condition us for the Himalayan trek and also to divide us among groups according to our fitness levels.
My Himalayan trek experience was beyond incredible and it helped us in bonding as a group, face difficult circumstances together,understand the unique nature of the himalayan ecosystem and also a courage to face difficult challenges in our lives.
Kevadia and Village visit
One more activity of the Foundation course is a week-long village visit and a visit to Kevadia – Statue of Unity. We were divided into groups of 6 – 7 OTs and were sent to different tribal villages around the tri-junction of states Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. My group incidentally got Garudeshwar village which is where the statue of unity is located. This exercise is basically aimed at introducing us to a village as a unit of administration and also to sensitize us towards life and issues at village level. This is vital for all the services training as the saying rightly goes that ‘Soul of India lives in the villages’. We were made to stay at the school of the village for a week and we had to conduct various exercises which helped us understand the functioning of the village and also implementation and impacts of various schemes at village level. This apart, we enjoyed the love and affection shown by the villagers. We played with the kids, went to farms, gazed at the stars of clear skies, enjoyed local dishes, fed domestic animals etc. I relived my childhood days when my parents used to take us to our ancestral villages during holidays.
Our village study tour was followed by a brief visit to the statue of unity. The whole batch converged at Kevadia for the ‘Aarambh’ program where we were introduced to various cutting edge solutions and ideas of public policy by an American university. This was followed by the visit of our Honorable Prime minister Shri Narendra Modi ji on 30th October to the Statue of Unity. To interact with the prime minister closely and to listen to his address was a dream come true moment.
Fete and Sports day
We were also divided into different counselor groups (CG). Each CG had a faculty / counselor and around 30 OTs. Every week we had an interactive session with a group where we informally interacted with the counselor about any doubts we have or about any issues we faced. This was a good arrangement where we got to learn a lot about the civil service and its requirements which cannot be taught in the classroom. My counselor was a senior IAS officer of UP Cadre who had worked in a variety of assignments in his illustrious career.
Social service club organizes a Fete every year to collect funds for some social cause. We participate in this event as a counselor group and collect money from OTs, faculty and their families by conducting some fun games and food stalls. It was a fun day, we danced and played throughout and at the end of the day we had collected a record amount of money which was used for the education of underprivileged kids. One other event where we participate according to the Counsellor group is Sports day. Like any other school and college sports days, OTs participated in individual and group events like Running events, Tug of War, Relay, Jumping events etc. We witnessed several records being broken and superb participation by our batchmates. As active participation in these events carried marks, almost all OTs took part in one or the other. ( UPSC toppers hai, extra marks chahna toh banti hai! )
India Day
Another important highlight of the foundation course is ‘India Day’. As the name indicates it is a day when we celebrate the diverse cultures of our beautiful country. It was a day-long event which started with a procession from the academy entrance in which all the OTs wore the traditional and artistic costumes of their home states. After the procession we indulge in a grand lunch with various cuisines from across the country. Later in the evening the OTs perform some famous art from their state. We OTs from Karnataka were wearing Coorg style dress in the procession and performed Dollu kunitha, Yakshagana and Huli kunitha in the cultural evening.
The preparation for this event was so intense that few state governments including Karnataka had sent trainers and clothes to prepare the team for the performances. It introduced us all to different original art forms and cultures of various states and made us proud to be a citizen of this great nation whose strength lies in its diversity.
OT’s favourite pastime-
After years of toiling hard in our prime youth academy provided us a much needed break and some social life. As I said in the beginning Mussoorie and its vibe made the training much more memorable. Now one would be more curious about what an OT does during their freetime. Usually we get free only during weekends and post 8 Pm on weekdays. Most of the OTs exclusively and efficiently use this available free time to have fun.
Hanging out with friends in hostel rooms and lobby area, relaxing at Ganga and pooja dhaba, hitting Gym and sports complex, visiting mall road for food and shopping, wandering around the beautiful LBSNAA complex etc. These are some of the most common activities OT’s do on weekdays. On weekends post Saturday morning trek most OT’s like to visit mall road for dining in! One can find Glen and tavern tables completely occupied by OT’s on Saturday night. There are many other good food outlets in Mussoorie like By the way, Khalsa, Little lama, Rockeby and Bake house at Landour where we used to visit on Sunday afternoons. The best part of the Sundays was the Dosa for breakfast and biryani for lunch at the mess. More than any academic activity these moments spent at the academy made it what it was, SPECIAL. The people whom we met and the friendships we made during these 100 days are something which we will cherish forever.
Exams and Goodbyes
It is a myth that your studies end with the UPSC examination. LBSNAA and later a few state academies have strict examination rules, just that it is no more a competitive exam makes it easier. To get confirmed in the service one needs to clear FC, Phase 1 and Phase 2 examinations of the academy. All being nerds it is very rare to see anybody fail these examinations. In FC we had to give one language viva and a few other theory papers. People do actual serious studies for this examination, group discussions are a common scene during examinations. Few toppers with Law, Economics background take extra timeout to teach the technical stuff to other OT’s as well ( Good samaritans ). The exams got over in two days and we were left with just the last 3 to 4 days with our fellow batchmates of 94th FC.
We had never imagined that just in a matter of 100 days we could develop such deep bonds and friendships that many of us were in tears on the convocation day. The convocation day involved prize distribution for various academic and non-academic activities. I won the Esprit de corps award for the 94th FC (a non-academic award obviously)and was delighted. But the heavy heartedness of being at sampoornanand for the last time with those superb bunch of people prevailed. It was a beautiful experience overall. Given a chance I would want to do FC again but only with the same batch of amazing people. Till date remembering those days brings smiles on our faces and makes our hearts lighter. As I have written earlier, it is better experienced than read about.
Thank you FC-94 and Thank you LBSNAA 😊
This blogpost is written by Dr. Nagarjun B Gowda, IAS (2019). An active leader, he was the Chairman, Officer's club at LBSNAA in both Foundation Course and Phase 1. He is currently posted in the Madhya Pradesh Cadre.