Assistant Professor of English: My Story of Success.(Kerala PSC)

"It is not the size but fight of the dog that matters !"

Dear friends,

Thank you once again for being here. In this short Blog I am going to tell you how I reached my dream of becoming a lecturer in English. This is purely personal. For the first time I am going to tell this in public.

As you know every dream starts from a desire and that desire is instigated by someone or some incident.  I set my dream in 2000, while doing my second year degree. Remember I was just an average student and never a candidate for such a high job. My mother laughed at my face saying that I am going to waste my life by setting such an unachievable goal. My aunt advised me to "bite what I can chew" and "cut my coat according to my size"(She was the only professor in our family and was too much proud of it). Honestly these negative comments were my first inspiration. I wanted to prove them wrong. I wanted to prove all the negative noises around me. 

From then on wards whatever I  read, I did it with a purpose. I imagined myself standing in front of students and delivering engaging classes. The thought of a tough competition and my limited chance of getting it made me to work hard. Am I boasting? I am sorry. 

Everything went fine until I completed my MA from St. Thomas College, Thrissur in 2004. But tragedy set me in the form of some health issues. I had to undergo one year treatment and I lost my vital flow and energy. To add the burden I also had a break up. 

Future looked bleak. But after all we are students of literature. How can something crush our indomitable spirit?

By then it was 2006. I was working as a guest faculty. Then the PSC called for the post. I realised that I had only a throw of the dice and if I missed it I would be doomed. Trusting my guts I started my preparation for my dream. Primarily I resigned from my job and joined for M.Phil. This was to focus more into the studies and avoid distraction. 

We had no prescribed syllabus then. So that made my task difficult. The level of competition was high. I had only one shot. I decided to be a jack all first and later  ... In other words instead of spending too much time on one area I spread the area of reading. I kept away all my MA materials for the final stage of preparation and focused on unknown areas.  I read and immediately made short notes of from remembering it. Then I reread to fill the missing points. It was challenging.. I brought chart papers of different colours and cut them into 6 x4 cards and kept the notes as short as possible. The different colours helped me to easily search for a particular genre. If I could recollect, during the last two months I had spent 8 to 10 hours for study like a maniac.  So I built a foundation first. I wanted to make sure that at least I would  have one or two points to write about everything. Later I focused into important individual works. I also regularly revised whatever I studied.

But today's situation has changed. You have a prescribed syllabus. It is daunting. No doubt. But remember, this is the last hurdle you have to jump. You have come up this far. Haven't you got I more great fight left in you???

So run this last lap harder .. the most grueling one..  But that's worth the effort! 

Thank you.

NB: My humble tips: 

1. Develop a general content knowledge

2. Memorize the content you learnt using some mnemonics..

3. Connect among what you learnt

4. Improve your writing skills for the descriptive exams.

For any help drop your queries. I will do it from my limited access.

Bye. Wish you all the best.

Mulayam

01.07.2020

 It is not the most intellectual of the species that survives; it is not the strongest that survives; but the species that survives is the one that is able best to adapt and adjust to the changing environment in which it finds itself.

Darwin