Ravi Kumar 31 SSB Kapurthala

NAME: RAVI KUMAR

BRANCH: ECE

RECOMMENDED FROM: KAPURTHALA

RECOMMENDED FOR: SSC TECH 51

This story is not for the toppers but for mediocre students and the one that take all the hits in life be it from parents or teachers. It is rightly said that “Failure is the first step to success” and here is my story, story of a mediocre but an extremely good athlete. My journey started way back in ARMY PUBLIC SCHOOL, DHAULA KUAN. I come from an Army Background and from day 1 it was very clear that I have to join ARMED FORCES and the love for OLIVE GREEN was always there. As normal army background ppl tends to have changed schools almost every 3 years or so it never happened in my case was always a part of ARMY PUBLIC SCHOOL DHAULA KUAN from first class and finished my schooling from there itself. To be honest I was never a bright child in school, could barely manage to pass but was extremely good at sports and played various sports like football, basketball, athletics, taekwondo, handball, powerlifting at various national level events.

Everything was going well till class 10 ^th , going to school playing all the time, never attended first lecture in my school life because of practises nd was always on the radar of my teachers. I always had it from my teachers and parents but never stopped playing. Soon after class 10 ^th I had scored 8CGPA so I choose PCM coz the society and parents wanted that but to be honest theek hai yrr unhone bola varna mujhe tow pata bhi nhi tha kya stream leni hai”. Then the actual things of my life started and I from day 1 in class 11 ^th never passed all the subjects but inspite of tht “ mai konsa marne vala tha sabne kosis ki game chudvane ki but chup k khelta rha, kit doston k ghr pe rakhva di aur kahani aise hi chalti rahi” and I flunked in class 11 ^th, things changed from this point.

I got that hit that was required in my life and during one of my parents teachers meeting one of my chemistry teacher made me realise that if u try u can definitely get into NDA and was soon appointed as the SPORTS CAPTAIN too which made me more confident. Started my preparations with full throttle and in class 12 ^th cleared my NDA 1 and 2 went for my ssb in BHOPAL but was always conference out, then comes the next stage when parents got behind me like anything for coaching. I took coaching for JEE-MAINS and when I went for the test I got a very intelligent guy sitting in front of me and with my skills of talking really nicely I convinced him to help me in the paper, which he did and I cleared my MAINS. On the outside I was like “ deekho kar diya na clear” but inside I knew and it didn’t make me happy. With sports quota i was getting good college in DU but parents wanted me to do engineering, so couldn’t say NO and was getting NIT Kurukshetra because of my marks, I even took admission there but after 2-3 days came back home coz I couldn’t stay away from my house and took admission in a college near to my house.

Completed my engineering from DRONACHARYA COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING GURGAON in ECE branch with 68% and applied for UES entry NAVY and gave my first stage in college where I was shortlisted and after 4 years was again going for my SSB but till then I was placed in 6 different companies from my college which was a record in itself and my name was all over the college premises.

My SSB was to be held at NSB COIMBATORE and I was at that time working in one of the companies that I got placed in PUNE. So I couldn’t prepare much but was confident about my communication skills that I will ace the PI and GTO coz I don’t know how but I have always been good with “ fatta, balli, rope” but I didn’t focus much on my psychology which is actually the main part. So I reached there saw such huge crowd again after 4 long years and was a bit nervous too, got screened in but was conference out but I could see in myself where I was lacking and applied for SSC TECH 51.

Got shortlisted and my SSB CENTER WAS SCN KAPURTHALA which a few friends of mine had already gone and all of them got screened out so I was again very scared coz have never tasted being screened out. So then I had just completed 4 months at my work place in PUNE and had to take a bold decision so I resigned and came back to Delhi. I had exactly 1 month for my preparations and this time it was no looking back. I had to focus on everything be it psychology, interview questions, my technical knowledge and also think of new ideas related to the GTO tasks. I divided my timings and prepared well, read newspaper, study IQ channel helped me a lot with current topics and side by side I worked on story writing, WAT,SRT and SD. I took some guidance from officers which helped me bring the logic and reason behind everything that I say . 8 ^th JUNE 2018 a batch of 333 candidates appeared and we sat for screening process. SCN KAPURTHALA has a very tough OIR test set but I was well prepared for them did them in time and for PPDT wrote a story which happened to be different then the whole group which I realised while the group was narrating , everyone saw 2 ppl whereas I only saw 1 and got scared but when my turn came I took a deep breath and narrated my story with confidence and in the end with my convincing skills managed to get a common story which revolved around the theme I choose. Then we were 20 screened in out of 333.

Next day did well in my psychology test and completed all TAT, WAT, and only did 33 SRT’s, wrote a good SD which like everyone I had also prepared earlier. The very same day my INTERVIEW with the board president was scheduled and let me tell u friends he is not the man that ppl would like to give interview to, he grills u like anything. My interview lasted longest I guess for around 1hour 10 minutes. I could manage to give all the answers to his questions. Next day GTO 1 started and I gave good points in GD and was able to convince ppl in GPE also. I have a personality tht is very pro active in field and when I get a chance to perform with the group tht leader in me just comes out and I tend to dominate which happened in all the PGT,FGT,HGT etc. till the time ppl could think of ideas I had already applied my ideas so I was pretty confident about my GTO 1, then next day GTO 2 we had our lectorate, individual obstacles, snake race, command task. I did 15 individual obstacles and was called by 4 ppl for help in command task. I was given a tough command task which made me happy as they say it is a sign of u being recommended from GTO. So everything was set and the CONFERENCE day came.

We all packed our bags and kept them in a common area. As my chest number was 13 so had to wait a little for my turn. When my turn came I was called inside and very basic questions were asked like they usually do like how was ur stay? and all. It only lasted for 2-3 minutes and then we were asked to wait in the testing hall. After everybody’s conference  the  psychologist came with the results and asked us how many of u think u have made it this time to which a few raised their hands but I didn’t coz I was busy staring at the result sheet he was holding and bejati ka dar ki kahin haath uthayein aur nahi hue tow kitni bejati hogi and then he said unfortunately only 1 out of u have made it this time. Believe me u wouldn’t want to hear this and i thought ghar jaane ki tayaari kar, kaise jayega bus se ya train se ye soch.

Then he said so the chest number that has made it is 13 and I looked at my chest and realised ohh its mine and everything got blank, he asked me to tell him my roll number but I just couldn’t then he again asked and thn I pulled out my roll number from my pocket and told him my roll number. Everybody congratulated me and then I contacted my parents and could just say one line “ mummy ho gya selection” Thanks to the all mighty GOD and everyone who has been a part of this beautiful journey.