Pleasant High School Dance Regulations: Fill & Download for Free

Question: “How was it possible that a family could be supported comfortably on a single income in, for example, the 1950s, yet today people struggle with two incomes?”OK. having actually lived in the 1950s and disagreeing with many of the posted answers I will have to answer this, giving real and verifiable examples. In particular, I must respond to an extremely inaccurate and misleading answer posted by Quora writer Heather Johnson.To put things in perspective, I grew up in southeastern and south central Wisconsin. My father was an engineer, i.e., he had a modest middle class income. My mother, although she had worked before marriage, was a housewife and parent without outside income. The family consisted of my parents and six children, all of whom went to college. Everything about our lives was normal mid-western, middle class.Johnson writes: “[A]ppliances were bought on 5yr hire purchase plans. Once you paid it off you kept it for 20 yrs”. NO. Just no!My parents paid cash for every appliance purchase, as did most people in the middle class. Credit cards, other than American Express and Diner’s Club, both for business use, did not exist. Consumer credit did not exist, other than time payments from Sears if you bought their Kenmore brand and small loans at bad terms from Household Finance stores which catered to the improvident. Sensible people never borrowed money. Other than gas cards, there were no non-business credit cards in the 1950s and ‘60s. No one had ever heard the term “Master Card” or the phrase “Minimum Monthly Payment”.Appliances, although well made and, unlike today, designed so that they could be serviced, seldom lasted for “20 years”. A heavily used automatic washing machine or dryer might last 5 to 7 years. A kitchen range might be kept for 10 years, after which maintenance issues involving heating elements, clocks, timers, and switches made replacement likely. Automatic dishwashers and garbage disposers and garage door openers all had limited life spans. Tube type televisions in the 1950s ran hot, needed frequent service, and lasted no more than 5 years before needing to be replaced.Johnson writes: “Houses were small…a kitchen resembling a walk-in closet.”NO. This is the house my family lived in in the 1950s.It had a very large kitchen, a separate formal dining room, a living room with masonry fireplace, 3 large bedrooms all with closets, a closed in porch, solid oak floors throughout, a full basement, a cedar shingle roof, and a separate garage, all on a large wooded lot on a quiet street. The quality throughout was far higher than that which one can buy today. There were two Bell System dial telephones, one in a telephone alcove in the dining room and one in my parent’s bedroom.It was a typical middle class home.In 1962 my father had this built.It had a large kitchen, with a dish washer (!), formal dining room, living room, two masonry fireplaces, family room, office, laundry room, four large bedrooms, 2 and ½ baths, hardwood floors, full finished basement (with a bar and a pool table), two car attached garage, patio, breezeway, all on a two acre wooded lot with a view. Again there were two dial telephones, one of which was in my parent’s bedroom. This was a very typical home for a middle class salaried employee. In the 1950s American middle class families did not live in tiny shacks.Johnson claims that Americans in the 1950s: “[B]ought one car and maintained it for decades.” NO! Cars did not last for “decades”.In the 1950s a car was considered old at 60,000 miles when it was traded in on a new model. It was unheard of to own a car whose odometer had turned over from 99,999 to 0. The odometers did not even have a 100,000 mile dial. Most people traded in their cars every 3 to at most 5 years. Many car guys had arrangements with their car dealer wherein they would trade in their car every 2 years for a new version of the same make and model for a fixed amount of money. These are some of the cars my father owned in the 1950s. Note the upward mobility shown by the car models over the years.And from 1958 on, like many middle class American families, we had two cars, one for my father and the other shared by my mother and the children. They always paid cash for their cars, regarding auto loans as wasteful.This was my mother’s car.Johnson writes: “You had a modest closet consisting of one Sunday best outfit, 2 work outfits and 2 casual outfits.NO! My father wore suits to work and casual slacks and golf shirts on the golf course. I never saw him in a t-shirt or a pair of jeans. My mother dressed nicely, owned a few outfits by Dior and Balenciaga and Chanel and had a seldom worn mink stole. Although she knew how to dress well, this was not unusual or extravagant for the wife of a salaried engineer. In the 1950s and ’60s one dressed up to go shopping downtown or out to dinner or take an airline flight.Johnson claimed: “You ate out infrequently”.Not exactly. Fast food joints did not exist. Nor did family casual restaurants, aside from Italian pizzerias or the Friday fish fry at the neighborhood bar. Families seldom went out to dinner with the children. But my father frequently took my mother out on Friday nights to a nice supper club with dancing afterwards.My family in the 1950s lived this way while my parents, after having struggled through the depression and war years, paid off a mortgage, paid for parochial school for the children, sent six children to college, had no debt, and invested enough money in the stock market to be well off in retirement. Unlike what Johnson implies, the American middle class in the 1950s did not live in some sort of austere deprived poverty.OK, how was that possible? The economic system of the post-war period was different.Unlike today where all of the gains in productivity in the economy are directed to the 1%, from 1945 to 1980 productivity gains were shared and enjoyed by all segments of the working classes.Employment was secure. If you were employed and did your job well you did not have to worry that you would lose your job to a KKR or Bain Capital leveraged buyout scheme or some balance sheet manipulator’s desire to create paper “share holder value” or enhance his own stock options. The term “down sizing” had not been thought of. Looting of pension funds, a standard tactic of leveraged buyouts today, would have been a criminal offense in the 1950s and 1960s..The forty hour week was the norm. Workers were not expected to either work when they were not being paid or take work home. Blue collar workers got overtime for anything beyond 8 hours per day or 40 hours per week. And that overtime was enough to allow my wife’s machinist father to pay off the mortgage of a new house in five years.Medical costs were reasonable. Hospitals were run by religious orders or owned by municipalities, not predatory corporations. The cost of having a baby, including days recovering in a pleasant sun lit room, was ~$250.Companies paid good wages and salaries and all good companies included medical insurance and defined benefit pensions.Employment included paid vacation time.Unions insured safe working conditions and good wages for working men. In the 1950s more than 30% of the jobs were unionized. (Today that figure is 11%, and most of those are public employees, i.e., cops and teachers.) Those union wages set a floor that kept up the wages of non-union workers and white collar employees.Union Pensions allowed comfortable retirements. I will describe for example the work and retirement history of a friend with whom we discussed work in the 1960s yesterday: Went to work in the late 1960s immediately after high school for an automobile manufacturer. Worked as a sweeper, i.e., a janitor. Retired after 30 years, and not yet 50 years old, on generous full pension. Pension includes excellent medial coverage from Kaiser-Permanente. Has been retired for 20 years. Owns, for personal use, a home in Florida and a condominium in Colorado, and farm land in Wisconsin. Travels.The public schools were good and staffed with good teachers. The courses included typing and secretarial skills and mechanical trades as well as academics. Thus, students graduated prepared either for college or for a trade.The cost of higher education was reasonable and a college education was easily affordable, especially at one of the excellent land grant universities, by anyone in the middle class or skilled blue collar class who qualified.Savings and Loan Associations and the post-war GI Bill offered affordable home mortgages while not lending either to speculators or those who were trying to live beyond their means, thus adding to both the growth and stability of home ownership. For a fixed rate 20 year mortgage the interest rate was ~4.5% in the 1950s and ~5.5% in the 1960s.Public transportation was better and far more extensive than today, offering an alternative to private cars.Work was closer to home seriously reducing commuting time and expenses for those who chose to drive to work.Americans who were adults in the 1950s had lived through the Great Depression. That taught those who were intelligent the value of savings and the danger of debt. Thus, they avoided consumer loans, paid cash for appliances and cars, put a large down payment on their homes, paid off mortgages quickly, lived within their means, and saved and/or invested.Finally, one must not forget that in the 1950s, because much of Europe had not yet recovered from the devastation of the war, American industry was given an extremely profitable decade and the American dollar was substantially overvalued making imports of goods to the United States, or travel by Americans to Europe, extremely inexpensive.The 1950s and 1960s were different. The American middle class in those decades did not live simple austere pleasureless lives. Nor did they lack nice things. But the difference was caused: 1) by a “Depression Mentality” which taught those who experienced the depression to avoid the debt trap, and 2) by structural differences in government regulations, differences in the tax system and who it was designed to serve, differences in business ethics, and differences in the economy. The different type of government in the 1950s and ’60s and different economy in that era allowed middle class families in the 1950s and 1960s to live nicely on one earner’s salary.As Quora writer Denis O’Sullivan said in the comments (see below): “ The old tradition of the poor getting poorer returned in the 1980′s. It was a good run from 1940 to about 1980 for both blue and white collar employees.”Note re wages and prices in the 1950s: In 1957 the Federal Minimum Wage was $1.00 per hour. Adjusted simply for inflation that would be $9.20 today. The Georgia State Minimum Wage today is $5.15…half of what adjusted for inflation the Federal Minimum Wage was in 1957. The median income for an engineer with 10 years experience in 1957 was $10,000. Beginning pharmacists earned $125 per week or $6,500 per year. In 1955 the median income of a physician in general practice was $15,000. In 1957 a classroom teacher in a city of 50,000 earned $4,500 per year. The hourly wage for an automobile assembly line worker worker was $2.27 per hour, for a tool and die worker $2.95 per hour or $118 for a 40 hour week. The price for the 1950 Ford Deluxe V8 shown in the above photos was ~ $1,100. The 1953 Nash Ambassador sold for $3,100, the 1958 Oldsmobile $4,200. The two story colonial house shown in the photos sold for $17,500 in 1957. It was originally built in 1937. The 1962 house with attached garage was built for $34,000. In 1950 an Admiral black and white console television with radio and phonograph cost $500. In 1954 a top-of-the-line Admiral Dual-Temp two door refrigerator-freezer cost ~$500.Note re union wages in the 1950s: In unionized plants workers were paid time and one-half for hours worked over 40 hours per week and double time for working on holidays. Overtime was available based on seniority. My wife’s father was a skilled machinist at an automobile plant. Having started his employment there as a young man before enlisting in WWII, he was one of the 6 most senior employees in a factory of thousands of workers. He, thus, could bid for and get well paid overtime work whenever he wanted. One year he worked every day of the week including Saturdays and Sundays and Holidays for at least 8 hours per day, taking off only for one day, Christmas. By doing so he paid off the mortgage on a new home in five years. The UAW Pension allowed one to retire after 30 years regardless of age at full pension. That pension included full medical coverage including eyeglasses and dental care.Note re charge plates: The embossed aluminum charge pates issued by some department stores,gasoline station charge plates, Diners’ Club cards, and American Express cards used in the 1950s and ’60s were not credit cards as we use the terms today. These cards had to be paid off in full monthly. Diners’ Club and American Express cards, which were printed on paper with typed in names and addresses, were for business, not personal, use and were only available to the trustworthy and wealthy.Note that the above card from 1955 is described as a CREDIT IDENTIFICATION CARD. It was a card that informed the merchant that the holder’s income and reputation for paying his bills had been verified. Merchants and restaurants who accepted charge card placed the sticker(s) for the card(s) they accepted on the entry door. But you could not trust that. Restaurant owners would terminate their contract with the credit card issuer without removing those stickers.Department store plates could only be used at one store or one association of stores. They were often limited to a relatively small amount, often $50 or less. These were in use into the 1970s. Gas station cards, of course, could only be used at named gas stations. Sears did offer a “Revolving Credit Account” to holders of its charge cards. But these, again, could only be used for purchases at Sears stores. The Sears Roebuck and Co. card eventually became the Discover Card. The first actual Credit Card was the Master Card. (known as Interbank from 1966–1969 and Master Charge from 1969–1979). The first Interbank Cards were issued in 1958 to a restricted group. Charge Cards were not widely distributed until well into the 1970s. And even in the ’70s one had to check with restaurant servers before ordering to determine if your card or any card was valid at that restaurant. Many businesses refused to accept charge card purchases below a set amount.As late as the 1970s women desiring a Department Store Charge Plate had to get it in their husband’s name and the application needed his approval and signature, regardless of the wife’s employment or income. My wife encountered this when she applied for an account at Charles A. Stevens, a woman’s fine clothing store in the Chicago Loop, and was told she needed my approval and signature although she had a better job and higher salary than I did!Note re Changes in Relative Costs: In the 1960s my best friend’s father was a factory worker at the big dirty, but unionized, Fairbanks-Morse plant. My blue collar family friend could afford to take flying lessons and, before he was allowed to drive a car, had a private pilot’s license and enough flying hours by the time we were in high school to have both an instrument rating and a dual engine rating.As teenagers we were allowed and could afford to rent and fly aircraft, usually a Cessna, over Southern Wisconsin and Northern Illinois, sometimes taking our dates out for night flights. We were high school students, and we paid for those flights with our own earnings from part time or summer jobs. Today flying lessons and airplane rentals are only available to the rich.Life was very different in the 1950s and 1960s.

Please don’t fire me because my answer is soooo long. I wrote this over several weeks and each time I went back I found another detail that begged to be included.When I saw this question I thought, “Have I got a story for you.” As it happens I still have a journal and poetry I wrote in my hippie years. I started reading through and had forgotten all the angst I had for society and the status quo. I Actually wrote the words “I want to change the world.”I graduated from a tiny high school in 1969 and lived the Vietnam war. The “draft” was in place and boys with low numbers were sent to war immediately after graduation. I was deeply troubled about the war and naively made a journal entry in dark red ink, “The symbol of the new generation is flowers and love. Other people say we can’t fight bombs with flowers, but who would bomb a flower?” It’s a real gas reading that.I was concerned by racism, starvation in Biafra and it seems mainly wanted to find the utopian dream. My reading consisted of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, and Bob Dylan songs. I signed everything “Peace be with you,” and the first question when I met a new person was, “what sign are you?”But then, I found sex, drugs and rock n roll. I’ve always been a rebel at heart and the hippie era gave me the excuse I needed to spread my wings and fry some feathers.My home life was normal, and I had no reason to mutiny everything my parents taught, except that was what everyone else was doing. (the opposite of rebellion.) I was at the end of the era and believed I need to do all the hippie shit, fast.The first thing I did after I got myself kicked out of Business School was get me a hippie boyfriend. He was being paid unemployment benefits which meant he had a weekly income. That was very special. So special he could afford to buy an old school bus and even fix it up, so it would run. (I still remember it was a flathead 6, whatever that means) He was in charge of the running part and I was the beautifier.The old bus was blue, and my nonconformist arrogance decided naming it “Blue Motherfucker” was the proper name for a running hippie bus. The thing is, I decided I should get big stencils and paint the name in 10” tall black lettering. We got away with it parked on Agate St. near the University of Oregon, but I wanted to show off to my parents in the little bedroom community a few miles away.I thought I was so smart and put a piece of cardboard over the U in motherfucker. My THC altered mind believed that should be good enough to pass local hick town law, but the law enforcement saw it different. It was unfortunate my dad was a local businessman and the Chief of the Fire Department lived next door. We stayed for 24 hrs. and rumbled out of town the next day.We drove that bus to the Pacific Northwest version of Woodstock. “The Buffalo Convention and Pig Roast” only had 10,000 people, but the music was righteous. Being in the proper frame of mind around others in the proper frame of mind was a highlight of magical proportions. It seemed it was never day or night, simply a blissful paradise campfire or ear-splitting tonal vibrations that could rip the eyeballs from their sockets.(Google image, Buffalo rock festival, Eatonville, WA. 1970)I know you want to hear the juicy parts, so here is my comment on Sex: There was a lot of naked people at those rock festivals. (It’s possible my old lady brain has a cataract blurriness but be assured I fulfilled all three parts of the hippie regulations.)Drugs: (I’m listening to Van Morrison and trying to remember.) My transformation from small town country girl to a full-blown hitchhiking hippie was winged with wacky weed. Back in the day, we got together and bought weed by the Lb. or even by the kilo. The joints were cigars and the reason, it usually wasn’t that good. We had Columbian Gold, Michoacán, and once I got some Highland Thai.My hippie group had meager means and the ‘dealers’ mostly lived in a “Purple Haze.For you youngins, that was a precondition to “Purple Rain”True story. One of our friends decided he was going to do the deal of the decade with a California surfer dude he met. They came together in a Safeway parking lot and the mystery man heaved a 5-kilo brown wrapped package in the trunk of the soon to be rich Oregonian. The wannabe dealer hurried home and gathered everyone around for his big reveal.We had the extra large bongs at the ready as he unpocketed his marijuana embossed switchblade. He sliced through the butcher brown paper and when he tore it back we saw a dog’s picture. It looked like a sack of dog food. He poked into the stronger wrapping and out popped bite-sized dog chow. It WAS a sack of dog food. It was so fucking funny and very humiliating for our buddy. Remember that Alex, did you ever live it down?Most everything was full of seeds and we smoked a lot of shake. Does anyone even smoke the leaves these days? The expensive buds were about thumb sized and not at the peak of maturity. It was common to hear, “I think I’m getting off, are you getting off?”I admit my associates weren’t of the highest quality which is why I slipped into stage 2 seeking my utopia. Someone offered me a cap of mescaline with the guarantee I would get high and stay high for hours. They boosted it was all natural and the Native Americans have done it since the first garden of time. It was an interesting trip and psychedelics became my drug of choice. (This wasn’t a quality product, but on down the road I would greet my Shangri-La in the desert.)This high was cheap because it didn’t involve the munchies, and entertainment was as simple as passing your hand in front of your face and watching the tracers. I felt wickedly beautiful and danced to bongo beats both real and imagined.Unfortunately, the natural stuff was expensive, and synthetic LSD was so cheap they would give you a free hit to prove it was good. (I promise, this story doesn’t conclude with me hooking for my next fix) This was before window pane, and the best stuff around was called pink hearts. Yes, it came out at Valentine's day and we all felt the Love, literally.I wrote poetry I thought was deep.“I’m alive and freeFeeling good and happyThe sun is shining brightEverything is gonna be all right….” I did write a lot of interesting things, but they were the sort of thing you needed to be there and be high to understand.This stage of pure indulgence in the hippie lifestyle lasted about 2 years. I wouldn’t change a minute and remember a good 60%.I did a crazy amount of hitchhiking, mostly alone, and had only a couple of misadventures. I hitched to San Francisco many times and even visited my parents in Arkansas once. The longest trip I made was from Florence Oregon to Boston Mass.My open relationship boyfriend decided he wanted to see the fall leaves on the east coast, so he drove the bus that direction. He had been gone a few weeks when I decided I still liked this guy. I had no money, no job, and no dog, so decided to polish up my thumb and go see if he still liked me.I hitchhiked west 50 miles to the Oregon Coast and then turned around and headed due east towards Boston Massachusetts.This trip was freight train fast and uneventful. The weather was already turning, and my eyes adjusted from the immortal evergreen trees to the true brilliance of the dying leaves in the east. Sadly, my relationship didn’t fit the timeless soulmate status I fantasized, so I stayed only 3 days and headed back.The Rock n Roll was in the air we breathed. We had the best music of all time with Joplin, CCR, and Steppenwolf. I can’t even begin to explain how essential the music is when you're high. The world was a kaleidoscope of color and the vibrations of music were so intense it seemed it was inside your blood cells, shaking the body and shaping the mind. We always had people playing bongos or a guitar and it didn’t matter if they were good, because in our mental state they were the best we had ever heard in our entire life.This stretch of my life was passionate, self-revealing, and extremely concentrated.One morning the day started as usual with the burnt out mind fuzziness of the last acid trip and unfortunately, the stomach cramps and diarrhea side effects that sometimes happened. This was before blotter acid and the folks sometimes used a little of this and a little of that to make the volume larger and trip longer. More likely, it was the pre-dawn raid from the barely cold refrigerator that had no light and food that was unrecognizable.I made it to the bathroom, but the typical scenario happened again. No FUCKING toilet paper!It was a perfect spring day, but I didn’t feel it. I was tired of all the crap, literally, but mostly I was homesick for my family that had moved away to Arkansas. Truth be known, I wanted my Momma and Daddy.I hear they were living in a country place. A more accurate description would be, run-down cabin with no running water, 2 holer outhouse and fire ants in the ground. I bet my Momma has toilet paper in her outhouse. Reality has knocked on my door and I had to answer it.The duffle bag is packed, change is panhandled, and a ride found to the interstate. I hitchhiked out of the state and out of the hippie lifestyle, forever. I would like to say I heard the song “The times they are a changin” by Bob Dylan, but I simply felt an itch that I hoped wasn’t crabs.I may not have heard the song in my head, but evidently, my brain and weary body had a talk with my soul and set the stage for an attitude adjustment.A non-descript man picked me up one late evening as I headed into Death Valley, CA. It was still pistol hot and I took the tall boy beer he offered. Next, he asked if I wanted to trip on some pure peyote picked and dried by a real Navajo Shaman. WTF, sounds legit to me. We pulled off the interstate to a close by access road and sat on the hood of his big old Cadillac.He brought out a hanky with a brownish lump of something that looked a bit like someone’s discarded Copenhagen chew. Nasty. He pinched off a chunk and told me to swallow, not chew. OMG, the second it touched my tongue the bitterness made my mouth feel like the dirty sand it grew in. No matter, a chug of the beer helped it go down but made me wonder why I would swallow an unidentified piece of shit given to me by an unknown stranger. The short answer, to get high silly.I do not recall what this guy looked like, but for that 6-8 hours, he became my spiritual guide. He was experienced with peyote and knew how to massage the understanding of the universe into my mind. The encounter was so intensely powerful I believe it changed the path of my future.All kinds of people would pick up hitchhikers and on down the road I met some of those other kinds. This time a yellow Buick Skylark pulled over and 2 wiry looking guys offered me a ride. I was cautious since there was 2 of them but saw a little kid in the back so figured they must be safe. The kid wasn’t tied up or screaming so certainly they were nice fatherly guys that only wanted to help.It turned out they wanted help. They were pool sharks that needed a babysitter while they went off to the bars to hustle money from the locals. They rented a nice room with a pool and I got a quiet evening of rest.I eventually made it to the family and stayed a month in the backwoods of Arkansas. The cobwebs and foggy brain cleared enough that I realized I was bored with mere existence and I wanted more. The trip home was fast and instead of going back to the communal house I moved to my best friend’s couch.I’m so glad I had the wherewithal to change my situation when I realized my life was going nowhere. These years taught me a lot about human nature and the bonus in the process was a better ME.I was tremendously concerned about the human race and what I could do to help, but over time, my attention has switched to animals. It’s not cynicism that’s changed me, it’s the vulnerability and inevitable reward to my soul. Nothing hurts more deeply than the responsibility of knowing when to let my dear 4 legged friends be free of pain and nothing makes me belly laugh so hard as watching my animals be playful and unconcerned about world order.I wouldn’t amend an instant of my youthful indiscretions but yes, I’m glad I didn’t get trapped in the drug scene. It was so intense and mind-boggling the reality of doing the hard part of growing up didn’t seem like a fun course change. And yes, I knew people that died in addiction and some of my own family got stuck in the lifestyle.Enough platitude. Bottom line, it was fucking amazing being a hippie during the ‘revolution of peace’.Cameras weren’t included in the typical backpack, so I have few pictures to confirm all the crazy.This is the typical me minus the Nehru jacket.I was reminiscing online about the Washington rock festival and found this picture.I honestly don’t know if this is me or not. I don’t remember that shirt or getting my picture taken, but who knows? Did we really all look the same?It was very odd that about 30 years later I was attending Lane Community College as a dental hygiene student when the Ken Kesey bus Further, (second edition) came to the school for some sort of promotion.I wasn’t a personal friend of Ken’s but have a shadowy memory of a party at his Pleasant Hill farm.This is me today.I’m retired and living the good life with my 3 cats and 2 dogs. My life is mostly peaceful except for the occasional catfight and thunderstorm. I like to think I’m a good and kind person that is saving the planet as a dedicated recycler and sews together beds for the homeless dogs at Best Friends.If I still lived in Oregon I’m sure I would do some occasional ‘research’ and remember the wild side of me. As it is, I’m lucky we have a nice winery in my “dry county” and can buy a box of cheap stuff in the next county.If you actually read this to the end I appreciate your stamina. My parting words is an old southern phrase, “Bless your heart.”

Interview experience of Mr. Ansar Shaikh CSE-2015 AIR-361.Name: shaikh Ansar AhamadAge: 21, first attemptOptional: political scienceDate: 7th april, 2016. Forenoon session, 2nd to go in.Board: Mr. PK Joshi (new, fresh board) Time 25-28 minsMedium: HindiNote:- interview medium is hindi but he answered in both hindi and english language mix. So i translated it to English only.Score:199/275(Views r personal)(I reached at Dholpur house at 11:40. The security allow me to enter only at 1pm. I was very excited to see the place which I saw in my dreams. It was the most precious day my life. It was 3pm When came and told me “ sir please come ,you are next to go in” i lost my calmness, my heartbeats and body temperature suddenly increased. I was waiting for 20 minutes outside the interview hall, every single minute was intolerable. I started remembering my parents and well wishers, but I was very confident, happy and pleasant ) and the game started like this.Candidate: may I come in sir?CP: yes ,please come in young man.Candidate: good afternoon sir, good afternoon madam, good afternoon to all you sirs.CP: Shaikh, please take your seat.Candidate: thank you sir(smiling positively).CP: (appreciating): you are just 22 years old?Candidate: (With a smile) no sir, I am just 21.CP: that’s really great(other members nodding positively).CP: ok, you had done BA, BA is very risky, usually people do engineering. Good tell why do you want to join civil service?Tell in short, time is less.Candidate: (smiling, thinking in mind time is less?) yes sir. Two incidence in my life which inspired me lot )sir, in our society there are a lot of evils ,which i had seen in my home itself. I had seen domestic violence, child marriage, dowry in my home.Polygamy and child labour also. So from childhood i hate these thing and feels very frustrated about it. I always wishes to change it.when i was in 10th standard ,i got another breakthrough. Our family belonged to the BPL that's why government had sanctioned 30000 RS for house construction. But one officer from tehsil had taken 3000 Rs as a bribe from my father. I was thinking, for buying 2 rupees i have to think ten time and abbu has given 3000 rupees easily. Thats time i realised poor people are big victim of corruption , then I decided if i want to change this things student from our section need to be part of the system.CP: very good. (other members nodded positively) oh you listen to music. Which kind of music do you listen?Candidate: sir, I like Bollywood music, I listen song which are in tune of my mood.CP: ok. Which are your favorite movies? Just tell me 2-3 names.Candidate: sir,swades is my favourite movie andCP: What ?M3:(lady member) sir he said swades, the shahrukh khan stared.CP: ohh, and?Candidate:and Neerja, Aligarh etc.CP: you also like travelling. Tell me where you have travelled.Candidate: sir, in Maharashtra I have travelled to Ajanta, ellora caves, some hill stations like Matheran.Outside Maharashtra I have travelled to puri, Odisha and now Delhi.CP: what you have seen in puri?Candidate: sir, i had seen puris beach and temple.CP:when you are coming to delhi from pune,what do you observed?Candidate: sir, i observed pollution has increased, when we crossed Uttar Pradesh(poor answer), in train I observed lack of sanitation. I also met some interesting people from north-east. (failed to talk about child labor at stations)CP: ok. tell me the name of two NGO from Pune and their role.Candidate: sir, there is an NGO named Friends of Children. Which belong to Forbes marshall,they provide eduction and stationary to poor children. there is another NGO called Muslim Satyashodhak Mandal, with whom I work, it works on 3 fronts. One, muslim religious reforms, two ,solving women issues like easier talaq, polygamy and try to bring uniform civil code . Third, to de-radicalize muslim youth and mainstreaming them.CP: (passing to M1) (m1 was also good but he was expressionless, in the entire interview he didn’t smile. He asked me some factual and unexpected questions, this was the worst time of my interview)M1: ok ansar, tell me what is poverty? Who gives data on poverty? How is it calculated?Candidate: (in mind 3 questions at same time!!) sir, poverty is Lack opportunities like health,education and better standard of living. Sir, NSSO I.e gives data on it. It is calculated on the basis of different standards like consumption, health, education, house rent etc.(I was not confident while giving this answer, m1 was looking unhappy)M1: ok. What is current number of poors?Candidate: (I hate data. My god, why this is happening) sir aaa sir according to the kelkar commitee in india around 29% poverty .(it was C rangarajan, and not kelkar. I knew it but I lost my confidence.)M1: ok ok.(he did not correct me, so sad.) tell me the changes made in LPG subsidy transfer recently.Candidate: sir, government decided to rationalize subsidies, government initially launched a campaign GIVE IT UP which was voluntary, later they started PAHAL and recently government cut down subsidy of people whose income is beyond 10 lac .M1:hmm. Recently there was a news related with repo, RBI etc. What was it?Candidate: sir, several days ago RBI decreased Repo rate by 0.25% and Reverse repo rate by 6% .M1: why?Candidate: sir, government wanted to give boost to the economy, government also adhered to fiscal deficit target, and there is..(I wanted to say possibility of monsoon this year, but he interrupted me.)M1: how it will give boost to economy?Candidate: sir, decreased repo rate means there will be cheaper loans available in market. It will result in high investment, production and employment generation, and the growth cycle will increase.M1: ok (I was unable to satisfy him. passing to M2, a lady member with a very positive look, she increased my confidence)M2: ansar, you talk about that NGO which works on women issues. What exactly they do?Candidate: sirr, oh I am so sorry Madam..(it was an effect of those Economy questions.)M2: (with a very positive smile) no-no fine. Its fine. Its happens. Please go ahead.Candidate:(thank god) madam, we basically prevent the talaq of female, we negotiate with their husband . We conduct the workshop and protests to stop easier talaq.M2: ok, good. Are there any other women related issues on which you work?Candidate: madam, our primary aim which i have told earlier that’s it no more.M2: Ansar first you will become SDM then DM . Then what will be your priority? What is the mission ? Tell me like 1,2,3..Candidate: madam, I have decided four mission . First, Rural development in which especially development of rural infrastructure, better health care and education. Second, women empowerment.Third, maintaining Hindu Muslim religious harmony(she nodded positively here) and fourth, poor centric, responsive, transparent governance.M2: but how you will do it? It’s a big job.Candidate: madam I will do it on two front . First, for all these thing whatever government policies, laws and schemes are available will carry out efficiently because lots of scheme never reach to grassroot level . Second, through the civil society, NGO, social media and school children I will try to change the attitude of people.M2: but maintaining religious between Hindus and Muslim is not that much easy. How will you handle if there is a tension between two communities?Candidate: madam, first of all I will find out the cause of conflict, then I will find who is legally right, then I will ask the leaders of both communities to come for negotiation and solve the issue. unfortunately if this not happen then I have to use force. However, negotiations is the key.M2: you come from a very poor background, so you have availed any scholarship?Candidate: madam, till 7th standard I had availed scholarship , after we managed ourselves.M2: do you have not availed minority scholarship?Candidate: no madam.M2: why?Candidate: madam,every time I am failed to give it on time ,and no wish to apply.M2: yes, and amount are also so less.Candidate: yes madam.M2: now how to apply for that?online?M4: yes it is available online.Candidate: (nodded)M2: ok. (passing to M3, a Punjabi gentleman, he too was cordial but expressionless, he was looking like an ex-army man with big eyes and pagadi)M3: Ansar, there is one Gandhi and another Sarhadd(frontier) Gandhi. Who was Sarhadd Gandhi?Candidate: sir, he was a freedom fighter. Who are against the partition and if partition happens he desires her region(forgot the name of the region) should be in India. They with their Red Shirts team struggled against British in peaceful Manner. They also conferred with bharat ratna.(when I said bharat ratna, CP smiled very positively.)M3: you talked about de-radicalization, tell me the causes and remedies of radicalization of muslim youth. Oh but before tell me one thing, your marks in 10th was ordinary (76%) but in 12th you jumped to 91% ! How this happened?Candidate: sir actually in 10th my subject was mathematics and science which I don’t like. Our teacher’s also not teach well. Maths teacher explains maths from guide. In 12th standard my subject was scoring like Sanskrit in which I have 100 out 100 marks and in vocal classical music also scored well.(here I forgot to tell about my restless hardwork hehehe)M3: good your subject was scoring. Now answer the radicalization question.Candidate: yes sir. There are a lot of reason for radicalization like spreading of thoughts trough social media, fringe elements hate speeches of main religion, spreading of wahabist ideology on large extent and lack of socio-economic development.M3: and what are the remedies?Candidate: sir, we need to work on causes like restriction on hate speeches of fringe element, taking special measure for development of muslim youths. and impose regulation on social Media and do counter-radicalization .(before I go ahead further he interrupted me )M3: counter radicalization??Candidate: I am sorry sir, I meant de-radicalization.M3: no, no. I think you have used the right term, we must do counter radicalization, you are right. Ok you talked about Wahabism? What is it?Candidate: sir, it is sunni militant ideology,which believe in convert the non-sunni people to sunni or end the non-sunni people, it is based on violence.(forgot Islamic state, Dar ul harv etc.)M3: where does it originated?Candidate: sir this ideology originated in Saudi Arabia.M3: and now they are suffering from it.Candidate: yes sir.M3: there was a world sufi conference. What is the difference between Sufism and wahabism?Candidate: sir, wahabism is based on violence whereas Sufism is based on love and peace. Wahabism is intolerant towards non sunnis, whereas Sufism is accommodative. They don’t believe in religion or cast, they only believe in humanity.M3: ok. Are you a sunni or shia?Candidate: (very very instantly) I am a muslim sir, an Indian muslim, rest of it I don’t know.( this answer will be game-changer)(everyone appreciated this answer, all of them smiled positively.lady member said something about me with a big laugh.)M3: ohh, good. Just asked because as you talked about wahabism, but good, very good.M3-passing to the M4(M4 was probably the oldest member in the panel. I noticed him observing my body language in the entire interview, he was very cordial.)M4: Ansar you studied in a Zilha parishad school, then you went to Badrinarayan barwale college and later on you went to fergusson college. Tell me what did you experienced in these institutions?Candidate: sir, in our school there was no toilet and drinking water facility. Lectures also not happening well. Some teachers solving mathematics by using books. But in barwale college lectures also happening very well, infrastructure also very good. but when I have come to fergusson college, then I realised I am again in the school. There are also same problem like school, no cleanness of toilet and shortage of drinking water. some professor are taught from books and notes .However, fergusson college have very good history, I really like my college.M4: yeah, may be it still relive on history. There is issue with principal of fergusson college what is it?Candidate: sir, after the JNU incidence, in our college ABVP have planned an interactive session with our college student. but they don’t have a written permission, due to this some Ambedkarite student of fergusson college started protesting. That result into hooting between these two group. Student is shouted slogan like “Bharat mata ki jai”. Unfortunately under the pressure ,our principle has written letter to police,like subject to anti-national slogan in our campus. When police has come some tension was created (lady member: oh) next day principal has declared that letter was a typing mistake. I mean it is ridiculous! (when I said ridiculous, everyone started laughing.)M4: and there was another incidence in FTII, what was the issue? Don’t you think it was a fruitless protest ?nothing gain from it .Candidate: sir, our country is a democratic country, that’s why everyone have a right to protest and demand. FTII students wants the FTII chairman should be a person who is meritorious ,and NEWSPAPERS coverage it like endeavor of saffronization . so I feel government needs to think about it. However I feels any Protest should be peaceful, there should not be problem for other student.classes disruption should not be there because tax payers money are wasted this way.M4: do you listen to sufi music ?Candidate: sir not mostly but sometime I listen to atif aslam and nusrat fateh ali khans sufi songs. (lady member smiled positively on this answer.)M4: ok. (Passing again to CP)CP: ansar, when do you come to delhi?Candidate: sir, on 28 february.CP: oh, where do you stayed?Candidate: sir, near Mukherji nagar there is organization named Zakat Foundation which provide accommodation to poor and minority student. I stayed there.(now the fun starts again)CP: ok, I too studied Sanskrit. tell me how did you score 100 out of 100 in Sanskrit?Candidate: sir, in our area there is culture, score good marks, teach scoring subjects, do mug up and conquer.Unfortunately I had also did same(ratta maro and jeeto).(I said this in such funny tone that every member started laughing.)CP: what a thing ,we had also did same.(ratta maro and jeeto) (laughter everywhere, even I failed to control my laugh, I was supposed to smile in such interview, but what to do)CP: so tell me do you remember anything from Sanskrit? Tell me the What is the word for “GO” in Sanskrit?Candidate: sir, Gaccha?CP: good, now tell me the Past, present and future tence of Gaccha.Candidate: sirr... I am sorry sir, I don’t remember. but I know one word related to Gaccha, Gacchami. Which means I go.(CP and M4 talked something about Gachhami)... sir I also remember a shlok in Sanskrit, can I say it?CP: no. no.... ok ansar your interview is over, wish you all the best for your future.Candidate: (instead of standing up, I was just looking happily towards CP)M4: now Gacchami Gacchami.(u may go) (this resulted into a big laughter,,hahahahah)Candidate: thank you. Have nice day. (all were looking my way of going out.)When I came outside, I wanted to dance. I said to myself, well done.The entire interview was like a friendly discussion except that economy part.No questions from optional, International relations, home state issues, no provocative issues, no difficult questions(may be because of my age.)Source:-Shriram Kharat(श्रीराम खरात)'s answer to What are some of the best IAS Interviews?