Life is full of shocks. Whatever wish you ask god, god will give you, but neither in excess, nor less than what you asked or deserved. Till now I have given 2 SSB’s, one for Indian Navy and other one for Indian Coastguard. For Indian Navy I got screened out and in ICG I was recommended. My journey started with Indian Navy UES entry. It held in month of February 2015. There I got screened out. I will share that experience next time.
Now the next SSB was for Indian Coastguard. ICG has a bit different procedure for SSB. First a PSB (Preliminary selection Board) is done at any of the 4 centres as per your choice-Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai and Noida.
My PSB Centre was in Mumbai. Regarding PSB I would just say that except the initial MCQ test, rest is easy. The first MCQ that is taken is bit tough, thanks to time constraint for an individual section, this gets tougher. So out of my 70 candidates, only 23 got passed to next level, i.e PPDT. This PPDT is just same as of normal SSB screening PPDT. We were divided in two groups-11 & 12 candidates each. Regarding PPDT, I would suggest you to prepare some of sample pictures prior to coming. By this you will understand what kind of English you are expected to write and speak. Fluent English is not a criteria for getting selected, but this somehow shows your level of confidence. In my GD, 2 candidates even narrated their story in Hindi. Out of we 23, in the evening 8 got screened in. The afternoon batch i.e 12 o’clock batch had their PPDT on next day and as mine was morning 8 AM batch, that’s why we got freed in one day itself.
Now after PSB, next stage is FSB (Final Selection Board). FSB occurs at only one place, Noida at the ICG HQ. This is same as of normal SSB procedure after screening, but there is no outdoor GT.
Mine Reporting Date was 24th august.
Reporting day: At 1400hr we were made to assemble in a hall and 3 personals sat in front of us. Out of 135, total of only 63 reported. On that day only document verification and room allocation was done. One suggestion is ICG take very seriously regarding document-certificates. So make everything up to date. Yes if something is missing, they give ample amount of chance and nobody is sent back without testing. In the evening our mobiles were taken, and bio-metric test was done. Then we were divided into group of 10 candidates each randomly. A goup leader was made and he was given responsibility for collecting payment regarding bedding and food. I don’t remember exactly the amount but about Rs.900 were asked for everything, plus Rs.500 security money which will be refunded on 4th night. We all were told to report at exactly 0800hr next day for tests.
Day 1: Psychological test were scheduled for all of us in the morning. These tests were same as of normal SSB. So I would suggest you to prepare your fingers-hands to write quickly as that would help during these psychological tests. Here I would like to give bit suggestion for TAT(Thematic Appreciation Test). There would be 11 slide and 1 blank slide. If in doubt regarding making story, then look at the character in picture and think yourself in the picture as an officer. You will easily make up a story (brilliant story). Mine group was B group, so on the same day in afternoon, we had group-tasks also. GPE was a disaster for our group. We were unable to come up on common solution. Some of us were even unable to understand the problem. Seriously I would suggest you, kindly prepare some GPE before attending SSB. Understand the procedure for writing GPE. Next it was time for Group discussion.
1st topic was- In Making India developed country which has more role: Education, agriculture, military or market.
2nd topic was- Who is responsible for increase in rate of crime against women.
During GD, don’t try to be over-smart or dominating. This ruins your personality. Try to listen more, and speak at least 2-3 times with a valid and strong point. Don’t ever look towards the accessor. After the GD, it was lecturette. You are asked to pick a card on which 4 topics were written. You have to choose 1 and speak for 3 min. Now If you become nervous before speaking at public, then I would suggest you to start speaking in front of mirror. This will improve your confidence and whenever you are speaking look into the eyes of listener. Now again, while lecturette don’t look toward the accessor. Your group mates should be your listeners. I spoke on “sports as a career”. Rest of the topics was also very easy and an average student can easily speak for 3 minutes. After the GT, were asked to leave at about 1700. That was done for the day.
Day 2 & 3: Two complete days my group was totally free. We visited every single tourist place in Delhi.
Day 4: Interview day. There were total 3 officers who were taking interview. One was board president himself, and two were deputy president. Out of these two, one was a technical officer (mine interviewer) and other was an executive branch officer. Interview was totally smooth and much of a like teacher-student talks. In between he even scolded me. He said “you are very ignorant person.” I knew he was not seriously saying, but he was just trying to make me uncomfortable and under pressure. Here I will give you one suggestion, focus on the questions of rapid round questions. Try to focus on order of the question and try to answer as per order only. If in doubt, don’t fear and ask the officer. After some 3 rapid-questions round, he gave up (I was not following the order) and told me “I am giving you 5 min,say whatever you want to say.” Now this was my golden egg chance. I spoke very confidently about everything that is related to my life. Now if you come upon this type of situation, then do remember to speak something about yourself. The officer is just observing your confidence and speaking level. Mine interview went for 45 min (longest in my group).
Day 5 (D-DAY): Conference was somehow making me nervous as it was my first time.
In conference hall, 13 officers in white sparkling uniform were sitting on a semi-round table. I greeted the board president, he was sitting in centre. He smiled at me and the officer who took my interview asked me to sit. He again asked me some SRT regarding ships (as everybody knew I was a marine engineer). After SRT, he asked me “if I am asked to rank up in ascending order according to performance in each test you gave in last 4 days, then what will be your ranking ?”
I ranked my PI as 3rd and with a huge smile the officer asked me why? I told him regarding the ignorance shown by me. (Please don’t hide your shortcomings. They will find everything. Just be truthful and accept it.) After hearing to me, board president and my interviewer nodded to each other and I was asked to disperse. My conference also went for 15min (longest in whole batch).
After 2 hours of long wait, results were declared. Out of 63, 13 got recommended. I was also recommended. From my group-B, total of 4 were recommended. Yes the worst group in GT was having the most number of recommendations. Many of my friends were not selected. I was happy but also in my heart feeling sad for them.
Now on that day it took nearly furthermore 2hrs for just filling up forms and other documents. At 1800hrs we were told to report Delhi base hospital after 2-3 days as per your convenience. Actually ICG don’t mentor the medicals and they don’t even escort you to base hospital. You have to yourself get all your medicals cleared up at delhi base hospital. Only our documents are sent ahead of us to base hospital.
It took nearly 1 week for all tests to get over. On 1st day we did ENT, Dental and Xray-USG. First shock of my life I got here on that day. In USG, report came out that I have a congenital hypoplastic kidney disorder. Here doctor told me to show this report to nephrology department on OPD. Now I didn’t much-paid heed to it and continued my further tests. Next day blood-urine samples were given, ECG and surgical checkup was done. After that we were told to report R & R hospital for eye test. Actually base hospital doesn’t have advanced apparatus and free time to take our different eye test. At R&R hospital, it hardly took 2hrs to get over with all eye tests. Our reports were sent to base hospital and doctor approved all this. And next it was nephrology OPD in base hospital. I went there and showed my reports to the nephrologist. Senior nephrologist after doing checkup and checking my BP, told me that I am not fit for joining defense. For about 8-10 seconds it made me complete blank. I dreamt of seeing myself in defense uniform from past 6 years, from my school days. But with a single blow, what god gave me just 5 days back, took back return. Somehow I gathered myself and walked out. I showed up my reports to staff surgeon (Here for ICG no medical conference is done, staff surgeon himself call individually and checks the report and approves it). He read everything, saw my reports and gave condolences. I was not listening to him; I just wanted to run away from Delhi and return to my home. After submitting my documents, I immediately booked my train and returned to home. The name of Delhi still haunts me and reminds me that I have lost my dream there.
Life is full of surprises. Don’t get dishearten if your dream is broken up. If you don’t get your dream job (as you think it as a dream), then believe me that you deserve better than that. God is thinking better for you and you were trying to adjust for below his expectations.
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Salute to you brother..i inspired