Autobiographical Statement of Vasant Prabhat Raghav

The following autobiographical statement was written when I applied for masters course in social work. Most of us don't accept our failures and hence never learn from them. This work made me pen down the failures I underwent and also how I accepted and learned from them. I would encourage you all to do such a work at some stage in your life. More importantly, when you want to find answers to the mishaps happening with you or around you.

ps. I got selected for the above said course.

I belong to a middle class nuclear family of four, which includes father, mother, sister and myself. 

My father is an IRTS (Indian Railway Traffic Service) officer, presently posted as Chief Project Manager, FOIS (Freight Operations Information System) in Northern Railway, Delhi.

My mother is a postgraduate in Sociology and Hindi who teaches  Hindi in a Senior Secondary Govt. Girls School  namely Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya, in Delhi. 

My sister who is three years younger to me is pursuing her Bachelor’s degree in Economics (Hon.) from Hans Raj College, Delhi University. Presently, she has entered into her final year.

Education: 

2010 - 2014 IIIT Delhi 

B.Tech (CSE)

CPI 6.5

2009 The Banyan Tree School

CBSE (XII)

84.4 % (aggregate)

2007 The Banyan Tree School

CBSE (X)

81.6 % (aggregate)

The certificate of appreciation that each student receives after completion of schooling read the following about me:

“Dedicated and responsible. Vasant has a very focused outlook towards life. He is forever striving to achieve perfection.”

It was true that I was focused, dedicated and responsible. But there was more insight to it, and merely the above token of appreciation doesn’t portray the real picture.  I have always acted too hard on myself. I completed most of the home works in class or during bus journey, made friends based on their previous aggregate and my decisions were always centered around on selfish reasons. This method of functioning brought me success on academic front (Swami Vivekananda Award - Class VIII). Moreover, due to my academic success and also because of my participation in co-curricular activities such as sports(cricket, tennis, kho-kho), music (represented India in Hindustani classical choir singing overseas) and dance(took part in a traditional group dance "bihu"), I landed up with the responsibility of Vice Captain (Class XI) of my house. Though the whole experience of becoming the vice captain was overwhelming for me but unfortunately I couldn’t deliver the needful as per my standards. There were three prime reasons for it:

First, while contesting, which I did brilliantly, never had I imagined the magnitude of the responsibilities it would confer upon me. Theoretically convincing is one thing and pragmatically evaluating is another. 

Secondly, which brought troubles to my strong personality was myself getting diagnosed with a higher degree of acne called acne rosacea. This occurred after my win. In this disease, the whole face swells up into reddish hue resulting in an ugly looking face. Being a teenager, I was apparently affected not only physically but also socially. On top of that the responsibility of a leader was extremely difficult to handle. There even came times where I had to miss school for several days, just for the disease to subside. 

Thirdly, like all other science stream students, I also joined coaching classes to clear the IIT exam. This further created a disparity between my role as a vice captain and as an aspirant.

It was the amalgamation of above three reasons that made me realize of some important life learnings:

1. It is important not only to realize your mistakes but also to learn from them. I took a while to pin point and combine the missing pieces of the puzzle. But it was worth an effort as it made me more practical and realistic.
2. With the disease, I faced the lowest tide of my times as I lost confidence in myself. Slowly and steadily, I worked upon the problem and in one year after my schooling got over, I was free from acne rosacea. Witnessing my worst time soldered my nerves to that of steel.
3. Failing to clear IIT exam twice, came as a shell shocker to me. It was a reality check indeed. I understood from this debacle that there is life beyond IIT. Luckily I also appeared for other entrances, that ways my haughtiness didn’t overpower me and so I got into IIIT Delhi as a CSE undergraduate.

Eventually after lot of hiccups and learning started my college life. I had already promised one thing to me, no matter what comes may, I’ll make up for earlier mistakes. It wasn’t so easy as it sounded because I had become a parochial person and to break from the clutches of past was a challenge I undertook valiantly. I pledged that apart from academics I would focus on relationship building with my peers not on the basis of their scores but on ideas of trust, honesty and integrity. Meanwhile, I rediscovered my long lost passion for music and got immersed into its realm so much that my academics took a backseat and I ended up screwing my first two years with a mediocre gpa. Though I had fair amount of success on making friends on the above said ideals, but I always felt that insecurity of getting betrayed which resulted in me losing friends easily than making. Also social media played a part in further aggravating the situation. I was in utter state of imbalance. Directionless, clueless and helpless by all means. All this tension coagulated and gave birth to yet another problem. This time it was migraine. I use to get severe headaches, which made it very cumbersome to think the least, let alone do something average. I vividly remember those dark times where I use to stay inside my hostel room for hours patiently waiting for the migraine to subdue. Somehow I managed to finish my Vth semester. 

Came the December holidays and I desperately needed an effective remedy. It was my younger cousin who came to the rescue. She made me understand the reason of my problems and advised me to join ten-day course of vipassana meditation, which she already undertook six months back. I had already tried every other treatment, and this was the last beacon of hope. I without any second doubt went for this course. Vipassana is one of the most ancient techniques of meditation. Vipassana means to see within self, as it really is. Siddharth Gautam who achieved Bodhi and became Gautam Buddha started it. It was the biggest life transforming experience for me. My migraine came under control. But that was simply a by-product of the real actualization of the inner self. For ten days we were supposed to follow certain necessary rules :

• Not to talk among each others (Noble Silence)
• Not to kill any living creature
• Walk slowly, keeping eyes down
• Not to read and write (only observe)
• Strictly follow the mentioned schedule
• Not to exercise or do yoga, rather meditate on internal self

These rules or sheelas made the journey of knowing self a more intriguing experience. I understood my inner problems and fear which were :

• Being easily affected and influenced by others 
• Pondering too much over past and future 
• Human actions and emotions being controlled by my speech and body rather than my mind
• Staying in a group out insecurity
• Favoring someone to receive something in return

I was able to resolve each of these issues during my meditative state and emerged as mentally and spiritually bold and mature personality. It’s a common saying that proof of the pudding is by eating. Well to walk the talk, I not only felt the change from within but it also got reflected in my grades during the last three semesters. I overcame my inner insecurities by taking constructive action like:

• Living in the present
• Acting peacefully and in a balanced manner applying a rational approach towards influential personalities that wanted to overpower my presence
• Standing by for causes, issues, and rights. Peers with alike features became true friends.
• Most importantly, giving help without any expectation of receiving it in some form. (For unexplainable reasons, I felt the greatest satisfaction. More even so, when I saw a change in them through my good deeds.)

Soon I came to the absolute realization of my calling which were helping people, society etc. I started by taking small stepping-stones, which later on paved the way to bliss. I knew I was a changed man now, but I wanted this position to reach to others for maximum benefit of mankind. 

For this, I started engaging my peers into spiritual talks, sorted out their life issues, encouraged them to do this course once in their life. To see the change in others, Mahatma Gandhi has rightly said that one has to be that change. That is precisely what I did. 

• Gave way to the public inside metro before entering in, no matter how late I was. 
• Fixed the fences at central park CP that were taken down by the mighty dust storm. 
• Considered others problems as my problems and tried solving it to the best of my ability.

Small things like these always kept the teachings intact and enabled me to grow as a social being. 

During my last semester when everyone was worried about their placements and package, I decided not to sit for the same as I realized my goal in life. It wasn’t to earn materialistic pleasures but to earn social capital by investing my energy in social service of others. Gandhi ji once said “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others”

I did two prominent activities that me understand the nature of the work to some extent:

• Working with REACH(rural entrepreneurship for art and cultural heritage) helped me to connect with the rural India.
• Conducting a social experiment on a hot topic “Gay Marriage and its possibilities in India” enabled me to apply the concepts of sociological enquiry and comprehend locals view on the subject.

To conclude in nutshell as to why I want to pursue social work as my career is because:

• It gives me a platform to bring a constructive social change in the lives individuals, communities, families, groups, organizations etc.
• The work is not confined to simply a desk. On the contrary a social worker is always on the move, meeting new people. 
• It is quite a varied job where no two days are the same. 
• Social work is not isolated in the sense that it is done having a diverse team of psychologist, doctor, counselor etc.
• At later stages, social worker can also add qualitative inputs to government’s policy making and even go on to head an integral component dealing and striving for social justice. 
• I want to grow for the cause of humanity and serve the society so as to prove my life. 

ONE SHOULD NOT ONLY LIVE FOR SELF BUT FOR OTHERS TOO.