TVF's Aspirants Pre...Mains...Aur life: Why should everyone see it?

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The brand new show from TVF, Aspirants Pre...Mains...Aur Life debuted about two weeks back on YouTube and their own channel too. Fresh from the success of Panchayat and earlier Kota Factory this one is take on the UPSC aspirants. While Kota Factory was targeted to the parents, aspirants and everybody who spent time in Kota (preparing) this one looks at the civil servant aspirants. As each episode ends the creators kind of converse on the same lines. However, I thought the series is for all of us who are looking to do something in life. And it comes out very clearly in the first episode where one amongst the three protagonist talks to the incoming batch about dedication, patience and perseverance (not necessarily following any order but you have the flexibility to place it accordingly). 

I remember when I went to college in 1986, civil services was considered hallowed and was told that the hub of aspirants were in the Western part of the city and the go to coaching college was SN Dasgupta college. Well this was the 80's and much like as Munna Bhaiyya said in the web series Mirzapur, IAS WIAS bano; we were also told to do the same by some people. I chartered a different career but as life comes a full circle at my workplace for a good 10 years and more I had the chance to meet the fresh batch of IAS and IES officers as a part of their induction programme. And, some of them became quite close to me and gave an inside peek into the world of civil servant aspirants. Disturbing, intriguing, dark and definitely de-motivating to say the least. Trivia; one of the officers said that during the days when the results are declared the group ensures they stay in touch and keep calling or messaging. Anybody who drops out of the routine even for a day; the whole group would rush to the "room" of the aspirant. The chances of suicide are very very high. Your confidence has gone for a toss, your efforts have gone down the drain and there is nothing left to aspire for. There are many a folklores rattled out about those aspirants. 

Later, I also had a chance to meet a research scholar who resided in Rajendra Nagar (the hub of aspirants). Incidentally, the scholar also gave out his house on rent to aspirants. And there were many a stories told by him too. But the most enthralling was about the three people who make money (from the civil services preparation) and it is not the aspirants who continue to toil and may or may not cut the cake. The three are the coaching institutes, photocopy shops and finally the food outlets & landlords. He showed me a data that goes like this and I quote him; Let’s get into the Mathematics of Rental Figures, this residential area comprises of 63 blocks with a net total of approx. 10000 houses, 70 percent of which is rented out to the student community. Each house having an average of 3 floors, this number goes up to 21000, hence taking the conservative rented apartments figure to approx. 20000 flats. The Average Rent Per Flat comes out to be ₹ 50,000/- per month (conservatively). Multiplying this average rent with total number of rented apartments 105 Crores of Rental Income per month. Their composition in the total number of houses available for rent comes out to be 6000 and 15000 approx. for Single Room and Double Sharing respectively. 1200 crores rental gets generated a month alone through the aspirants. And the aspirants continue to toil in the rooms and get notes photocopied and go to these coaching classes.  

It is a disturbing world for an outsider and especially with job opportunities now available across sectors, the shine of civil services has not withered but has perhaps weathered. It still remains hallowed and it still retains its charm. And TVF has done an amazing task of showcasing it through the web series. I sense it is not just relevant for the aspirants but for all who are broken and shaken and have reached a nadir. In the first episode a data showcased, represents 12,00,000 civil services aspirants out of which 15,000 clear Prelims, 3000 clear the Mains and only a 1000 or less clear the final destination. The ratio is even difficult to fathom; .00083333 chance of clearing. Let us not talk of that.

The series in terms of acting and screenplay lags as against the more refined and better written and better acted, Kota Factory. Some of the sequences could have had a better screenplay. Yet, it might be too early to comment since we have been only showcased two of the episodes. The series has the usual TVF regulars, Naveen Kasturia, Shivankit Singh Parihar, and a new one on the block, Abhilash Thapliyal. There are a string of other characters but the tripod (as they claimed) are the characters of Avinash, Guri and SK. 

It is early days to predict where the episodes will flow but as the narration is on a back story and therefore one gets a sense of the way it will eventually culminate. TVF's brave attempt needs to be appreciated and also for picking up off-beat issues and topics to talk about. Aspirants is a step in that direction and perhaps they seem to have come full circle with Kota Factory, Panchayat, Cubicles and now Aspirants. Maybe there are some more to talk; school admissions, the mad rush to DU and the spiraling cut-offs; but let us leave it at that and read through these amazing lines of Dushyant Kumar which was cited in Episode 2 of Aspirants. It sums up the entire civil services preparation (and for everything we want to do which seems impossible) in two lines;

कौन कहता है आसमान में सुराख़ हो नहीं सकता ; एक पत्थर तो तबियत से उछालों यारों - दुष्यंत कुमार

 Aspirants streams on YouTube and TVF channel; Go watch! 

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