 Hello everyone, welcome to another International Regulations capsule for the Shankar IAS Academy. Today I'm going to do a rather unusual episode but which may prove important for civil service aspirants around the country. This is about a new book I want to present to you which was authored by me for the specific purpose of enlightening young people about the charms and challenges of the Indian Foreign Service. Diplomacy has become extremely important in a very chaotic world today. But ironically, the attraction for the young people for the Foreign Service has been declining. When I took the examination in 1966, unless you were in the first 10 ranks, there was no chance of you getting into the Foreign Service. People used to take the examination again in order to get the Foreign Service not content with the IAS. Now it is very different even if you are 200 or 300 you can get into the Foreign Service. First because those in the higher ranks do not opt for the Foreign Service. And the number of posts available has increased from say 10 or 12 to 30 or 40 or 50 because the service has expanded. Those who join the Foreign Service are still good because these people come from, as many of you do, from 12 lakhs, a million people take the examination. So even if you are 200 and 300, you are good. But it is sad to see that there is no interest in the Foreign Service. And I suspect having been training young people for the Civil Services, I have noticed that this is basically because of lack of awareness about what the Foreign Service is. There may be other reasons, other factors, I don't want to go into that. But I thought one way to get young people interested in the Foreign Service, which is a kind of mission for me. I would write a book very short one. There's only 141 pages and it's called Indian Foreign Service, Charms and Challenges. I've spoken about this in various institutions around the country and also outside the country. But I put that all together in a comprehensive manner and it has just appeared in print a few days ago. It's already available on Flipkart, on DC bookstore, as well as the most familiar amazon.com. It costs only 250 rupees and some of the bookstores may even give you a discount. So it's not a burden on aspirants. But whether you are interested in the Foreign Service is not, whether you are wanting to opt for the Foreign Service is not. My request to you is to read the book to take an informed decision. Instead of just being carried away by what you hear from others. Because I believe that the Foreign Service is the most challenging and the most satisfying service. I have nothing against any of the other services. But the kind of people who require the Foreign Service are specialists not generalists. Because the Foreign Service is very challenging because the whole world is your field of activity. And every three years you go from one place to another. Most unexpectedly you have to shift places from Paris to Paramaribo. From the most glamorous places to most difficult places. And you have to start getting operational in the first few weeks. And you may not have heard that country two months before you get posted there. And therefore you need a very agile, very enthusiastic, very extrovert people to be in the Foreign Service. If you are a bookworm writing on files then the Foreign Service is not free. But if you have the energy and the enthusiasm and the zest as we say. To do something different for the country I think the Foreign Service will present the most important challenges and opportunities. Talking of challenges of course moving country every three years and not having a stable life is sometimes annoying for some people. In the IAS probably you move around but you are still in the state itself here. You don't know where you will go in the next three years. And we have to become experts very quickly. Because in three years you will be moving out of the country whether it is Washington or Beijing or Moscow or wherever it is. And so you need a very, what shall I say, very diligent, very agile people in the Foreign Service. So that is why I thought I will write this book. What I have done is to make a very comprehensive survey of all that happens in the Foreign Service if you join it or before you join it. So there is a foreword from Ambassador Chidney Agarakan who was my boss in New York. And he later became an undersecret general in the United Nations and is still very active writing and speaking about foreign policy. So in that he said very nice things about the book. But the most interesting sentence that I saw in his foreword is, if I had a book like this, the one Ambassador Srinivasan has written, it would have greatly facilitated my choice of service. Because he explains how he was bewildered when he was selected for all these services together as to what to choose. And he went around asking people what is the Foreign Service. And same thing happened with me. I had no idea what the Foreign Service was except that I knew I wanted to be in it. So that is the difference. And so this is the idea that whether you want to opt for it or not, make an informed choice. Not do it just because you don't know about it. That is the only mission. I'm not trying to convert anybody into the Foreign Service, but to offer a broad idea in some detail. And what have I done here is to give you a kind of personal narrative. It is not an autobiography. I've done one already autobiography wise. But this is a personal experience turned into an experience of people in the service. No two members of the service have the same experience. It's very different because no two persons will go to the same postings. You may have two or three postings together with somebody, but most of them are in different places and therefore you are not really linked up with all of them. And therefore you need somebody to really go into the experience and try to pick out things which will be relevant for people who are contemplating to join the civil services and make a choice. So, after the forward I have written an introduction which explains all the reasons why I have done this. That's mostly what I have just told you. But if you look at the contents you will see that we start with the recruitment. How is the Foreign Service members of the Foreign Service are recruited. You all know it is the same examination. And after you have bought your rank, then they decide what service you go to. You don't have much control over it. At least you are at a very high rank. You may not get the choice of your service. But there is a lot of the right thing that you want to do. Sometimes you end up in the wrong service for various reasons. You may not like it, but you are there because of your rank and your particular situation of that here. So recruitment is very important. One suggestion I have made here is that the Foreign Service recruitment should be based on a more specialized examination. Because Foreign Service, it is very important for you to have a good background in economics, politics, international relations etc. But now people get into the Foreign Service without giving any attention to that. Engineers, medical doctors etc. So for civil service, for the IAS, IPS it is fine. But for the civil service, for the IFAS, you need a different kind of background. And so what I am suggesting is keep the preliminary for everybody. But in the mains examination, the optional subjects, those who opt for the Foreign Service should take those subjects and those examination may be a little different from the IAS examination in terms of the depth that you expect. But I don't think this will come about because the government is not going to accept that because this is a pattern which has already been accepted and it is being operated for a long time. So people are generally happy with it. And also there is always this concern about if Foreign Service does another examination, then equivalence between Foreign Service and the IAS will be disputed by somebody. They may say, oh, this is not the same level as that etc. So I have suggested it simply because of my conviction that instead of learning everything after joining the Foreign Service, if you have a background of international relations and philosophy, politics and economics and history, that may be a useful tool for the Foreign Service. And then training, I have recounted what the training process is, what are the things that you, from my experience and also how it has changed in the last few years. And I have suggested that there should be more training in practical things rather than lectures. Because to most of them what happens is the Foreign Service is mostly sent to universities, districts, various agencies. Of course now we have a Foreign Service Institute which is very good because very systematic training is given there. But more on the job train, you know, we now spend two years doing this and that. Instead I would suggest that they be sent abroad immediately because that's what you're supposed to do. And no amount of listening to lectures that we have heard enough in the university. So it's better to go and become a third secretary and start working that the soonest opportunity. That's my suggestion. Then postings, that is the most intricate aspect of the Foreign Service because where you are posted makes a big difference. Washington is not like Latin America, right? Or Africa is not like Latin America. So where you go and what posting you get is extremely important and this happens every two or three years and you have no control over it. You can make your preferences etc but the ministry will decide. It's a jigsaw puzzle, you know, the seniority of the person, the ability, his language training, all these factors have to come. And very often also influence politics, politicians get involved and so on. So that should be streamlined. Postings have to be a science rather than an art. That's my view. At the moment is an art. The Foreign Service Board looks at all these names, pick up somebody from here, pick up somebody from there, basically because of their personal understanding or prejudices. I was lucky to have got very nice postings but that's not the way it should be. It should be more systematic and that might be well. Then what I've done is I've run through all my postings starting with Tokyo, Kimpu, Moscow, New Delhi, New York, Yangon, Fiji, the New Delhi again, New York, Nairobi. Washington and Vienna. It's got a pack as you can see. So what I've tried to do is at various spaces, I have encountered my experience in dealing with policy because life is okay. I have dealt with it separately. So when you land up in a place, what is that you look for first? That is what is it that you have to gain from that country? And nobody, you know, there is no free lunch. So you have to return something to that. And that is the main thing. Find out what you require from that country and consider what you can give it. That is what negotiations. Give the least and take the most from your post country. That's a very good principle. But it's always not like that. Most of the time we need more from big countries like the United States or Russia or China than they need from us. While in smaller countries, I was in Fiji, I was in Nairobi where their countries want more from you. So a balance has to be struck. And you have to figure out your agenda for three years. And then watch the evolution of foreign policy of India. Because you are the people who actually practice it. There's a big difference between practitioners of foreign policy and academics who study foreign policy. The academics study it deeply, etc. But they don't have the practical experience of dealing with countries. And that's a great disadvantage for them. And therefore they have to depend on practitioners to know how you deal with these issues and also how they have evolved. You know, reading from a book is something different from being at the United Nations negotiating agreements. And that is a very important responsibility. And so what was the situation of India's relations with Tokyo when I arrived there? And what was the situation when I left? Of course, the first posting I was a language trainee. I was only watching Prime Minister's visits and various other things. I was on the sidelines. But there itself you pick up many things. And by the time you leave after two years or three years, you then trace what happened in that country. And then you leave. You may not go to that country anymore. Because I went to the United States three times, which is very unusual. So you don't expect that. When I left Tokyo, I thought I would come back, but I never went back to Tokyo, even though I learned the language. So there are all kinds of complications in this. And so that's what I've done about each of these stations. And as you can imagine, as I progressed senior more senior, then my responsibilities were more. And also, more importantly, I came back to Delhi twice in the Ministry of External Affairs. That's a very crucial post, because then only you realize what happens to all that you do in the missions abroad. How much of it does go into policy? Does it go into policy at all? All this you will know when you are an undersecretary or deputy secretary or a director or a joint secretary. So it's important at least twice in your 37 years career. You should come back to India. It may be more uncomfortable because you don't get the kind of money you get abroad. You don't get the facilities that you get abroad. You get only those facilities which IAS, IPS offices get. And that will not for a long time because by the time you get your house, it's already one year. So all those complications are there. So this is what I've tried to do. And so if you read the book, you will get an idea as to what a young foreign officer does and how he grows and how he slowly becomes a policymaker, not just an incremental. And also you can put in a lot of your inputs into the foreign policy making. In the old days, diplomats were mostly reporting on what is happening in that country. Because the government need a one reliable source as to what is happening in Moscow, what you cannot reach. And in Moscow, I remember our main job was to get to Delhi, what the Pravda or Isvestia newspaper writes that day because they have no access. Delhi has no access to Pravda or Isvestia. So getting them straight on to Delhi was our first mission in the morning. But now there is no need for it because they are reading it on the net sitting in Delhi. So you cannot read anything more than what they are doing. And which means the responsibility has increased that you have to study and send them material which is assessed and evaluated with policy recommendations. If you just sent out these press clippings to Delhi, nobody is going to appreciate it. But in the old days, they appreciated it because they had no other resource material. So that has transformed. And the other transformation is that these days, foreign offices at the highest level are always in touch with each other. Prime Minister Narendra Modi can pick up the phone and talk to President Biden. And the ambassador will not even know what they talked. I mean, a report may come later, but you will know only that they talked. In the old days, they did not talk. If they wanted to talk, they would tell you to go and talk, right? So your responsibility was much higher there because you are, the president has authorized to speak on his behalf. That is what the credentials letter says. And the letter also says, please trust him as my representative. Now, nobody trusts you as a representative. If the Prime Minister wants to convey something, you will ring up anybody. And they're in communication with each other online, offline. And therefore, you may feel that the crucial role of the ambassadors are called extraordinary and prunik pranikshiri. They do not matter anymore. But at the same time, the role has become more because to constantly prepare your leaders, the ministry as well as the political leaders for dealing with these things directly. This is not something that they are trained for. And therefore, the role of the external affairs ministry and the diplomats has become more significant. And I'm comparing it with the mountaineering. You know, if people, we always hear about Hillary and Tenzing who climbed Mount Everest and everybody talks about Hillary having climbed the mountain. But Tenzing was this Sherpa and several other Sherpas. They have done much more in that exercise than what the submitters enjoy. They will all say, oh, Hillary has climbed Mount Everest. But the hard work behind it, who did it? It is the Sherpa. So I am suggesting that diplomats should be considered Sherpas, not extraordinary ambassadors. Because their role has changed. And this has actually happened. I don't know if you know it or not. These days when important meetings take place anywhere, something. Each head of the official delegation is called the Sherpa, not ambassador. Because who helps the submitters to climb Mount Everest? And you reach there, you push him up with a flag, he puts it on the mountain. But you may not go up there. You may stay one step below. But you are the one who has accomplished it. And that is the transformation has taken place. So the information revolution, as well as the speed with which people are traveling. And all these have put a lot of responsibility on politicians. And it is necessary for us to keep them well informed. Because in the old days, they could not make mistakes. Minister saying stupid things to the host country. It was very simple. You come back and call on the same person and say, please ignore what the minister said. Because it has sometimes happens because the minister does not know the nuances of certain things. So you could be corrected. But if these ministers are talking directly to their interlocutors, their opposite numbers, nobody can correct them. Things will go into record, which they do not intend to do. And therefore, it's extremely important that they should be fed with information with the pros and cons of every issue. And so, while the role of the diplomat may have, shall we say changed, but his responsibility has not changed. And that is what I have shown, I'm not going to all those details now. In each country, how I worked, what are the things I did, not in great detail. And which will give you a flavor of what it would be like if you are in a post like that. And that experience before you join the service, even when you are preparing for it. I think it is going to be extremely important. So there are several chapters on each of my postings. I've already written about it in my autobiography detail, but this is not in detail. This is simply a hint here as to what the issue was and how we handled it. No general stories, no anecdotes for example. Okay, then there is another, the last section is relates to things which you should know, like diplomatic homes. What kind of homes do you get? What can you expect from a third secretary's home or an ambassador's home? How you fix it? How you find it? In government of India has a lot of very good properties abroad. And particularly the ambassadoral houses really grant most of our ambassadoral houses. They have 20 rooms and 30 rooms and all that very nicely established because these are all bought long, long ago. And some of them are very historical, historic buildings, legacy buildings we have. Like in the Netherlands, Vienna where I lived, then in Washington. These are not ordinary bricks and mortar houses. These are with history and the fabulous facilities, gardens, swimming pools. And of course you don't expect it on your third secretary to go and hunt for and also yourself. But every occasion, wherever you are, you are the most comfortable. When I say this, I was in Bhutan where there was no comfort at all. I went to Bhutan in 1968 and the first motor car had come into Bhutan in 1967. So you cannot imagine not much comfort you can expect from there. But still, you will get the best available in Bhutan and Bhutan. And now of course Bhutan is a transformed into a very lovely post. So that transformation I have tried to outline from my experience. And then so there's a chapter on diplomatic homes. What kind of house to look for? What will you get? What do you get in the house? Because we are supposed to get a fully furnished house with cooking utensils and glasses and crockery and cutlery and all that. So it's not easy to get all that, but you get all that. So you don't have to pack too many things when you move. You move with your clothes and books. Nothing else required because everything is provided by the government. That's a very interesting aspect of no other service gets that kind of consideration. And the second is diplomatic entertainment and that is another interesting aspect because you are entertaining all the time or you are being entertained all the time. So seven days a week, six days you are being entertained by somebody else. On the seventh day you are entertaining somebody else. That is what the diplomat's life is like. You have to go out. If you say I don't like parties, I don't want to meet people then you are not fit for the party. You must be wanting to go. So even after 37 years if somebody invites me to a diplomatic party, I will go because that's in the blood. And for this diplomatic entertainment we are expected to do and many people may not know but we are paid to do that. There are separate elements for entertainment. It's called the representational grant. So because you have to return hospitality, if you go to six homes in a week, seventh day you need to give them something matching the quality of the food and the decor and various other things. And each country tries to showcase their best way of seeing their best property, cutlery, everything. And we have our own style, we have our own methodology. Indian curry is popular all around the world. So even if they sit because the curry is hot but they enjoy it afterwards. So entertainment might say it's a very important part of art and even when their annual confidential reports are written the ambassadors will write on your capability of hospitality and there even the wife comes in because if the wife is not a good hostess you cannot entertain appropriately. So if you read my book you will also get some ideas to who you should get married to men or women. So that is the one in the diplomatic entertainment. Then diplomatic cars. People used to tease diplomats by saying you are car dealers because most of these cars have CD numbers. But willingly or unwillingly you become car dealers because when you go to a post you buy a car and then what do you do? That car may not suit where you are going. So you have to sell or the duty may be too much. So constantly I may have, I don't know, bought and sold seven or eight cars in my service period. And when you come to Delhi you have to pay duty for your cars whether it is worth it or you come to India. So there are so many options. So that is the chapter on diplomatic cars. Then immunities and privileges which we discuss all the time. Why are diplomats given immunities and privileges? Because they have to function in an unfamiliar ground. You have to follow the rules. But all the rules you may not be able to follow. There may be difficulties. So you must be exempt. You could be caught in a car accident when local national dies, let us say. Then what do you do? Because you have the privilege and so on but then you cannot completely escape the responsibility. So you have to behave in a particular manner. You have to help in such a way but nobody can attach you. Nobody can arrest you. Nobody can hurt you in any way. Because the only solution is for you to leave the country. And that is accepted all around the world. That if there is an unintentional problem created by your behavior. Your host country just withdraws you 24 hours transferred out. Because we don't want our officer to be caught in the local legal triangles. So it's an understood order of the world. Even among friendly countries. You expel each other or you bring them back to avoid any problem. Because if a diplomat is caught in any kind of undesirable activity. The reaction is very strong in the local scene. You know, they would be, you know, they'll say this fellow has an immunity. So he must be punished. So two things except either the government withdraws you immediately. Or the government if the case is so serious is a murder, murder or something. Then they will withdraw your immunity so that the local authorities can take action against you. Even such cases are there. But we are all very well protected. And if you don't have an interest and privileges, it is dangerous to live abroad. For diplomats, because we meet so many people, so much of information to communicate with Delhi. If somebody reads your message, what, you know, like all the wiki leaks that happened. Even my own speeches leaked. And I would have never imagined those, you know, telegrams or letters would leak at one point. But fortunately for me, nothing was found, which was, you know, it should not have been said. Everybody who read all these records which came out in wiki leaks were very comfortable. We said, we do not speak in two ways. We are very credible in the diplomats. We say what we do and what we do, we say. But it's not true with other diplomats and so many of them have fought badly. But in our case, all the documents that came out of the diplomatic correspondence. There's not a single thing you are faulted with that you have been saying the wrong things to the wrong people. And that is the, I have explained all the details are available on the net. I picked up what is relevant and what is absolutely essential. Then there's a chapter on the diplomatic wives. In fact, the publisher called me and asked, do you really want this chapter? Why are you, I said, there's nothing wrong in that. But I'm saying is that the normal requirement of wives, wives or husbands, the spouses. Because Pandit Jauralal Naru said one day in parliament that in diplomacy, in foreign service, we get two officers for the salary of one. You know, the wife or the husband has a big role. They have to go to the parties, they have to carry on a conversation. There should be intelligent enough to explain India to others not to say stupid things. So it's not only the ambassadors, his wife or her husband are equally important. Because what he says will be taken as official view. And then you have to entertain, you need training. Now, when we go to the academy, we didn't even know how to use a fork and knife. You know, we are taught in Missouri how to eat with fork and knives. Otherwise you will starve. And then higher and higher responsibilities, higher and higher responsibilities, etc. So the wives have a big role to play. And earlier, of course, the wives were not allowed to work in the missions abroad. But now they are allowed to work. And because we had many qualified ladies, doctors, architects, engineers, etc. And they couldn't work abroad. That was a big loss. But now permission is given as long as it's not a sensitive post. Wives are all working. All of them are working. Or they are engaging in their own interests. Writing plays and poems and all that. And so always there is a clause in your annual reports which talks about the quality and experience of the wife. So that I have outlined. There's no offense at all there. It only gives you some idea as to what is expected of them. And even more important are the diplomatic children. You know, what happens to them? This is a worry that most people have. You know, if you are changing every three years, what happens to children? Every three years they also change schools. They do. So my sons did 12 years in 10 institutions in different parts of the world. So you may say, what is the point? You know, you have all that are disadvantageous. But overall my own experience is that even though there are a lot of disadvantages because they are not in the same school, they may not get a gold medal at the end of it because gold medal is good. Children who have been there 15 years, 12 years, etc. But overall education wise, experience wise, their education is superior than those of people who study in one university or one school. And so I have not come across any foreign service child who has gone astray or was not able to get a job or who was not able to study because of these changes. But children are really adaptable. And of course, many of them don't join the foreign service because writing the civil service examinations is not easy when you are abroad. Because as you know, the civil service examination is based on Indian education, history and culture and everything is very important. And somebody studied in the US, the US universities or schools to prepare for civil service examinations is not easy. So people ask us, how come your children don't join the foreign service? It's a practical problem. But of course, suppose that one of them is very good in music or very good in architecture. They will get a fantastic job without going through any competition that you don't get in India. So they find it easier to move from a particular training in a particular area and then move into a job on the strength of your excellence. And so that is another thing. But generally what I have seen is the children are very successful. We have mathematicians, we have physicists, we have even wine testers. And designers among children. World class, I'm not talking about ordinary. It's a fantastic resource. And you should not be worried about that. Because your parents will say, if you are in the foreign service, what do you do with your children? They will go astray, they will drink or do just nothing like that. Because as long as you maintain a certain discipline, your children will follow. Then I have a chapter on diplomatic success. Because it is very difficult to define what is success in the foreign service. If you are in the IAS, you can say, I built this bridge or I built this dam. And all your life you can point out to your children and say, this is the bridge I built. This is what I did. But what do diplomats have to show? Nothing, right? If I say I improved India-U.S. relations, people will just laugh. There's nothing to show that I have improved India-U.S. relations. So it's very difficult to assess the success and failures of diplomats. And that is a challenge. It's among the challenges. Because if somebody does not know your work, you will never know. And so when you are selected for higher positions, how do they know you're as good as the other person? If foreign minister, if he knows somebody, he will say it doesn't take him. You know, we have that experience. Even the present external president was picked up by the prime minister like that. He's not a politician. But how many people get that opportunity? And therefore, success has to be measured by an overall impression. And that is one of the major challenges in the foreign service. Of course, you get your usual promotions and you get your usual posts. But to do exceptionally well, your performance is not easily assessed correctly. That is the point I made. And then life after the foreign service, that is an interesting thought. What do you do when you come back after 30 years? And again, as you were in the last 15 years, I've never had a dull moment. Because the kind of experience that you have and the kind of life you have seen, people want to hear your stories. Just that. So there's tremendous amount of opportunity for writing, speaking, teaching in universities. I teach at least in three universities. And I go to every civil service institute, go and talk to them, try to help out. That alone is enough. From that, then you can read, write. And you also can get jobs in the government. That is the National Security Advisor's post, Deputy National Security Advisor. Then there are several government think tanks, like IDSA, like the World Council of World Affairs. All these places you are required. Who will run these institutions if former ambassadors run them? But then you have to work for it. You have to get recognition. And you should know the right people. So you need to cultivate some of these. It doesn't come automatically. But there are several opportunities. I don't know any foreign service officer who says I have nothing to do. There's plenty to do. And I find it, I wouldn't say impossible. Difficult to cope with the requirements that people ask you to do. Even sitting in Trivandrum. If I was sitting in Delhi, maybe I would have been completely covered with work. But when you are in Trivandrum itself with the new communications with Zoom, it doesn't matter where you live. And you can very usefully spend your entire life. Apart from reading books and talking to people and traveling, etc. There are many things that you can do. And the last chapter I call it the Sharpa. That is the new avatar of victims. I am the first one to use this phrase in this context. But it has already been recognized. And the word Sharpa is used. Suppose there is a G7 meeting or a G20 meeting. Each government does not send an ambassador. He may be an ambassador, he may be a minister, he may be a civil servant. Anybody, but he is the Sharpa. Which means he is the head of the operational aspects of that summit. Everywhere. And so we have also Sharpa's designated phrase. But it doesn't sound very, what shall we say, imposing. If you call yourself an ambassador, extraordinary. And plenty potentially it sounds very good because people don't know what it means. But if you say you are a Sharpa, you say what is a Sharpa? What are you doing in Paris or New York? You should be in the Himalaya mountains. So that's an evolution which has taken place and that I put in as the last chapter. So that's it. And it has 142 pages and anybody can sit and read it in one sitting. In fact, I got several messages from people saying we could not put it down. So I read that book from 10.30 to 3.30 in the morning. Honestly, people have written back to me. So if you have an interest, it is useful in your examination, useful for your future. I don't know how many of you are thinking of the Foreign Service. And how many of you think what you need to do to get to the Foreign Service and also to survive in it and make a good career profit. So this is just a beginning and you will know more and more about this. I have the flags of all the countries I served in. You can probably check out and see where I went. And some flags have changed. The Soviet flag was different from the Russian flag. When I served there, it was the Soviet flag, the red flag. Or even in Myanmar, I think the flag changed. But others, I think they have not changed much. United States is there. United Nations is there. So it's a modern franc assessment of the Foreign Service. And I hope you will make use of it. It's available on Flipkart, Amazon, and the publishers themselves call the DC Books. So you can get it anytime. And if you find it difficult to get it, let me know. I'll get it for you. Okay. Thank you very much. Yes, language is useful, but it's not expected. If you have learned French, it's a great asset. Then when you ask for your language, because one language, all of us have to do compulsory. And you have a choice. I chose Japanese just because I was the fancy for it. I did not know Japanese. But if you know any language, it is good to ask for that language as your compulsory language. And that examination, you have to pass before you become a functional officer. The training period lasts for about two years. I'm in favor of reducing it. But one year is a language training in a mission abroad. That's very significant. And you have to pass that examination to get your first increment. You know, from third secretary, you become second secretary only when you pass the language. Then there are two other tests you have to take. One is what is called the accounts examination. That is to familiar yourself with the way accounting is done in the ministry of expenditures. And the other is Hindi. So compulsory foreign language, Hindi and accounts, you have to pass. These are the three examinations. Unlike in the IAS, you have examinations all your life. You must be taking this examination, that examination. Foreign service does not have that. Because we don't have the time for it. So once you are confirmed and you are a second secretary, then you are made it. You can go up to foreign secretary without any other training. And that is an advantage of the foreign service also. But many people take days off or weeks or months off and can study. Go to a proper university. No, but take leave and go and start do a course in Harvard. Fantastic. That opportunity you have in the old days, people used to be sent to Oxford University. Everybody went to Oxford University. What a fantastic thing. Now they don't send you because they say JNU is as good as Oxford University. So we are all sent to JNU. But that is not the story before. So and then if you lead or learn extra language other than the compulsory language and the government pays you the tuition fees. And also they give you a reward if you learn more and more like this. So if you have the time and the inclination, you can increase your knowledge. Free of charge. The government will give you every facility to do that. Because then you will get one more person with a new language. It is this person. So the only three things that you have to do is language accounts in Hindi after you have been selected. And these are the three examinations you have to do and they are not very good. What do you mean work-life balance? It's the same in every service. In all life, every life you have to balance, you know, office with home. And in the foreign service it's all the more necessary because you are in unfamiliar settings. You land up in a country where you have no friends at all. So you will feel very hope-sick. The wife will be even more miserable. So you will have to quickly get used to that situation and make friends, etc. Family life is very easy. I have not had any problem. People exaggerate before you join or what will children do? Who will they get married to, blah, blah, blah. But I don't know any family which has been inconvenienced. In fact, they have only had opportunities to get the right life partner in a very different setting. My boys both married Indians, but they are not purely Indians in that sense because they have lived abroad. They are very different Indians. But there is more partnership when you are abroad. It's not like at home when you say the wife do all these things and housekeeping and all that. But I have gone around buying chicken in the evening. Who else will do that for you? So you are more involved in the family life. And there are lots of distractions, parties, alcohol, all these problems are there to control. There have been people who have failed. If you become an addicted to drinking or some other habits, then it can be very dangerous. But if you are willing to live as Indians do in a foreign country, you will have the best of both worlds. You will have the money and you will have the opportunity to do what you want and go to an opera every evening or go to a nightclub every evening. Whatever you want to do, but you don't get in India. Go to a new restaurant every day. So it's a matter of your own lifestyle. You can live like you are living in India. You know, eat your dal and chapati and live and make some money. That's also what you do. But there are others who make use of all these facilities and use your resources in an intelligent manner. Then you have a really good time in the foreign service. Well, that's it. The foreign service gives you that opportunity more than any other. You know, when you go to a place, you find what are the skills available. And if you want to become an IT expert by the side, go to one of those or modern artificial intelligence. Whatever Francis or western music or culture or QAC, any skill you can develop. I don't think you can do it in India in the secret areas. You have no time. Here we have to work sometime hard into the night, etc. But that's not a regular routine. But there's a certain discipline about the work and you're not running around like that. And leadership quality is certainly, if you can run a mission in Japan, you know, you will develop leadership qualities that you never get anywhere else. But Japan is a word drop for leadership qualities. And if you're an African country, there will be challenges. There may be some of them may may not produce results in the embassy and you have to, you know, because that national character you have to deal with. So whether it is developing decision making skills or leadership qualities or different cultures, the best way to join the forms of results. And you know opportunities will be much more. Well, you see what we follow is for the compulsory examination. We take the examination prescribed by the foreign languages instituted there. So you can imagine that it is French, Japanese, German, Chinese, etc. The foreign language institutes standards may not be very high at all. That's what I found. So when I did Japanese for one year in Japan, this foreign service language examination was the easiest in the world. I could get 90% of the marks because they don't know how much you can learn in one year. And this is true of many others, but it's always good to master one language very well. Even after you pass the examination, keep on working on that language. And then you will get posted back to the same country for an advantage. And the other advantage is you can expert. And there are many natural speakers in the foreign service or foreign languages. Maybe Chinese is the largest. The largest number of natural Chinese speakers are Indian foreign speakers. Similarly, the French is a very highly popular, you know, next to English. French is the language of diplomacy. And in fact, if you don't know French, sometimes you are left alone. Because there are always consultations in small groups without interpreters. And suppose it is a French speaker's group, they will discuss everything in French and you will not know what. So either you go away and find out from somewhere else. And so if you know French or Spanish, these are the most popular languages. Chinese is very restricted. Japanese is restricted. But and therefore it is useful because you know Japanese and that's a distinction for Chinese. But in the foreign service, any number of experts of French and Chinese. So if you have French, I don't think you'll need. I don't know this about this. If there are six stages, whether you'll need to what stage I won't be able to say. But sky is the limit. So you'll have to do some sort of examination with one stage or second stage and then build on it and become a French interpreter. When the Prime Minister comes and he speaks only in Hindi. And what do you do? So you need an Indian officer who can translate from Hindi to French. And many of the IFS officers who are getting now very high positions are those who translated for Mr Modi. So it's an opportunity. If you have interpreters level knowledge of any language, jumping to the water, you will swim. That's all that I can say. Don't sit back and say I'm shy. You will not be shy after few months. You may be a little bit worried and scared and all that. But the bay is to just jump in and then you will what you will swim or you will sink. But swimming is better. Negotiating skills and all that. I had hardly any idea when I went to the UN for the first time. But you learn it in five days, ten days. See in the ministry, nobody will tell you this is the world. You must do it like this, etc. Nobody tells you. You're posted as a country and then you are up to yourself and you and your ambassador. The ambassador sometimes take great interest in junior officers, train them properly, tell them what to do. And some ambassadors don't care. They'll say, I have no time to train you. You have been trained by the ministry. So go ahead. So various. But if you are so determined that you are introvert, then don't take to foreign service. Join any other service. Because you must have that mental ability to adapt yourself to the circumstances. And there are poor choices. People who join the foreign service because that's what they could get and then find themselves miserable. But I don't know any case of any officer was failed when he or she has the opportunity. They all rise to the position. Now see for the first time in the United Nations, New York, the permanent representative is going to be a lady first time in history. So she must have when she joined the service may have thought my God, I'm shy, how am I going to run this place. So human ability to learn, adapt and become experts is much bigger than what we need. We don't use even 10% of our brain power. This computer, this computer have I'm sure 90% more power which I don't use because I don't know how to use it. And similarly, our brain does the same. And so we have to develop that you try the other side of the brain after failing in the first. So don't ever be shy and say that I don't want to do this. If you have the will, there is a way. So, but if you are so determined, then you don't need to join the foreign service. Where you can sit and read and write and slide right on the files, build bridges and so on so many options. So since you are all in this, the business of preparing for the service, you should know about everything before you. That is the only purpose of this book. After reading this if you say I don't want the foreign service, I don't mind it. Then you would have said it with knowledge, no doubt of ignorance. Right. That's the purpose. Okay. Thank you very much for the interest and I hope you will make use of this book and use it in your before you take a final decision what the service you're going to get. Okay. Thank you very much.