TIRUCHY: If you can make two chapatis in under four minutes, you may get a job with the Railway Protection Force. Thousands of aspirants have been flocking to Tiruchy from across India to attend the marathon recruitment underway at the RPF training centre to hire 35 cooks. Officially, the post is called RPF Constable (Ancillary).
As many as 4,000 candidates — who took an online test and a physical test in Secunderabad — are likely to come to Tiruchy for a cooking test between August 19 and 25.
At the outset, the cooking test seems like a scene out of popular reality show MasterChef. Candidates are given some flour and water, and they have to make at least two chapatis in four minutes. It’s not just speed that matters. The size of each chapati will also determine if the aspirant qualifies to the next round, where they have to cut given vegetables within 10 minutes.
The qualifier rounds of the test held in Tiruchy have left candidates from south India hassled. They feel their north Indian counterparts have a better shot at qualifying for the job. “We would perform much better had they asked us to prepare south Indian dishes,” says an aspirant from Kerala.
“We rarely make or eat chapatis, unlike aspirants from northern States who do so on a daily basis. They should have tested us based on our individual abilities,” he says, adding that the invigilators were very strict about the process. "They were observing us intently. If we used more water or flour than desired, they would eliminate us. The third and final round involved cooking some sambar or curry,” he added.