Hard earned achievements through competitive exams always makes life more inspiring and worth living. But the mean and the mighty are making this competition dirty. We regularly hear of rampant sale of government jobs in the market to the highest bidder. Every now and then we also hear incidents of sale and leakage of question papers. This has been assuming embarrassing and cancerous dimensions. The frequency of such irregularities does suggest that the government have failed to contain this menace. The disease is eating us deep at all levels and the malady seems incurable. Will these things stop or continue to be a permanent feature? We have ambitious parents who want their kids to be something “by hook or by crook” and always are on a look out for buying jobs for their wards. They never believe in struggle and always are in search of Aladdin’s lamp. From the very childhood a notion is put into their mind – be a rich person and not be a knowledgeable person. Then, we have brokers looking to mint huge money and grow their business. There are other cunning people in the market who exploit our gullible youth and their parents for government jobs and swindle money from them. Their nexus with corrupt officials is destroying the future of genuine candidates and at the same time they are paving way for incompetent people to become doctors, engineers and other government servants. What about our hardworking and brilliant children who really deserve the top positions? Can we compensate their energy and time loss? On the one hand they have huge chunk of reservations and on the other hand they have fraud candidates, and they are squeezed in between. Thus they actually have only a few seats to compete for, or none at all, with sham examinations being conducted. Aren’t they really between devil and deep sea; but who cares for them? Today our youth are slowly digesting the fact that they cannot be successful in examinations or interviews without dishonesty. If we say that our youth are our future, then what is the future of our youth? Yes, today our values are in crises. The morals, ethical values, principals, sympathy, compassion, etc., seems to have gone with the wind. People are out making money for their future generation. In this topsy-turvy situation much human talent is going waste. The huge money that we spend on education for upbringing of talent virtually yields nothing. In the long run, can we afford this heavy loss? Though evil actions ultimately produce evil results but the prospects presently appear bleak unless there is some divine intervention. Our future lies in the hands of our youth. They are our greatest wealth and strength. Tomorrow they will be our teachers, leaders, doctor, engineer, public servants and for our bright future and sustainability they must be efficient, able, honest and sincere. If we provide them good education we will ensure a bright and prosperous future for all of us. On the other hand if our youth is not in the right direction, they will be a burden on the society and they will not only destroy their own families but the entire nation. As is the saying “As we sow so shall we reap”, if we so thistles we will reap prickles. The good plants will bring us dividends and bad plants cause hazards and disrupt the growth of other plants. This is the law of cause and effect and operates in all spheres of our life. We cannot live with gross administrative failures, negligence, dishonesty and callous attitude of concerned officials to jeopardize the future of our students. The norms and values still have relevance in the society. We have to usher in transparency in the conduct of examinations by introducing a series of measures like online examination, keeping vigil on the staff from paper setter to printing officials, making multiple question papers ready in case of leakage. Then, persons of the highest level of competence, integrity, honesty and institutional commitment should be placed at the helm of affairs. Prudence lies in taking all precautions, before it is too late.