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movies/plays also hero is not present in every single scene. Hero’s presence in every act/frame is
not necessary. Hero is the main character of the event/story and not of every sub-division of the
total act. Hero’s absence from the projected scene may be temporary and for well-justified
reasons.
HERO MUST BE A PERSON OF YOUR OWN AGE AND SEX
Task—The next important ingredient of story is task. Task refers to the main event contained in
the story. Hero is responsible for carrying out the task. Task is the mission for the hero in story. All
efforts, decision, resources, planning and organisation meant to facilitate achievement of task make the
theme of any story.
I reiterate here that TAT is a directionless test. Psychologist does not regulate or punctuate
the thoughts of candidates. You are at full liberty to imagine anything. Selection of task is
completely up to the wish of the candidate. It reflects mainly on our problem solving abilities and
dynamism. If a candidate spontaneously selects a difficult task for the hero he shows the will to
tackle difficulties. His personality is more appropriate and in accordance to the OLQ’s profile.
On the other hand, selection of simple tasks shows the escapist tendency or poor ability to deal
with difficulties on the part of the candidate.
May I here remind you that SSBs are looking for a saviour and a trouble-shooter ! (Leader in
crisis who enjoys hard and adventures tasks.) TAT is the best opportunity to prove you as one.
You can convince about your abilities only by selecting a crisis/difficulty or adventures task for
the hero and proposing, how to overcome/achieve it.

Lesson 16
Long-term Versus Short-term Tasks

In your stories the hero must be engaged in a mission, which must have some crisis,
adventure and an urgency. You can retrieve the situation only by your immediate reaction. Delay
in such situation would prove fatal or further complicate the situation. For example, a drowning
man could be saved only by taking an immediate and appropriate step. One can ill afford to delay
action in such a situation. Saving a drowning man, Rescuing flood or earthquake victims to
safety, saving victims of road accidents, fighting dacoits, arranging blood for person being
immediately operated on, saving persons from a sinking ship, climbing a steep cliff/mountain,
skydiving, river rafting etc. are a few examples of involvement in hard and adventures tasks
wherein your qualities are manifested in crisis situations. These situations require urgent reaction
on the part of the hero.
But much to the dismay of psychologists most the candidates even with positive-attitude,
courage, persistence, and leadership qualities select tasks like organising a picnic, eradication of
rural illiteracy, tackling dowry menace, organising eye-operation or poliodrop camps, helping a
friend arrange his sister’s wedding, making people aware of the dreaded diseases like aids and
social issues of various types. There is nothing wrong in selecting these types of tasks. But don’t
miss to realise that these issues need primarily a ‘vision’ or a long-term strategy. The requirement
of Armed Forces lays emphasis on your ‘reaction pattern’ when you face a situation. With a
vision or strategy, you may obviate or avoid falling into a problem. But once a problem has
arisen, you have to solve it instead of avoiding with your appropriate reaction. My advice to you-
as far as possible is, train your mind to imagine those problems, which contain some
stress/crisis/urgency and primarily need a quick and short-term solutions.
Your crisis managing personality is assessed primarily by examining the content of your
imagination. If you enjoy fighting crisis and succeeding by staking your comforts, braving risks,
you will spontaneously imagine such situations. But if you are given to comforts, avoid heat and