How To: How is this series different from other civil prep series?

a. Examples
b. Pragmatic approach over theoretical concepts
c. Purely from experience and nothing text bookish
d. No common day thing. list practical stuff and uncommon things.
e. appendix
case studies
observations
anecdotes
quotes
facts
acronyms

How To: Frame of mind on the eve of prelims/mains/interview

The competitive exams are not merely a test of your skills or knowledge. It also tests your confidence, attitude, ability to handle unpredictable situations and dealing with novel unforseen situation. This is more true in case of UPSC examination where the examiner wants to emulate the real life work challenges in your test paper by way of creating novel situations. This could be in form of novel questions or changing the examination pattern every two years or ensuring a surprise and shock element in the paper. For example, the year 2012 had all variety of GS questions. Year 2013 saw the beginning of uniform 10 marks question pattern. The year 2014 had two essay instead of one. Year Similarly, year 2011 had 65 marks of Science questions. But year 2012 had almost no question on science and technology. Precisely for these reasons, the component of environment and culture and ancient history has increased in the prelims paper as well. These were the major two portion which were left untouched in the subject dominated era of civil services. Thus, a candidate should not merely focus on his skills and nowledge. He should also invest some energy into preparing the right frame of mind so that he can deal with such unpredictable, novel situation with greater aplomb.

A right frame of mind is a must for following resons:
1. It helps in choosing the right questions. When you have only 30 to 40 seconds to choose which question you wish to address, such positive frame of mind comes to your rescue and helps in making the right decision.
2. It helps in overcoming the insecurity and anxiety factor. As a result we don't get confused while making guestimates in prelims.
3. It helps us in maintaining the right structure and keep us focussed on the demand of the question.
4. If helps us in better recall and overcome nervousness in interviews.

But a relevant question remains. What is this "right frame of mind"? I have seen many of my friend spoliing their prelims or mains due to excessive anxiety on the eve of the exam. One such friend could not sleep for the entire night before prelims and ended up screwing his CSAT paper on the next day. Another friend slogged for the entire night before mains and took one redbull shot before entering the examination but ended up vomiting. No wonder, he also lost crucial time in the paper and could not do well. Similarly, a friend in the interview board faced high level of anxiety and could not even recall his roll number when asked by the board chairman. Sometimes, we become so upset on small issues that it takes our peace of mind on the eve of examination and all the hardwork just slips into dustbin. So such things are commonday affair and possibly add one more level of barrier in your final selection.

A right frame of mind could be characterised by following:
1. Having a good night sleep before the eve of examination. Do not compromise on this in any condition. If you are not able to sleep and meditate. Find the cues which helps you in sleeping. Just a reassurance that you are going to do well in the exam will help you in finding decent sleep.
2. Deep understanding of the fact that selection in this exam is not in your hand. You put in effort. He decides the result.
3. A strong realisation of the nature of exam helps you in preparing beforehand.
4. A clear reognition of the fact that everyone faces the similar anxiety on the eve of exam.
5. Faith, faith and faith in yourself and your god. Whatever happen, will happen for a cause.
6. Choosing the first couple of questions which boost your result.
7. Ability to laugh and smile after looking at the paper. Just think of it as some kind of dildo which UPSC has put in your ass. Now enjoy it.
8. Do not count the topics you have left. Instead look at the topics which you have covered well and you are confident of hitting marks in them.
9. Understanding of the fact that it is not just in your hand. You had full year before you and now is not the time to worry. Just chill

However, all this preaching is easier said than done. A big question is "How do we get this right frame of mind". Can I simply let this anxiety go away for that part of the day? Can my personality be changed overnight? The answer is big NO. One can not change his personality overnight. Personality change is a long process. But at the very least, one can try certain behavioral tactics which can help him in controlling his mind and maintain focus. Following are some "to-do things" which can help the individual on the eve of the exam.
Common points:
1. Don't run. Laugh unnecessarily. Talk to yourself. Feel happy for no reason. Smile unnecessarily. Keep calm.
2. If possible keep silence. If you are not silence type person then gossip with your friends.
3. Spend time with friends who exhibit this positive state of mind.
4. Sing. If possible keep humming in your mind.
5. Chant OM.
6. Take long deep breaths. It opens up neurons in your brain.
7. Notice your bodily actions as a third person.
8. Ignore negative comment or negative people around you. Just be forgiving. Imagine yourself as some demi-god.
9. Be engrossed with yourself.

Prelims:
1. Watch some videos on youtube as per your taste. Violent or comedy or infotainment or porn. Videos help in engaging all our senses.
2. Prepare your strategy of attacking the paper. Whether you are going to fill bubble simultaneously or you wish to keep aside time at the end for this exercise.

Mains:
1. Here I may suggest, stop studying. Rather discuss.
2. Look for the structure in your thought.
3. Know it beforehand that you are not going to know all the questions. Four to Five questions are bound to be new.
4. Sleep as much as you can.

Interview:
1. No study at all.
2. Forget any current affair or newspaper which you may not have covered.
3. Notice your face muscles for the whole day before interview. How does yor breath changes and how does your facial nerves stretch in sutuations.

In the end, this all can be dwarfed and put below one point i.e. "believe in yourself". Conviction conviction conviction. This will happen for me. I am going to succeed. Today is myday. Chant like this. Talk like this. And it will happen for you.

Book Review: The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

The book is authored by Malcolm Gladwell. He has compiled a series of some behavioural phenomenon of attitudinal change which went viral in their strange way. He has attempted to capture the common denominators across all these different so-called epidemic behaviours.

The book is written in a captivating manner, taking a reader from case to case, highlighting different personality styles and marketing nuances. It is well supported by psychological research which went into particular experiments. The author has captured a variety of subjects ranging from increased sales of Hush Puppies shoes, making of Sesame Street and Blue clues and Suicide-related problems of Micronesia. Overall the book is a balanced mix of curious cases, psychological theories, detailed personality analysis, and practical strategies.

The recurring theme of the book is to identify the tipping point in any episode of virality. The tipping point is a threshold beyond which the phenomenon spread like an epidemic. It is a moment of critical mass, the threshold, and the boiling point. He argues that little changes lead to big effects. In other words, three axises of the Tipping point are 'law of few', 'the stickiness', and 'the power of context'.

This book holds a great relevance in the Indian context. The book is US market centric. However, it teaches some important lessons of marketing and salesmanship. A similar book could be written in the Indian context highlighting Indian success stories and failures in social change. For example, how the phenomenon of the Tipping point could be used for changing the sanitation behavior of the masses or how this could be applied to change the crime rate or promote inter-caste marriage system in India?

This book gives enough food for thought and enough of food for distribution that would leave one satiated for few weeks in the office gossip hours. A must read for Marketing and Salesman guys. A good read for those who wants to bring some change in their surrounding. A decent read for those who wish to enhance their knowledge base and are looking for some fun.

How to: Consolidate the information?

The civil services preparation banks on three pillars. First is conceptual understanding. Second is consistency. Third is Consolidation. I have elaborated my thoughts on conceptual understanding and consistency in previous blog posts. This blog will cover the consolidation part of the preparation.

I am listing fifteen consolidation techniques which may help in capturing maximum information in the minimum amount of time.
First is reading a content multiple times. If you want a perfect recall in prelims then 3 to 4 reads are necessary. For mains, two additional reads and for the Interview one more reading is required. There is a proven principle of number 6. If you wish to remember any name, a word in the dictionary or any other thing of interest then do revision nearly 6 times.
Second is make the summary of the summary. Revise a subject and each time, keep reducing the length of your notes.
Third is forming mnemonics. For example, all the members of gulf countries could be learned by forming some short cuts and revising those shortcuts from time to time. 'BOKUS Question' (Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, UAE, Saudi, Qatar). Similarly, all the things could be converted into shortcuts and remembered well. Don't forget to revise the shortcuts from time to time. Otherwise, you may forget them as a cue.
The Fourth is to relate the subject to your personal life. For example, if I am learning something on unemployment then I can check which category do I fall in for a better recall of the subject. Or if I observe my maid, then I can see the problem faced by the domestic workers.
Fifth is to elaborate. Elaborate the subject in detail and explain it to yourself.
Sixth is to ask the question "What did I learn from this article"? You may only be able to recall one or two points from the whole page article. But if you immediately recall as soon as you finish the article, you won't forget it.
Seventh is to write it down. Manocha sir always rightly said, go back to basics. Become a fifth-grade student. Remember by writing or jotting down things on paper.
Eight is to imagine and visualize. Imagine the subject. For geography, picture the map in your brain. For Biology, visualize everything happening in your body.
Ninth is to reflect on the issue. All the above points are essentially some form of reflection. But here reflection means thinking of counter points and weakness in the argument.
The Tenth is to draw charts, diagrams, and mindmaps. For whatever you read, just draw a circle and highlight the four points related to the subject. Draw some lines to indicate dependency.
Eleventh is to solve the questions as soon as you are done with the topic. Pick a question bank and solve it topic wise. This helps a lot in consolidation.
Twelfth is to use the curse words or rude words. The curse words are really helpful in remembering some piece of information. Relate them to the concept. MC, BC, and others sensitive body parts are good for remembering information. For example, India-South Africa relations could be remembered as MCBC. Marine, custom, cultural exchange and BRICS. For our savings rate of 32% is equal to the number of girlfriends which a person may have had.
Thirteenth is to keep a piece of small paper in your pocket. Whenever you read a topic, make an entry of the heading in it. Whenever you are idle like relieving yourself or walking on the road or travelling in the metro, pull out the slip and just look at it. The Brain will automatically do the rest.
Fourteenth is to make a story around the concept. For example, In order to remember the constitution part IX and IX-A, one can form a story of corruption in the Gram sabha. "There was a gram sabha of some villages together. It had the duty of performing all the function which bosses in the capital decided for it to do. Blah blah"
Fifteenth is a sort of gaming exercise. One can pick any topic and start thinking on that. And pick another topic from his reproduction and jump to that. Such chain of topics trigger various neurons in his brain and helps in better association and consolidation. For example, I may begin with Africa and say that Africa has Masai tribes. etc etc. Now switch to the topic of tribes. India also has many tribes like 'Dongaria kondh'. Recall recent news items related to this. and Likewise, trigger the chain.
The Sixteenth is to discuss and explain the topics to others.
The Seventeenth is to read your class notes in an associative manner. So for example, leave a question of content on page 10 on the page number 20. List the corresponding answer on page number 50.

There are various other strategies which are helpful in consolidating the subject. They key is to revise, revise and endlessly revise. Do not think if it as a waste of time. And enjoy the process, relate with the process and take pride in it.

Write more substance and your experiments with different techniques.

What should be the age bracket for taking Civil Services?

I came across an article on Bureaucratic reforms written by Ex-CAG and present Bank Bureau head, Vinod Rai. He made some forceful argument in favor of Civil services reform. He advocated strongly in favor of establishing a civil services board, permitting fixity of tenure, setting up a quick penalty and reward system, more steep promotions or career trajectory for the holy class of IAS officers. This suggestion looks fine. Nobody ever denied their importance but as rightly understood by him, somewhere the system has become so complacent and rigid that such changes require deep shake-up. However, he also made a suggestion of restricting the upper age limit for civil services examination. This sounds like a narrow-minded, closeted anachronistic tunnel vision approach to civil services reform. This blog post intends to conduct a biopsy of this particular age limit issue which keeps coming to surface from time to time.

His observation is that a candidate who clears the exam at the age of 30 or 32 is more concerned about his cadre and job facilities instead of focusing on the job. For him, a kid selected at an age of 21 is more mouldable and motivated to perform than a veteran of the exam. Further, the early bird will last longer and devote more years to service than other elderly fellows. A younger fellow can specialise in a particular field in the middle of his career thus giving a perfect combination of generalist approach with a specialized domain. On the face of it, arguments are cogent and logical however they suffer severely with a fungal infection disease of bureaucratic mindset. It smells of the British-era mindset characterized by lord Lytton policies.

In my view, the minimum age for taking civil services examination should be 26 years. Upper age could be fixed at 30 years. A person who is joining at an age of 26 will definitely have some work experience. We finish our college at 22. Thus, nobody will sit idle for four years. The aspirant will naturally explore the market before jumping into civil services arena. This will impart essentials of the corporate culture. He will know the corporate best practices. In this way, when he will be in civil services, he can utilise his positive energy, creativity, innovation and corporate experience in much more productive fashion. He can execute the ideas and get the projects done. Compare this with a 22-year-old who may not be even knowing how to draft a letter or how to work in Microsoft office.

Further such work experience would enable the person to understand how to get the work done by his subordinates. In the job settings, the person learns various behavioral aspect and come across various traits of human personalities. This experience would enable him to get a common man's perspective of difficulties in getting the work done and dealing with subordinates, colleagues, and customers. One may argue that all these things can be learned during the on-job training of IAS. But the answer is no. As an IAS, you won't get the common man's perspective. You are no more common man. Your humble attitude may allow you to see yourself as a common man and push you to interact with others as friend and grass root person. But the other person won't behave in a similar manner. So your vision would be narrow, limited and tunneled due to the halo effect of IAS tag circling around your head. You won't be able to see the world with same eyes. Your attitude, class, and behaviour changes because your environment changes. You will be living in India. You will find it difficult to understand Bharat.

People often argue that what is training for then? Aren't they supposed to learn these attitudinal things on the training? Things like sitting in India but making policies for Bharat. Again the sad answer is no. Unfortunately, IAS has become so glorified today that the moment a person get selected in the exam, he become a public figure on facebook. He will have anywhere between 10000 to 15000 likes. With such a social recognition which puts him on cloud nine, the relevant tit bits of training leave very little influence. Definitely, it is inadequate to change the attitudinal orientation of the person. In fact, people are more influenced with the prevalent training subculture, a parallel set of rules which people learn about the conduct of civil servants. The hearsay stories tell that training subculture teaches if a councilor is visiting then make him wait for 10-15 mins. If MLA is visiting the office then make him wait for 5 mins. If MP is visiting then attend immediately and ask for a tea. If Minister is waiting then receive him at the gate of your office.

A person who has worked in the market knows the pain points of the system. He must have faced some ups and downs of the life by that age. Thus, he is certainly more experienced, mature, empathic and most of all he knows what he wants from his life? On the other hand, we have examples of people like Romain Saini who clears the exam, attend the training and then realise that civil services is not their cup of tea. And if you consider Romain Saini as an exception and please count those others who run to the USA on a study leave because they are not able to bear the pressure from the system or feel inferior to their friends who earn good amount of money without indulging in corruption. A common theme among such candidates is that they have not seen the world enough. The argument here is why do you waste the government resources at a later date. Instead, first see the world then make a conscious choice of whether you want to be part of the system or not.

Vinod Rai also argues that early bird is more likely to specialise in a particular field. However, this argument is also fallacious. A person who had some early experience in the life is considered much more specialized. Someone who had pulled Rickshaw before entering the system will understand the problem of unorganized labourers much better and thus may specialize in that domain. Someone who has worked in the banking sector may specialise in that field. Someone from computer science may develop expertise into their cyber security and similarly many others. What happens in the current scenario is a person who has studied mechanical engineering but not worked in his domain, ends up specialising in the banking sector for which he has to devote time again in the middle-of-the-career. So what is the point of catching the early bird when the bird does not even know how to fly?

The upside of selecting a candidate after the age of twenty-six years of age is that even if the person is not selected after certain numbers of attempts, he can always go back to his primary field of working. He must have developed enough network or skills on the job that he can be absorbed in the market without any hiccups. On the other hand, when a candidate starts preparing for the exam from his under graduation then he first spoils his under graduation. Then he does not take up job and spoils any prospects of a future opportunity of getting a job if in case luck does not side him enough in the preparation.

The new age economy does not want kings who act as bosses and decide their future. Instead, it only wants facilitators. To become a facilitator, one needs to understand the other person's perspective. One needs to be a commoner. One needs to know how to deal with people at all the levels. An early bird may not be able to deliver on these aspects because in high probability they may not have seen the world they are going to serve. I doubt if Tina Dabi would have ever talked to a truck driver or a daily wage labourer. If she would have ever stood in the queue to get a reservation ticket or if Romain Saini would have travelled in the roadways buses. How can they efficiently execute the policies on the ground. Just the aura of IAS or authority of your seat is not sufficient to execute things on the ground. One needs to have an experience from the book of life itself.

I am at a loss to understand the argument of respected Vinod Rai that candidates who are selected at an age of 30 or 32 are more concerned about their families and cadre than performing on the job. Firstly, I have seen all the younger candidates also equally worried about their cadre and repenting their luck and choices of a cadre. So it is not related to the age. Secondly, Family is a reality. One has to accept it and work accordingly. Whoever becomes IAS or IPS, generally gets married within 18 to 24 months of selection. Society won't leave you single. At the least one will find girlfriend or a boyfriend. So all the decisions should factor in family. What is wrong with that? It is not like that a person selected at the age of 24 will remain single for entire life. Here the argument of an age limit of 26 to 30 makes sense because, by the age of 25 onward, A person is emotionally more balanced and settled. Further, he would know his priorities thus would have learned to maintain his work life balance in a better manner. And given the nature of Indian society, only a serious candidate would appear for the exam at that stage. Rest will get married so grooved in their job more deeply. Those who will get married before appearing for this exam would take the decision only after familial discussions thus they are more likely to have everybody onboard.

An IAS generally progresses to the post of district magistrate in five to six years of time. Therefore, he provides leadership, vision, and mission to nearly 3 to 4 million people within five to six years of college. Now a moot question is if a person at the age of twenty-seven or twenty-eight would be mature enough to take that responsibility. He may be and he may be not. Same is the situation with a thirty-five or thirty-six year old guy. But at the least, a person in his mid-thirties would know the world better. However, a big question is how about the number of years in the service?

Those who agree with Vinod Rai may argue that a person who becomes a district magistrate at the age of 35 or 36 would have hardly 18 to 20 years in service for secretariat or babudom level job as opposed to an early bird who may devote 25 years at that level. This argument sounds hilarious and infected with typical bureaucratic mentality. In the age of corporate culture, where performance on the job is the only parameter of some one's competence and promotion, should we even argue on these lines? Let the merit prevail. Whoever is able to execute projects on the ground better should be promoted and sit on those high tables of ministry.And the rest should be given VRS.

The moral of the story is, age bracket of twenty-six to thirty seems a win-win for both, the candidate and the system. It allows a candidate to get some experience of India he is going to serve, develop his skills or network, make the conscious decision of why he wants to be in the services, become emotionally more balanced and matured. He can leverage his initial work experience to develop his later day specialisation. The merit-based promotion would ensure that right talent is picked for the job thus dusting the argument of giving steep promotions just because person cleared one exam in this early days. And a person in this age group would know the soft spots, pain points, and nerve centers in much better manner.

As far as the argument of moulding a higher age guy is concerned, I think training has become ineffective for both the early age group and also later age group. A guy in later age group must have at least faced some vagaries of life thus he is bound to be more pragmatic and balanced in his approach. A person is the lower age group is more vulnerable to the attention and hype he gets in the media. Thus, revise the training module as a whole. There is no logic in connecting this with the age factor.

Mr. Rai is highly experienced and learned person thus refuting his thoughts require some solid thinking. More so when I have not even entered the system. However, I have seen enough young and old candidates. And I do not see any correlation between Rai argument and behaviour of the people. They are all the same. I found the younger lads more anxious, restless, and worried. For most of them, the factor of equanimity is just missing. Rai's thought emanated from his experience of his own selection at the early age. Later, Civil services preparation gained craze and people started devoting their whole decade to service preparation, not for the sake of duty but for the sake of batti. So he must have witnessed some of those traits in his later day subordinates. However, times are changing. The society is changing. Examination procedure is changing. Thus, he also ought to change his views.

Rise of Donald Trump

Donald Trump has secured his candidature for presidential election as the Republican party candidate. When he started, almost everyone had written him off. However, beating against all odds he did emerge as a winner. And my hunch is he is going to be the next US president. What would that mean to India? How did he manage to do this?

Well, World is in a transition phase from pax Americana to pax Sinica. America, the supercop is receding and China the dragon is spreading its tentacles. Thus, the candidature of someone like Trump who could touch strings of America's lost pride and reduced influence in the world was a but natural occurrence.

Trump started with his classic venom against Muslim population exhorting to ostracize them from American society. He showed the dream of building a wall along Mexican border, called for some troops in Syria but at the same time talked about refraining from entering into other's war. It all seemed so common-sensical to American population that a large number of them rallied around his vision and chose him as their leader.

But a big question looms over everyone's head? Can he deliver all this? My hunch is he will be more offensive and dominating than any of his predecessor. The psychological study of his pompous past and his tactics of ridiculing his opponents like lyin 'Ted Cruz' shows that his is a ruthless and forceful personality. If ever a 9/11 is repeated then Trump won't refrain from repeating the Afghanistan adventure of America. Thus, in Trump we'll not see a benevolent dictator rather he will be a trying to reposition America as a king who is better feared than loved. Would he be able to do that?

Given the state of the economy of the world and kind of polarisation which exists today, I think he will succeed to some extent. For example on issues of military intervention and trade, he may be able to push China on the backfoot but multipolarity has become a feature of world politics today. Therefore, despite his best effort, he can not reverse the changes which are irreversible in nature. Yes, China will suffer some damage in the course.

How about India? In my opinion, the idea of NAM will get its lifeline. It will become relevant again. India will have to utilise its anti-china appeal to woo the US. Trump would certainly respond to that. However, playing with China and USA is like choosing between tiger or dragon. We'll have to walk the tightrope between the devil and deep sea. In the course, India will turn back to its old friend Russia for reestablishing connection which it has sidelined due to Putin's cold shoulder to Modi's overtures.

Let us see, how this new era of American politics will unfold. It would be interesting to see how a hardcore American attitude of individuality, dominance, force, pomp and selfishness will fit in this multicultural and globalized world.

Karma vs. Bhagya philosophy

Once a person asked Gautam Buddha, 'Lord if everything is predetermined, predestined and influenced by Bhagya then why should I work?'. Buddha replied that may be because possibly your destiny says that you'll achieve your dream only after working hard. Moral of the story is hard work has certainty. Bhagya has no certainty. The harder you work, the luckier you become. When you wish something from depth of your heart then the whole world conspires to help you achieve the same. Luck can take you from level A to level B in the process. But one need to put immense effort to reach to the level A first.

The two abused terms in the process of the examination are "luck and talent". These two are extremely important for a person's selection. However, these are in no way superior to the third factor which is karma.

If we look at luck, it plays a huge role in deciding the course of our future. You are born in an upper middle-class rich family is in itself the grace of luck on you. You are reaching home safe is also to an extent luck. Whatever is having a tinge of uncertainty, is explained by the logic of luck. However, in UPSC's preparation, no one knows and no one can predict on other person's luck. A person who was born in Rickshaw puller's family may clear this examination. Where did his all bad-luck evaporate then? Similarly, a most talented, widely appreciated fellow may fail the exam repeatedly due to one or other reason. Why didn't his good luck and bright stars come to his rescue? So moral of the story is stop harboring over something of which no one is sure. Rather focus on the what is under your control and inculcate this belief that your luck is on your side. It helps. If you start believing in your ill-luck, then you are anyway half finished before even making a beginning.

Second is talent. Talent is the most useless thing in this world. It is a sort of discouragement. One may wonder how? If you are talented then you get things easily without putting much effort. In such situation, one does not work hard enough to prove himself. You are anyway achieving what you wanted to achieve without putting much effort. But in the process, you miss out on what you were capable of achieving. And the day you start failing, which happens to everyone, you are finished. Because you have not practiced enough to work hard. As far as civil services preparation is concerned, talent may come handy in reducing your effort. However, given the scale and size of examination, one may still be required to put substantial threshold level of work before making it to the list. There is a greater number of the talented underachiever than talented greats in our surrounding. For example, Vinod Kambli is considered one such underachiever. The things achieved through talent or Bhagya may not appropriately prepare you attitudinally for the job in hand. You may have gifted aptitude and intelligence but remember psychological research has proved it that attitude is largely learned. Those who ride high on the talent and Bhagya, often miss this learning.

The most solid and profound foundation of the future is laid "Hard work". This is specifically true with respect to Civil Services preparation. Nothing and nothing beats hard work. Pass, fail, success, defeat all become irrelevant once you know that you did your best. The hard work can help you in developing the required attitudinal strength. It gives you confidence and belief which you can transfer to other walks of life as well. In addition, it imparts enough knowledge and skill that one feels motivated and relieved on the eve of the exam. There are many candidates who feel anxious, concerned, or tensed in the exam. The best way to kill all that is hard work. Luck may shine once or twice. Hard work may not shine once or twice. But in the longer walk, hard work beats talent or luck.

However, if the talent combines with the hard work, guidance and luck then no one can stop you from doing the impossible. Case in point is Sachin, ABD and Virat Kohli. Having said all this, I must admit that selection in UPSC is not hinged on any one factor alone. It is hinged on all three combined. You luck should mix with your hard work and talent to make your dream true. And if I were to rate them in order then luck would precede hard work and talent. But of the three, hard work has greater concomitant benefits which helps us in becoming better human being as well. So hail hard work.

《Add GITA shloka. And Other short stories. 》

How To: Behavioral learning during the process and behavioral tips for preparation

Before beginning on the subject, let me put a disclaimer that I am no authority on the subject and in UPSC exam, one can find pieces of all shapes and sizes. However, this should not refrain from summing up my experience of those years. And so we begin.

Civil Services exam is considered the mother of all examinations in the world. IIT, GATE, CAT and even the cut-throat medical examinations are considered dwarf in comparison to Civil Services. Why so? Why this exam is kept at a different pedestal than any other equally difficult examination.

The prime reason behind such a perception is Civil Services is not merely an exam of your aptitude or knowledge. It is an examination of your character, attitude, resilience, and never-say-die attitude. It is an examination of your lifestyle. The repeated inexplicable failure despite your best effort helps you in learning the larger pattern of life i.e. life is uncertain so put your best but don't expect. It inculcates the habit of "Nishkaam Karma". The exam checks your social, emotional and intelligence quotient in one go. Some people go on hibernation, breaking all social connections and avoiding all the social obligations. But the interview process essentially checks your social awareness and relationship management skills. Your emotional strength is checked by your compassion to your surrounding. The process imbibes you with all the major characteristics of Idea of India in your behaviour. The tolerance, compassion, respect for diversity and spirit of integration, accommodation and adaptation gets translated into your own behavior in the process. And then one-day success comes to you automatically. You feel happy, satisfied and enthused inside.

However, an exam can only turn a boy into a man. With all due respect to dogs, It can not turn a dog into a man. And sometimes when it does that magic, it is more harm than good. These are the people who would create negative influence in job settings. For this, the person should exhibit certain behavioural traits which prove very helpful in overcoming the challenges of this exam. Here is the list of seven such behavioural tips which will help you in developing and maturing in the process.
1. There are three kinds of people on this earth. One who discuss Idea. Other who discuss an event. And a third category of who discuss individuals. Be the one in first two categories. Discuss Ideas and events. They may help you in an exam and even in the larger scheme of life. But do not discuss individual. I find many candidates discussing the arrogance of a flatmate or misdeed of some other fellow. One may term a fellow person as "Junglee" for his pure obsession with civil services or may tend to indulge in gossip-mongering and nuisance. My suggestion is to avoid the company of such people. It helps.
2. Learn from your surroundings. For example, when you are walking on the road, observe how the government policies are coming in action. For example, one can JNNURM buses plying on Delhi roads. The advertisement of various government schemes could be seen on metro stations.
One can relate the theory of unemployment taught in the economics class with child labour and unorganised labour seen on the street. One can think of problems faced by beggars by observing them in the act.
3. Don't fear to say No to friends, family members, and others. See you are going to be the leader of a bug district. So one should know how to deal with difficult situations in life. Therefore, the moment you feel like saying NO, do say no. and Observe the other person's reaction.
4. Control your words and modulate your tone. Someone has said, your thoughts become your words. Your words become your action. Your actions become your habits. Your habits become your character. Your character becomes your destiny. You will not be a changed person in the interview room. Your inner core will remain the same at the time of interview as it was few months before that unless you consciously try to change it. Therefore, let the process of change begin today. Don't say those things which you feel ashamed of saying in the interview. The easiest way of living in life is "be the same person in your professional, personal and social sphere".
5. When in the preparation mode, you meet various sort of people and come across various activities. So a big question is what sort of activities one should engage in and what kind of people one should spend time with? For those who are concerned, one touchstone is "How is it going to help in UPSC preparation"?
6. All days are not same. One day you may stretch yourself and complete the targets but on other days, you may feel bored and totally frustrated. In all such situations, just keep walking.
7. Most of the other learning have been mentioned in some or other blog.

Some of my prominent learning over the years are following. The list is not exhaustive. It is limited by recalling power at the moment.
1. Howsoever nervous you may be or howsoever reluctant, it does not matter so making a start is necessary, howsoever small it may be.
2. Don’t expect to produce a marvel on day one. What you begin with and what eventually will come out are two different things. Remember Rome was not built in a day.
3. Act act act. Keep trying Keep walking.
4. Set realistic goals. Promise less and deliver more
5. Be honest with yourself
6. Whatever does not kill you, makes you stronger
7. You are lucky.
8. Appreciate and smile endlessly. Laugh at yourself.
9. Discuss Ideas and not individual
10. Do not fear anything
11. Your worst enemy is part of you conditioned by social evils. and you are competing so hard for its welfare. This is what makes this examination great.
12. Ignore Ignore Ignore. Ignore the negative energy.
13. Share share share. Knowledge begets knowledge.
14. Life is uncertain
15. Initially, You need to forcefully claim your happiness. Later it comes to you naturally
16. Maintaining a discipline helps
17. We are all humans. We are fallible. So don't feel guilt too much.
18. Be forgiving.

Book Review: Emotional Intelligence 2.0 by Travis Bradberry

The book Emotional Intelligence 2.0 is authored by Travis Bradberry and Jean Greaves. It is a book about human emotions. It would be better to call it a handbook on personality development and emotional quotient.

The book is innovative in the manner that it asks you to undergo an EQ test and suggest you certain specific strategies. These strategies help you in developing your Emotional Intelligence. However, the exciting part of the book ends here. An interested reader may be disappointed to find that most of the strategies are largely superficial in nature. And putting them in the practice itself requires a high level of EQ.

It seems like a typical western version of some Indian medicine. It is better to read Gita, practice yoga and spend time with people who are unfortunate than you instead of reading this book for increasing your emotional quotient. The strategies are devoid of any real content. It should have been enriched with some text, case studies, real-life situations and examples. It is more like an Indian Baba giving his disciples lecture on how to attain Moksha, something which I am doing nowadays daily on my blog. But the reality is one has to go through that process, those mental states, those agonies, and emotions before developing a deep insight into his own and other person's emotion. The book is EQ-redux. It has reduced EQ promotion to a mechanical exercise of following certain rules and practicing them like a maths question. But emotions are not mere rational thoughts. It takes time, strong observational skills, willingness to change and egoless behavior to accept your true self before we can emerge as truly high EQ person.

The strategies offered are somewhat abstract. It is more of a what-to-do type of suggestions instead of how-to kind of things. Though there is a very thin line between what and how. It is difficult to understand that how those strategies would translate into real life. It is more like a handbook. Instead, it should have been like a work or practice book. Except one or two strategies, rest are a common day knowledge.

For these reasons, I decided to write a summary of the book instead of writing a review. For instance, the subject of EQ is divided into four quadrants namely Self-awareness, Self-management, Social awareness, and Relationship management. For each section, certain strategies are mentioned.
For self-awareness (honest understanding for your emotions),
1. Quit treating your feelings as good or bad
2. Don't ignore your emotions
3. Observe the ripple effect of your emotions
4. Notice your emotional sensations
5. Know what pushes you and what not
6. Observe yourself from a neutral position
7. Keep a journal about your emotions
8. No decision in a bad mood
9. No decision in excitement
10. Ask yourself why you do the things you do?
11. Ask yourself what are the values that I wish to live my life by?
12. Your body is good indicator of your mood
13. Spot your emotions in books or movies
14. Ask for feedback from friends, colleagues, and family members
15. Notice your emotion when you are in stress [For example, I often come under stress when I unnecessarily waste my time or I fail to achieve certain goal.]

The beauty of self-aware is once you know yourself, it becomes very easy to deal with the rest of the world. You stop feeling neurotic.

For self-management (Ability to use your awareness to manage your emotions),
1. Take long breath
2. Make your goals public
3. Count to ten when in distress
4. Give time and have patience (Leo Tolstoy termed these two as greatest warriors)
5. Find a high EQ manager
6. Laugh a lot and smile a lot
7. Daily 15 minutes time to connect with nature, away from the world
8. Replace never or always into just this time or sometimes
9. Replace I am idiot with I made a mistake
10. Accept responsibility for your action and don't carry other's burden
11. Visualize yourself succeeding
12. Take proper sleep and proper sunlight
13. Accept the fact that life is not fair and now focus on what you have
14. Keep your body language in check
15. Take neutral person's opinion
16. Learn from people you meet
17. Accept changes

For Social Awareness (Skills to recognize and understand the mood of people around you)
1. Greet people by name
2. Watch, watch and watch their body language
3. Raise the right question at right time
4. Develop a back pocket question to change the topic
5. Don't take notes at the meeting
6. Plan your social meetings
7. Sort out your internal clutter
8. Live in the moment
9. Take tour of your workplace
10. Watch EQ at movies
11. Practice the art of listening
12. Go for people watching
13. Understand the cross-cultural sensitivities
14. Ask yourself, Why a person might be behaving in a certain manner
15. Find the context
16. Notice the mood in the room

For Relationship Management (Develop relationships)
1. Be open and curious about the other person
2. Enhance your natural communication style
3. Avoid giving mixed signals
4. Warmness in your speech
5. Accept feedback in neutral sense
6. Build trust
7. Be angry but with a purpose.
8. Do not avoid the inevitable
9. Acknowledge the other person's feeling. They may be different from yours.
10. Complement the other person's emotion
11. When you care, show it
12. Explain your decisions. Don't just make them
13. Give a direct and constructive feedback
14. Tackling a tough conversation.
a. start with an agreement
b. Ask the person to understand his or her side
c. Resist the urge to plan a "comeback" or a rebuttal
d. Help the other person in understanding your side, too
e. Move the conversation forward
f. Follow up the resolution

However, I liked the idea of having a test and diagnosing your EQ like a doctor does and suggest you some pills for EQ promotion. This approach is my single most important take away from the book.

How To: English, Importance and Improvement

Over the last few years, the percentage of candidates with convent education and English medium background has increased significantly in comparison to those from vernacular medium or Hindi belt candidates. The competency in the English language has become the single most factor in selection or elimination of the aspirant.

The prominence of the English can be gauged from the fact that in the brief era of CSAT, the exam had literally turned into an English language paper. The prelims could be cleared riding on the back of CSAT. The efficacy in CSAT depended on speed and grasping ability of English reading. The mains was entirely about expression i.e. English writing. And Interview became a test of fluency and precision in English speaking.

However, some sanity prevailed in certain quarters and CSAT was cut to its size leaving many of those CSAT riders stumped in the previous year's prelims examination. But with the removal of a requirement of multiple optional subjects and added significance of essay paper and ethics paper, Mains has become a major exercise in English writing. Precisely for this reason, a sincere sixth attempt veteran is failing the exam while a first attempt 22-year-old bright girl is bucketing the first rank.

But English reading, writing, and speaking are not to be taken in the literal sense here. In all the three stages, English is necessary to cloth the mass of your content in a proper manner. In reading, it means your ability to read with speed and grasp the crux of the passage. In writing, it refers to identifying the demand of the question and writing to the point in the most simplistic yet sophisticated manner possible. In speaking, it refers to the ability to articulate better.

Today, When I look back, I consider my poor English skills as the prime most reason of my failure. My poor grammar along with my tendency to write in unstructured casual fashion was my biggest drawback in all my attempts. Friends and sympathizer came forward to help but some habits are just incorrigible. Today, I wish I master these skills and redeem my destiny.

Now the big question "how"? I come from Hindi medium background. For me overcoming the barrier of the English was one of the biggest achievement as well as most challenging task over the years. Even today, I try to overcome this English-complex every day. Here is the list of ten things which I did over the years to hone my English skills.

1. Eat, sleep, bath, pee in English.
2. Read Norman Lewis Word power made easy 7 times. You may not be able to finish it for first two or three times. But just keep going. Read it seven times.
3. Read newspaper daily. Read aloud. Keep a pen while reading it. Underline difficult words. To begin with, pick Times Of India.
4. Maintain a register of the difficult word. Whenever a new unknown word comes, do look up in the dictionary. And form a sentence which uses it. Read all the antonyms and synonyms. This needs to be done with a certain level of obsession.
5. Listen to English music and watch English movies with subtitle. Sing fast English songs. It'll help in adjusting your tongue to English words and sentences.
6. Speak as much as possible. You may not be able to utter a single word initially. You may speak in broken English. People may laugh at you. But it's OK.
7. Read novels. Begin with short stories. Read easy. Read slow. Grasp the Language. I started with Parry Mason. Then moved to Dan Brown. Later I switched to Sherlock Holmes in the initial few years.
8. Try to describe your surroundings in English. Talk to yourself in English.
9. Get a girlfriend. She will force you to speak and type in English. I have seen people making a significant improvement in short time frame. But it has its usual downside as well.
10. Have patience. It is not a one-day affair. It takes at least two years to go from 0 to 25. Later, one can pace up fast.

There is only one answer to this "practice practice practice".
For reading, read novels, read newspapers and magazine in a timed manner.
For writing, write as much as you can. Start randomly. The structure will come on your own.
For speaking, speak. Speak standing in front of a mirror.

English is our gate pass to the world. It is the single most wonderful thing that can happen to anyone. It opens you to world and the world to you. So work on it. Not for the sake of UPSC or lesser goals of life. Instead, learn it to realize your destiny.

How To: Rules of Group Discussion

Group discussion is an integral part of UPSC's preparation. Of all the years of UPSC preparation, one of the most memorable thing that sticks to mind is "group discussion". It is full of fun, insightful and joyful experience. Group discussion has various advantages. But, there are certain rules which need to be kept in mind while entering into group discussion.

Let us begin with advantages.
First, It helps in providing you alternative perspective of the issue. This is very crucial in developing a multi-dimensional thought process.
Second, It helps in better consolidation and conceptual understanding of the subject. The best way to understand the issue or topic is "explain it to someone". I know some candidates who used to hunt down people to explain them or teach them the subject. And hilariously, some found a girlfriend for this reason.
Third, It helps in sustaining the momentum for the exam. See nobody can study 24*7 without engaging with rest of the world. The preparation follows a sinusoidal wave pattern. Thus just like sports athlete, a UPSC aspirants also faces this downtime, slump or exhibit this choking behaviour. People start feeling anxious, tensed, and exhausted in the long run. Group study is the best antidote to overcome this negative emotion.
Fourth, It helps in improving the behavioral skill set of person. People learn how to interact and how to defend your position without getting too aggressive or too defensive. It certainly adds a key skill set needed for the Interview. We learn to smile and keep our ego instincts under check in the group setting. Most importantly, it is like seeing "Anekantwad" in action.
Fifth, It helps in increasing your knowledge in a lesser time frame. No one knows all the things on a topic but put together collectively we know enough to crack the UPSC.
Further, the added benefits like life long bonding, friendship, fun, bantering require no details.

However, the fund ends here. Group discussion is a very serious business. And one needs to selfishly guard against any unproductive frivolous group discussion which runs the risk of turning into a pure gossiping session. Following are few words of caution which one needs to keep in mind before engaging in such activities.
First, ensure that group size is not more than three or four. Two is less. Three is a fit. Four is a crowd.
Second, Ensure that there are no mutual insecurities among group members.The Group should have certain pre-history and should not feel jealous of each other. If they feel insecure towards each other, then sooner or later they would start withholding information or will be reluctant in full participation.
Third, The agenda, time, and place for the group discussion should be fixed in advance.
Fourth, Do not disband or postpone because one person is absent or not able to attend the group session. Understand that group is superior to whims of one or two candidates.
Fifth, Ensure that all the candidates are of near equal competency. This would ensure equal participation in the group discussion. Otherwise, it would degenerate into a teaching or preaching session. Sooner or later, the teacher would start feeling for his time and productivity and would stop coming to meetings. Thus leading to disbanding of the group.
Sixth, A general lifecycle of a group is four to six weeks. From my experience, it requires a real leadership from some group member to sustain the momentum of the group.
Seventh, In order to maintain the decorum and sanctity of the group, group members should adhere to certain rules of discussion. For example, no two persons will speak at the same time. The Discussion should be limited to the subject/agenda and should remain relevant. And likewise. For this one person will have to play a devil's advocate in the process.
Eight, Group discussion brings out various pieces of information and helps in discovering new insights. So one should ensure that someone take notes of various point discussed in the group. Or alternatively, as soon as a discussion gets over, candidates should make a quick list of points collected in the discussion.
Ninth, The length of the session should not be more than 60 minutes for first attempt candidates. Generally, after this time, people start speaking from their butthole due to lack of content. For some senior guys, a discussion can span over 90 to 120 mins.
Tenth, if your group size is already full then avoid taking any new entrants. Because as and when the word will spread about your group, more people would wanna come onboard. The entry of any new members should be tested by his knowledge base, his potential value addition to the group and his pre-history in the group. In short, guard against any politics.
Eleventh, Do not think thrice before disbanding the group if it is proving to be unproductive. In two words, "be ruthless".
Twelfth, Avoid any free riders on the group. Avoid any kind of social loafing in the group. Stick to the agenda and ensure some positive learning in each session which adds value to your preparation.
Thirteenth, One simple thought experiment is "Could I have utilised these 60 mins better if I had not become part of the discussion?"
Fourteenth, Think about what are those activities which can be accomplished in the group? Divide work or topics clearly, know beforehand what you are going to cover? For example, newspaper reading, current affair's discussion like insightsonIndia, topic based preparation like studying Map or covering IYB or Economic survey or Budget could be completed in the group discussion.
Fifteenth, Ultimate is Share your thoughts as much as possible.

A new era of politics

The results of assembly election in 5 states came as no surprise. It has pushed the journey of Indian polity into the territory of a post-congress era. The long-held dream of "congress-mukt Bharat" seen and shown by BJP is fast becoming a reality. Thus, time has come for congress to take a decisive action.

When I look at Congress, I find it is not so bad as it is portrayed by the Media. It has some experienced good leaders like Shashi Tharoor, Jyotiraditya Schindhia, Ajay Maken, Sonia Gandhi, A.K. Antony to name a few. In fact, BJP minus Modi faces a serious dearth of leadership and intellect. PM himself has accepted this difficulty in finding suitable ministerial candidates within his party. Please don't count me leaders like Subramaniyam Swami who asks Indian Muslims to go to Pakistan. Also, I do not consider leaders like Rajnath Singh who considers Modi as first Indian ruler after 800 years exposing his intellectual impotency in understanding the idea of India.

A deeper analysis of political and economic paradigm reveals that all parties follow the similar economic ideology. They all cover the same ground, walking in the same direction, pacing at the same speed. Therefore from the economic point of view, it does not make much difference on which party is ruling the country. However, A rule by congress runs the risk of corruption. Similarly, a rule by BJP runs the risk of communalism. And a rule by AAP or regional parties runs the risk of popularism. Now it is up to us, which one we want to choose. Corruption or Communalism or populism.

One more striking trend in this election was the end of the brief era of coalition politics. The earliest coalition was formed in Kerala in 1967. However, this trend took roots at the national level only after 1989 election. Since then, It became a routine at both the level. As a result states like UP could never get a stable government throughout the 90's. However, technology, the internet, and new age media have changed the way elections are fought and won. Nowadays, the ballot box is a mere formality. Real elections are won and lose on the social platform and media studios. It has become a game of perception management. Whichever party manages to dominate the social media or woo national media, that party gets a wave formed which catapult it to the top. Thus, a new trend of an absolute majority has replaced the era of coalition politics.

However, We are yet to see any increased pace of reforms under this new trend. It left us wondering if the rationale of citing the coalition compulsion for the slow pace of development was a distraction tactics or a reality. Anyway, the next this train stops is at Uttar Pradesh Junction. It is said that train to Delhi goes through Lucknow. As of now, it is difficult to say which way the camel will sit in UP. Let us keep our fingers crossed and let us utilize this time to decide on the dilemma of corruption vs communalism vs populism.

Kohli Again

I never thought I would be writing a second blog on Kohli in such a short span of time. I am already a big fan of his game but his performance in this IPL season has proved to be inspiring and not just impressive. It can make even a dead rise up from his coffin to take a second chance at life.

With 8 stitches on his hand, he went on to make his 4th century of the season. How did he do it? How can he sustain this momentum? It was an awe-inspiring jaw-dropping performance where he hit even yorkers for four finding the right gap areas between the electric fielders.

I sincerely salute his mental strength for this. It was a delight to see the tactics of sports psychology in action on the ground. First was self-talk. He was regulating and disciplining his game with his self-talks. It is always better than talking to your opponent. Second was imagery. He was closing his eyes and imagining strokes whenever he missed one. And I could see him hitting the same stroke on the next opportunity. Third was arousal control. He was able to control his frustration or excitement and channelized the whole energy into his performance.

He is in his peak performance zone. I pray that he continues with his performance in the coming days and whenever the slump comes or whenever he starts choking, he uses these mental tactics to recover his game.

When asked about his future goals, he mentioned he want to be a monk in the civil world. This shows the kind of mental stability and focus in his game. I wish to achieve the similar level of mental stability, calm and focus in my life. Honestly, I am not finding right words to explain his form and my salute to him. Keep going Virat. Keep rising and make India proud.

How To: Importance of saying No in Civil Services

Warren Buffet once remarked "The difference between successful people and very successful people is that very successful people say “no” to almost everything”. A civil services aspirant does not have to be so obsessed with no tendency because you never you know if the person you are offending so often becomes the next Tina Dabi. But jokes apart, One needs to strictly guard against any negative influence on his preparation process.

The arena of civil services sees a variety of people with unique traits aspiring for the top post. However broadly one can classify them in 3 categories. One who knows they are not going to get through the exam. Other who knows they are definitely going to crack this exam. And swing players who are not too sure. If they get good company and the right guidance, they make it happen, surprising their friends and foes. And if they are put on the wrong track from day one they go back after failing in prelims.

The art of saying no is extremely important for these swing players. The need to say no can arise in many situations.
1. A friend asking you to become part of a group discussion which may not be very productive in your perspective.
2. A friend regularly asking you to come for a tea break, disrupting your study sessions.
3. Family members asking you to devote more time to familial responsibilities during the course of preparation.
4. Girlfriend eating up a share of your time.
5. And many other numerous situations in day to day settings where roommates or friends causing you some distrubance etc.

The crux of the matter is "It is only you and you alone who is responsible for your failure. Nobody else would be blamed if you are not able to achieve it. Be it family or friends or environment or girlfriend." Therefore, be aggressive in your strategies and play it on the front foot.Learn to say no. Nobody would be offended if they are your true well wishers. You should explain it. One does not have to be abrupt and react in a knee-jerk manner. And if they get offended and bear with it. The day you will get through, they will be the first one to wish you on your success and sing paeans of your commitment.

However, most of the time we fail to understand whether we need to say no or make a change in our current course of action. For this, all one has to do is "Observe". This process will also help in increasing your self-awareness and self-management quotient of emotional intelligence. Though it may bring down your relationship management but given the intentional nature of the offence, you need not bother much about it. So it starts with asking right kind of questions to yourself.
1. Is my preparation on the right track?
2. Am I sufficiently productive?
3. Am I wasting time unnecessarily?
4. Is the current environmental setting facilitating my preparation in a positive way? For example, if your room has become a party place then one must say no to the friends who have made your room a favorite "adda". Or for example, if your roommate is habitual of sleeping with lights off in the room but it affects your preparation then saying no to "switching off your light".
5. In any new thing, What's in it for me?
6. Is group study session productive enough? For example, if it turns into a teaching or preaching session or some gossiping session then one should take immediate action.

But a word of caution. Don't be very obsessed with this. This has to come with a tinge of tolerance in your own attitude. However, one has to be vigilant it not obsessed. And be prepared for making quick corrections. For example, change the room or change the roommate or ask the free riders in the group session to mind their ways.

Henry Ford famously remarked Leader is one who can say no in 999 different ways. The art of saying no is extremely important from interview perspective as well. This I shall explain in the Interview related blog.

I understand many people may not agree with what I have written today. But I have strongly felt the need to develop this art to keep your preparation on track and don't get swayed by your surrounding. Thus comes this blog.

How To: keep the momentum of study?

All fingers are not of the same size. Every day is also not the same. Some days are productive while others are dull, boring and wasteful. A most common problem which candidates face is how to maintain their rhythm and remain consistent in their preparation. Most of the candidate faces a sinusoidal wave pattern in their preparation where they peak the studies on one week but waste the next half week. This mainly occurs when we are unable to soak the pressure of studies. Even in the course of a day, a candidate may put a night out only to waste the next full day. Or he may be studying for 4 hours at length but end up wasting next two hours on the pretext of relaxing the mind. This is where the difference come between an experienced veteran who have faced various competitions in the early phase of life and other novices.

Different people have different strategies to keep themselves motivated. The momentum strategy has two parts to it. One set is applicable to the study session. The other is applicable to interregnum period.

I am listing 10 such strategies to follow during the break period.
1. Buy a big wall clock and put it in front of your bed so that whenever you wake up, this is the first thing you see.
2. Keep a big calendar which reminds you of the number of days left for the exam and the next big task and its deadline.
3. Whenever you close your books for a break, write down the time when you wish to start the session again. Also, write down the things left unfinished which you may wish to complete in the next session.
4. Whenever you go to sleep, write down the target for the next day. It is a must. Clear your table and keep only those books on the table.
5. Whenever you feel like wasting time and not studying at all, watch some informative or inspirational or some youtube videos (Depends on your inner core. Some people watch violent videos while few others may go for porn). Don't hesitate from taking a break. But before starting the movie, write down on a piece of paper "what are you going to do after the movie gets over".
6. Best way to relax is "Sleep"
7. Make right friends. Remember, you and only you are responsible for your failure. In the one hour, you waste in some irrelevant activity, some other fellow may be burning the midnight oil. All you have to do to find the right people is "Observe". Don't make a friend who forces you to break your session for a tea break and political gossiping.
8. Utilise your tea and breakfast sessions for some fruitful and relevant "Chai pe charcha".
9. Feel the desire to get into service. Feel eustress. Feel the warrior within you. And believe strongly that you are already on the list. God has just asked you one thing "charaiveti charaiveti". It means "Keep walking Keep walking".
10. The moment you feel like "Ab naa ho paayega". Register the moment in your brain and remain seated for 10 more minutes challenging yourself and pushing your limits. Don't worry about productivity in those 10 minutes. Suspend all the other activities you wanted to do for this brief time. Once ten minutes are over. Recall the moment when you were about to give up. This way you can develop your willpower and increase your sitting capacity.

During the session:
1. Play it like Dhoni. Hour by Hour and Day by Day. Take one session at a time and ensure that you are completely immersed in it. If you are studying geography and imagine yourself sitting on the Everest or Indira point in Kanyakumari. Let every nerve of your body feel it.
2. Do ask yourself some reflective questions in the process.
3. Ask your mother/sister/girlfriend to monitor your goal. One can do the self-monitoring through a self-evaluation chart. The chart is a simple tabular check-box form of a to-do list of common activities of the week.
4. If the days are going unproductive then enter into group studies. Group study has its own set of rules. This is listed in another blog.
5. One do not have to worry about the content covered on day to day basis. Howsoever little, but make a progress every day. Speed comes on its own when we follow a disciplined schedule. Most of the science graduate finds it difficult to absorb that they could read only 50 pages of the humanities notes in the whole day. Take it as a normal.
6.The nature of exam is such that if a person is a philomath while then he can never be bored. If you are bored by history then read geography. If bored by geography then read economics or the polity or psychology or sociology or any other random topic or subject. Just make sure, ask yourself a question on "how is this going to help me?". Remember some salient points. If bored with everything else then one can practice maths or watch some videos on youtube.

Last but not the least, It is the strength of your desire to get into service, which motivates you. Motivation comes from the belief that "I can do it". Given the randomness of the results, every tom dick harry has a reason to believe that he can top the exam. So can you. Your ability to come out the bed and sit on the chair to study entirely depends on "How inspired do you feel to crack this exam?".

Hope this helps.

How To: utilize time immediately after the exam?

UPSC preparation is a very perplexing process. With the sky-high level of competition, people often gets exhausted by the time they appear for the exam be it prelims or mains or interview. Therefore as soon as the exam gets over, the usual instinct after the exam is to roam around, meet family/friends and wait for the results.

However, this time is of utmost importance for the following reasons.
1. From mid-May to end-July is the prelims high mode. Thus, people are mainly engaged in prelims preparation. It leaves very little time to work on drawbacks of the previous year.
2. From End-August to Mains, people are purely focused on Mains. Given the breadth and depth of general studies and optional exam, it is difficult to augment any new skill set in this duration. Most of the time is spent in covering and revising what you had done in the previous attempts.

For these reasons, most often people say they were more confident in their previous attempts than in the current attempt. However, most of the candidate fails to regain their momentum in January to May time frame and end up wasting time in random activities in a directionless manner. Either the time is spent in gossiping, attending some family functions, roaming with the girl friend or playing cards and drinking alcohol. Most of the aspirants find it difficult to maintain consistency in covering even the newspaper.

I consider it as a big business proposition where such aspirants may be provided some avenues so that they utilise time in a proper manner. From my experience, I am listing some fruitful activities which will prove more productive than playing cards. These are divided into two different heads namely exam oriented and fun oriented.

Exam oriented:
Therefore, January to May is the only time when a candidate
1. can work on a new optional subject if he discovers any discomfort in the current optional subject.
2. can read many general books and augment his skill set
3. can read new text on the current optional
4. can work on the drawbacks of previous year like improving writing skill or strengthening GS topics
5. can work on his plan B

Fun Oriented:
1. Take an all India tour and write a travelogue. Some NGO provides a 25 day all India tour for some 10 or 15K.
2. Become a regular visitor of India Habitat center and attend at least 50 seminars. Meet professionals and introduce yourself. Collect their cards.
3. Start an NGO or join an NGO and lead some social change on the ground
4. Pursue your hobby vigorously. For example, if you are into meditation and become a meditation freak.
5. Work on your interest. For example, if you love to boxing then join some boxing coach to understand the nitty gritty of the game
6. Teach in a coaching or start your own (Don't worry about money here)
7. Write a book on some specific subject
8. Visit all the policy research NGO and meet people there. If possible join a policy research institute.
9. Write articles to newspapers on issues of current affairs.

But be focussed, be directed and utilise time properly. Because once the results are out, we often regret why we did not use our time productively. However, year after year candidate repeats the same thing and face an identity crisis on the d-day.

How To: Things to keep in mind

I am in the process of compiling my thoughts on the civil services preparation. However, I find it difficult to fully express myself at length due to the crunch of time.
However, the idea of writing these blogs was to give a practical handbook to aspirants who undergo the "tapasya" of UPSC. I intend to substantiate everything with examples and numerous day to day happening. I did not want it to turn into a preaching exercise.

Going forward in the process, I should keep this in mind. This post is a kind of self-reminder for myself. Down the line, if I happen to compile all these blogs in the light of my initial blog then I should maintain the practical nature of this.

It's official now

It's official now. I have become a whatsApp addict. Every five minutes, a hand of mine (mostly the right hand) involuntarily stretches out and picks up the phone. It searches for that green colored whatsApp icon with a red flag indicating unread messages and read all the messages which are not read yet. It's fun and sometimes very insightful but It's hardly making any difference in my life. Most of the time, reading message is simply a distraction from the job in hand.

Somebody have so rightly said, the most difficult battles of life are the battle within.The Battle with your bad habit, The Battle with yourself. I am less irked with the WhatsApp temptation. Instead, what worries me is why am I worried about this habit. Why can't I simply take this frustration with ease and relaxed mind? And most importantly I wonder, how everyone else is managing with such distraction?

Anyway, there are many other things happening. The plate is more than full and I am trying to run hard to beat all the daily targets. will keep you posted.

How To: Making notes from Newspaper

We have discussed in couple of previous post about importance of making notes from the newspaper. However story does not end there. People face huge dilemma about the correct manner of notes making. Some frequently asked questions are:

Q. Should I make notes in separate registers or one combined register for everything?
Q. Should I cut the newspaper articles or extract points from them?
Q. Should I maintain notes indexed by topic or indexed by dates?

Firstly, the notes making from newspaper is only the first step. The real juice lies in the constant revision. You may read loads of books but if you do not revise them regularly, It's of no use. Remember the Ebinghaus findings I mentioned. You remember hardly 3% of what you have read after 24 hours if you do not consolidate those thoughts in your brain once again.

Now, the point of making separate register or combined register. Here the answer would be "depends on how much comfortable you are managing multiple registers". Are you ok with reading a news and then finding the corresponding register and putting the newsitem therein? I was never comfortable with this appraoch. Therefore, I used to maintain one combined register for all the topics. However, I used to maintain separate registers for separate months.

Keeping separate registers like one for science and technology, other for polity and national issues, other for economics, one more for social issues has following pros and cons.
One, you will be able to access news item quickly.
Second, revision from the register becomes easy because all the newsitems of one domain are gathererd in one register.

However the negative side is also quite heavy.
It takes a lot of patience to read the news, search for the appropriate register and put news in there.
Sometimes, one newsitem may belong to various topics of syllabus. For example a topic of labour issues and education may fall under socil issues as well as economics. Where would you like to put it now?

Keeping a combined register for everything can help us in overcoming the dilemma of where to put the newwsitem.It may increase our efficiencey of newspaper reading because we don't have to go search for different registers.Often the search time to pick corresponding register acts as an interruption. However, it comes with a downside wherein you may find it difficult to find a newsitem.

To overcome this and to make newspaper notes more interconnected, I devised a new strategy. This strategy draws from the positive of both the strategies and completely remove the negative. This may look cumbersome for the first timer but ocne into it, there is nothing like it. The whole year long current affairs will be on your tips and you will end up revising the whole current affairs 2 to 3 times without even opening your registers. I will try to explain this with a seven step process. This strategy requires us to maintain monthly register for current affairs of each month and one index register where wee have listed all the topics of our mains examination.

Step 1: Make a new register for each month
Step 2: Number all the pages of this register
Step 3: Assign a code to each register. For example J for January, F for February, M for March likewise.
Step 4: Leave some space on the sides of each page
Step 5: Start each day with a fresh page
Step 6: Read the newsitem and write the notes in the corresponding month register catalogued by the date

Now a curious fellow may ask, why to do all this? The rationale behind this is "now you can access every item with the code". So a newsitem of january 21 written on page number 34 can be accessed with code J2134. Similarly a item of Feb 5 on page number 101 may be accessed by the code F05101.

and now the final step:
Step 7: Buy a 10 rupee short notebook, number it's pages and allocate one page for one topic of mains. I shall provide the list of topics in the next blog.

Now when you are reading the newspaper, all you have to do is pick up the monthly register and make an entry of your notes on the relevant newsitem. Once done with this, think about various heads under which this newsitem may fall. So for example, A news of "Increasing unemployability of educated people in the labour market due to fake degree colleges" may be tagged as education and labour reforms. Similarly, a newsitem on the "Railway sending a water train to Latur to deal with drought" may be tagged as Railway, water, Agriculture, Farmer issues and so on.

This kind of reflection helps in strong retention and consolidation of the topics. And it provides better granularity of indexing your item.

Once you are done reading the newspaper, close it and forget. Whenever you are making the first revision, devote some time to make an entry to the small 10 rupee notebook. Follow the following steps,

Step 1: Choose any one of the prominent tag. Let us say we pick labour in this case and the tag was J0112 that is this item is listed on January one, page number 12.
Step 2: Open the labour page and make a one line entry J0112 along with the most prominent 2 pts of the newsitem.
Step 3: Do this exercise for all the newsitems which you revise for the first time.

Now let us say when you are making nth entry to this register, you can easily revise the previous n-1 items without having to open the main register. Just a cursory look at the item will activate your brain circuits and will help you in interlinking and revising. For instance, the whole issue of labor can be captured in few seconds. This provides a full bird-eye-view of the macro topic of labor.

Whenever, you want to make a second revision before the exam, you simply have to open the ten rupee indexed register and you will be done in very short time. Whenever, you are making a new entry, you will involuntarily end up revising all the previous newsitems related to this topic from this page.

Therefore, the answer to the question of " Should I make notes in separate registers or one combined register for everything" is "maintain monthly register, index them by dates and tag them by topics of mains examination, maintain a separate small portable ten rupee register where access code of each item is listed under the tag page".

Give it a try for 15 days. Trust me you'll find it much more productive and engaging than the monotonus and bulky exercise of maintaining different registers. Few advantages of this approach are following:

1. You have a finer level indexing by the mains topics. So instead of dividing the notes in five domains of social issues, science and technology, polity of national issues, Now you have divided the whole thing by 100 topics.
2. It helps you immensely in the revision which is the main objective.
3. It makes you newspaper reading efficient so you don't have to choose in which register to put the newsitem.
4. The reflection on what categories this item may fall in helps in further consolidation and deveelop critical thinking.

This also answers the third question of "Should I maintain notes indexed by topic or indexed by dates?". Now you have items indexed by topics as well as dates. You can choose whichever way you wish to revise. Moreover, all you have to do is carry this short notebook along with you wherever you go and open any random page. In less than five minutes, you will have enough insight on the topic that you would be able to speak extempore on the contemporary issues for hours and hours.

Now comes the second qeustion which is "Should I cut the newspaper articles or extract points from them?".
In my experience, most of the time, if we cut paste the news item, we often end up reading the full item again and again on each revision. Therefore, I always preferred to extract some five key points from the article and dump the newspaper. However, some of my friend find it too abstract and face difficulties in recalling the context of news when it comes to revision.

The key lies in how do you extract the points. For Some benchmark articles from renonwned scholars like Amartay Sen or M.S. Swaminathan, it is better to cut and paste the entire article because mostly every line of such article is relevant. It assumes greater importance because it directly comes from horses mouth. For some big article, if you feel lazy or article is so important then one may cut paste the whole thing. However, if you are cut-pasting an article then make sure that you underline and number the important points of the newsitem. Otherwise, it is often unproductive.

This much for the day. Will write about many other substantial things and interesting aspect of making your civil services preparation enjoyable without a girlfriend or without alcohol.

Till then, Good bye. Have to check grammar also

How To: Reading newspaper for different stages of examination

How to: Read Newspaper in the preparation of Civil Services

The Newspaper is a staple ingredient in the diet of a civil services aspirant. The Newspaper is the most wonderful resource on current affairs and issues of day-to-day importance. With the changing nature of the examination, Newspaper reading has assumed greater importance. This to the extent that many coaching institutes have mushroomed in the recent year with a niche in newspaper reading.

Aspirants face many problems in this area of preparation. Most specifically,
Q. How many hours should I devote to newspaper reading?
Q. How many newspapers should I read?
Q. Should I make detailed newspaper notes or should I go with the Wizard and compendium?
Q. Should I make soft notes or hard self-written notes?
Q. Till when should I read the newspaper?
Q. Should I read a newspaper or should I read general books to diversify my knowledge?
Q. What all kinds of news should I read?
Q. How important is a newspaper from prelims perspective? Do we have questions on issues of the current affair?
Q. Which newspaper should I study?

First and foremost, There is no replacement to making self-notes from the newspaper. If you are reading from some ready-made material than you are only settling for something lesser and different. This I say for 4 different reasons.

Firstly, Newspaper reading should be a life long habit. As a civil servant, the newspaper becomes your eyes and ears to the ground. Therefore, if we are hesitant or lazy to read the newspaper now, then how will we do justice with the job as and when an opportunity falls on us.

Secondly, Your brain knows it best what to pick, what you can remember and what is the sequence of news items. So it is better to make self-notes than relying on Vajiram or Wizard or GKToday. They can act as good supplement because they compile the whole issue. But kind of insight and perspective newspaper helps in developing, these materials do not. I always get a very mechanical feeling when I read from these compendiums. Newspaper reading is more spiritual and affective in nature.

Thirdly, These compendiums do not read between the lines. They are not Prelims or Mains or Interview tailored. Rather they are prepared in a way to provoke maximum fear in the aspirant so that they go viral in the market. Thus, you end up reading the same thing which thousands of others are reading. How is your preparation different then. Remember Civil Services is about back to basics.

Fourthly, It is better to capture the information in bits and pieces for the sake of better retention and concept formation.The newspaper covers an issue over a period of time and different authors give a different perspective which helps in a development of multi-dimensional thinking.

Fifthly, You develop the literally skill and vocabulary by reading the news items.

So If possible, make your own points. You can use various approaches like five point or summary of the summary or tagging approach about which I have written in other blogs. If not possible to make notes, then at least read the newspaper on a daily basis.

However, A large number of aspirants are always depressed and confused about the time they should devote to the newspaper. Especially, in the first couple of years, I see people going to Vajiram sir often asking about how much time should they devote to newspaper reading. It is difficult to manage the newspaper along with two optional or an optional or GS class.

For this, take it in writing, from my experience, I can decisively say that if you are making notes of the newspaper then it should take anywhere between 90 to 135 minutes. Not less than that. There might be some days like Saturday edition or Sunday issue, one can manage within 90 minutes but otherwise, howsoever fast and hard you are, if you are reading with paying enough attention to details then it takes 90 minutes at least. On average I would say is 110 minutes.

There are people who may claim to read newspaper in 40 minutes or 60 minutes. That is all nonsense. Either they miss the critical thinking or they miss important news items or they are too superficial in reading the newspaper or not making notes from the newspaper.

Now comes the question of how many newspapers should I read?
Well, for a first attempt candidate who is also burdened with traditional GS and optional, I would say one newspaper is more than sufficient.

Even otherwise, I feel one newspaper is always sufficient. Instead of devoting time to the second newspaper, one can better follow insightonIndia or Mrunal or RSTV or read a book.

Even for the interview candidate, I suggest, don't bog down yourself with newspaper reading too much. Just cover one newspaper and that should be sufficient.


Now on the question of should I make self-notes or Evernote-powered notes on the computer?
See, Evernote powered notes are very easy to catalog, search and are portable in nature. Thus, it is very appealing to go for that sort of notes in the present tech-savvy era.

However, being little orthodox in my approach, I noticed a multitude of problems with the digital note making practice.
Firstly, You end up indiscriminately copy pasting and dumping the content on Evernote. This results in bulkier than Hulk size of notes by the quarter end. Instead of enticing you to read or revise, it strongly demotivates you from jumping into it.

Secondly, It does not tax your brain. The important thing about writing is while we pen down important points, we tend to reflect on it. Thus, some traces are retained in our memory. The same does not go with computer style notes making.

Thirdly, Computer hides the bulkiness of notes from you. Thus, it never motivates you to revise them from time to time. When you see the copy lying in front of your eyes 24*7 then occasional flipping helps in quick revisions. This is not the same with the computer.

Therefore, digital notes making is suggested only if
1. candidate does not indiscriminately copy the whole para from article
2. Candidate makes bulleted notes of the article
3. Candidate revises them regularly every seventh day
4. Candidate uses ctrl-f in addictive fashion which would help him in interconnecting the concept

However, it is easier said than done. I have seen people sitting with thousands of files fortnight before the exam wondering on how to revise them in such short span of time and literally falling back on the Wizard.

I personally always go for handwritten notes. However, it also requires the second level of cataloging for quick revision and reference.It has its own set of questions like:

Q. Should I make notes in separate registers or one combined register for everything?
Q. Should I cut the newspaper articles or extract points from them?
Q. Should I maintain notes indexed by topic or indexed by dates?

We will deal with these questions along with tagging or cataloging in another blog post in detail.

Another question which often arise is, till when should I read the newspaper?

As the exam nears, people face the severe crunch of time and struggle hard to revise all that they have read. Thus, a natural question comes to the mind should I read the newspaper just two days before prelims or mains when I know the paper has already been set a month before.

My take is stop making notes from 25 days before prelims but read the newspaper till two weeks before prelims. Devote till only 40 minutes but just skim through headlines to get a feel of whats going on around. It helps in interconnecting with your current affairs news. And most importantly, you have to cover this for mains anyway. So why to leave it now. 40 minutes is a good break from your hour's long schedule so it helps in rejuvenating your nerve cells of the mind.


For mains, however, I suggest read it till the day of your exam. Many times, UPSC asks questions on prospective events or current issues which are progressing in the news. For example, Let us say, PM is scheduled to visit South Africa on the date of your examination. So UPSC may ask a question on south Africa relations leaving everyone stumped. Anyway, their task is not to select a candidate. Rather, the recruitment process focuses on eliminating the students. So for mains, reading the newspaper till the day of exam becomes important. However, one can stop making notes 30 days before the exam.

See there is a trade off. For the 40 to 60 minutes of investment in the newspaper, how many marks is it going to add to my overall score? How many questions can come from this period of the current affair? Would it enhance your knowledge of existing issues of current affairs? And how much boost it can give to your preparation? So one should take a decision on the basis on this probabilistic mathematics.

For Interview, I need not mention. However, the manner of reading the newspaper is a little bit different.

One question always peeved me during my preparation years which is "should I read a newspaper or should I read general books to diversify my knowledge?" Even today sometimes, I suffer from this dilemma. The newspaper gives you good enough information of multitude of issues from various spheres of knowledge. However, Book reading is a gratifying experience in its own way. The answer to this may differ from person to person. But from my general experience, I can decisively say, read one newspaper only and use the extra time to pick content and medium of your liking.

For instance, One may prefer to read all the books of one author one after other or watch youtube videos on great speeches or some other kind of infotainment. Instead of reading the second newspaper to diversify your knowledge, one must develop some domain specific expertise. This would help in developing a T in your knowledge base where you will have enough breadth of understanding of the issues and depth in some particular dimensions.

But reading one newspaper is also not very easy on a regular basis. That is why a large number of not-so-good coaching institutes have come up in the market selling the idea of "newspaper classes". I find it self-defeating and nonsense to attend these classes for the purpose of covering the newspaper. One may attend one session of such classes for the sake of understanding the chronology of the issue but from my experience, the existing coaching institutes are more damaging than rewarding to the students preparation.

Most of the students join these classes because they do not know what all kinds of news should they read? For this, I am presenting here a list of do's and don't. Let us begin with don't.
Don'ts
1. Issues of city or individual level importance or local items(to be read during Interview)
2. Issues of rape, violence, dacoity and all the negative news from general page 2-3-4-5 of standard newspapers.
3. Issues which are repeated too often that they have become daily bread of the media. For example: Anna Andolan which may be trending for months and months
4. Issues of pure politics
5. Issues of private organizations entering into pacts etc.
6. Sports issues of who win or who lost
7. General trivia
8. Repetitive issues like Syria war or Afghan violence unless something tectonic or transformational has not happened.

Do's
1. Focus on 6 pages of the newspaper namely, front page, editorial, op-ed, economics, international, and national issues.
2. Issues or events which are thematic in nature like article 356 or judicial overreach or Doping (WADA) should be captured
3. RBI or Finance Ministry or sectoral news items should be grabbed by the neck
4. National issues like social programs or case studies or investigative journalism should be read in depth
5. Policy or scheme advertisements should be paid attention

Every news should be tested on the touchstone of following questions before investing time into it.
1. Is this news important for our national social political economic or cultural progress?
2. Do I know enough of this issue?
3. What would be the impact of certain international development in India?

For The Hindu readers, the easy way of doing this is to download the Hindu daily digest and just read the news which is in it. Rest all is useless. For others in general, go online and pick the current event news items from the daily current event of the Insights or the Gktoday or IAS baba. Any of them will do. Come back to the newspaper and read those relevant items.
For express, similar standards along with some extra attention to "Explained page" may be paid.
For mint, capture the themes. second and third last page has some good articles but overall Mint misses on social and political issues. It is economics and data heavy newspaper.

Before that, I will take a pertinent question on which newspaper should one read?

In my opinion, The Hindu remains a universally accepted answer. However, Indian Express is picking up really fast and I find it much more exciting to read than the dull and repetitive coverage of The Hindu. So in the initial years, one may read The Hindu but after a certain time, it is advisable to switch to Express. Mint is also a content heavy choice which is more in-line with the current format of the exam but it is very data heavy. So instead of making it main plank, just read the select news articles as highlighted on Insights.

Nowadays, I read The Indian Express and I find it very rewarding.

One may ask, why reading the daily events news from insights won't suffice. The answer to this lies in the difference in the examination format of prelims, mains, and Interview. This is asnwered in the next post.