The day after FC

I got up like every other day hoping that dreams become realities

Walked out of room to find barely filled places, deserted lounges, locked rooms and empty corridors

Those iron structures started melting, ever for the first time in the history they broke down

thanks to the liveliness of the people in the academy, many of whom left

I felt I am very strong
But in the end I discovered it otherwise and started imitating.......

My heart is so porous and mind u friends your absence is piercing it

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Life is a train
At times it moves, at times it doesn't
When it moves it can be fast or slow
At times it stops at lively places and at times at deserted places
You may be alone or you may have a group
You like people around you or you may not

But you keep missing those who deboarded all along your journey

My status

learning how to cut without a scissors, paste without gum, copy without carbon/xerox

Forbes Top 20 powerful (????????????) women

Today I bumped into forbes list of powerful women. lets see how far it can be accepted. It was claimed that their rankings are a combination of two scores: visibility -- by press mentions -- and the size of the organisation or country these women lead...

Indian women Ms. Kochar, Ms. Sonia and Ms. Nooyi feature in that list.. Ms. Nooyi is ranked far ahead of Ms. Sonia Gandhi. And then people like Hillary, Nancy Pelosi are ranked far below.

The visibility of a sovereign democratic republic India is far greater than that of Pepsi or Icici.. Still I don't understand the funda behind Forbes' rationale.

The size of the country too is enormous, being the 2nd most populous. Organisations like Pepsi or ICICI can never even dream of having 1 crore workers atleast..

Once I started thinking, For a moment, I was shocked... Are these lists believable / reliable ...........
Now its left to your individual judgement..............

My railway budget wishlist

Being a civil servant, I cannot comment on the railway budget but here goes my wish-list. There are a few constraints but again we can't stop thinking citing a few reasons.

First time I travelled to Delhi by train, it's in 2002 and it took 26 hours to reach the destination. Even in the last month same time by the same train. Now I started wondering how fast development is ? Agreed that amenities improved a bit comparatively.

Even I do notice that tracks are generally 2 and are increasing but slowly. Can such a density be handled just by 2. Frequent crossovers interrupt the journey and tend to increase the time. Again time for much quicker implementation.

Still we are in the gauge conversion when many countries are going ahead with bullet trains. Shortly it will be high time we have them.

Mass rapid transit systems are limited to a few cities, what about others fast catching up.............

Compare the basic facilities at Nizamuddin and Secunderabad, the 2nd is far better. With decent effort we can definitely replicate a few across India.

All said and done, there are many positive developments perceivable by us. Scale is both an asset and liability for India, but we need to conquer it with sheer effort.

Mantra would be: more tracks, more routes, more trains, more speeds and more amenities

My evergreen crush

I again fell. It happens to be the same old gold and bold one but evergreen Delhite. Previously I couldn't find what is so nice and why I am being dragged. A small change in the way I approach. Something different. Just cause my mind became totally free and blank, I was able to observe the beauty. Each time I bumped into, the experience is unique and my love for it deepened.


Now lets talk business!!

U might be wondering the ,, its very short sweet,, Try guessing it. Hmm , got bored, here it is "Metro"

The experience was wonderful, Previously I am preoccupied with many things that I could not find the beauty of it: carrying hundreds in a train, thousands in a day, millions a month and many more going forward.

The clean sleek look , neat ambience , the journey are all very much memorable and enjoyable for many.

It is a brilliant example of how technology can do wonders for the common man. A new fast and smart way of transporting people and reducing the urban congestion on the typical Indian cities' roads. It too has another angle i.e. environment. Again a proof that technology can even save the environment, this is too those who are against technology.

All kudos to Sreedharan and we need much more from him and many people like him...

GS for Civils

A few tips go below how to crack GS. Surprisingly I can say proudly that I scored the highest in GS without any coaching. I never attended any institute and it is easily achievable with just commonsense and hardwork. I did refer to a few handouts of a few institutes but there are just add-ons once the basics are in place. In Delhi, you can get the handouts in some xerox shops.. Luckily I found them in Old Rajinder Nagar.

Point-wise

Multidimensional answer

Pick from newspapers,websites

Quote the source of your information if possible

Improve both the content and the speed:

With both,I could write 200 words for 150 and 300 for 250 with full relevancy. Brain should work like a computer so as not to spend much time thinking what to write. Be prepared before-hand itself how you are going to handle a few questions.

If you have interest in a particular area, develop it so as to maximise your score ex.. foreign relations, economics etc

The above will be dealt with deeply in a few days!!!!!!!!!!!

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Now comes I followed for GS. All I did was to maximise the points I could put over there by referring to various sources.

Please excuse me for being a little bit tech-savvy when it comes to GS. But I found some things useful and interesting. Search engines helped me a lot. Thanks to them too!! :))

History : Spectrum, Bipin chandra, scattered books for Indian culture ( pick one)

Geography: Its my optional but I suggest NCERT for others

Polity: Basic-DD Basu, Add on for that -- Vajiram polity or Srirams polity; some current topics from newspapers like cases etc

Social Issues: No preparation but its just commonsense. Its left to u.

Oil/Trade Diplomacy: Internet ( FAQs in a few websites like WTO and other press releases and summaries) + Srirams

Economics: Its my field of interest; New-papers and internet (Minsitry of Commerc, Finanace, Newsitems/Reports of Multilateral organisations (ex: World Investment Report ...) etc) mainly supplemented by Srirams Handout for Economy

International/Foreign Relations: Mostly Ministry of external Affairs for India's Relations with other countries; Newspapers, Civil Services Times Magazine. u can have a glance at websites like World politics Review , bbc (especially the timelines which u can find in it) etc. Again my field of interest but don't ask me why I didn't opt for IFS :D

Statistics: NCERT and I glanced another small book. Sorry could not recollect the name of the author

Science and Technology: TMH by ashok Singh.. Again newspapers are handy and topics like IPTV which are in news last time are covered in some. heard that a few 2 markers are picked from Science Reporter but I missed. Whether u can be exhaustive or not, its left to you.


After quoting so many sources, I understand that it is a tough job to cover each and everything. I suggest you guys to have a quick look and decide according to your priority. Cover all the topics and once you are comfortable with the entire syllabus, develop your strong areas and try to score as much in them. Ex: If you are good at statistics, try to score 30 out of 30 in that. Just remember that each word is valuable in GS.

My own Quotes

Please dont ask for explanations. This is just of a store-house of one-liners I ever imagine.

On your way to success, intelligence may help you a couple of times but hardwork always.

I prayed that the days would last but they went so fast ( just memorising a few :D)

You may be a question bank but I am not all-in-one.

Booklist for Geography

Please not that there are not exclusive but at the same time some are redundant. To make your task easier pick some notes or material for missing topics and other addons.

Follow some Atlas for maps , Oxford , TTK

Paper 1

Books by Savinder Singh, Siddharth, Lal, Vattal and Vattal, Majid Hussain

Paper 11

India by Khullar
Economic Survey
and if possible Hindu's Survey of Indian Agriculture and Survey of Indian Industries

Prema Doma vankaay (TITLE in Telugu but not content)

This appears to some as amazing, interesting but to others as non-sense. Lets discuss about different kinds of love today. Mind you! these are all gathered experiences of others. Please leave me if you find that you are either the actor/actress. Or else do warn me before so that I will learn one good defensive art.

Different Categories

True Love: Contemporary times, one can find this only in films cutting across language barriers. But a good amount of it can be found in Mythologies too. A beautiful example is that of Rukmini Devi. Here the cast just falls into with the fair sex, can tolerate anything, does not mind what the other party does but just believes and LOVE LOVE LOVE . It is an ideal one, but in reality one should be extremely lucky to get something of this sort; If you find traces of it, just crosscheck if it is a TRASH LOVE instead of TRUE LOVE.

Conditional Love: Here the party has to take a number of initiatives. One has to buy so much of gifts, cards, flowers, bokays and many more interesting (to the other party as and when the situation demands) ones. Also one needs to see off the other at a variety of places like ports, airports , railports and even bus stations. To many, Occasional candle-light dinners, movies will become a norm than exception. But the best (worst) condition is that related to day to day work. More importantly all will go in vain if a few conditions are not met from time to time.

Arranged Love: Did you ever hear of match-fixing? This is quite similar to it. There are a few match-makers (match-breakers too) who implicitly direct the game. Both the batsman and the bowler play as if on their own but the hidden fact is that others are involved and the game goes on as per the wishes of a few who are not playing it. Irony is that just like any other fixing here also monetary terms get involved often. To some this is the best part as the game got decided long back and we can escape the responsibilities in the future.

Qualified Love: It can be classified differently by different people. But here one predominant qualifier is attached to one party and the other toes the line but when respected equally. No further conditions exist, no match-fixing but not true love. Again can it be called UNCONDITIONAL L? No.. but what if we name it as ONECONDITIONAL L........

PS: God ! Save me from all these and join me in finding a new category.

Vivek The Telugu Magazine for civils

Today I have to mention a strange event. I don't know how many of you might have heard about VIVEK. It is a telugu magazine and it caters to the needs of civil services aspirants. A week ago, I was asked to share my success and other useful information so that it reaches those REGIONAL aspirants who otherwise will not know much. I thought 'Ok! fine , let me do it'.

A few questions were shooted at me regarding various aspects of my preparation and any other suggestions. Interestingly the magazine is brought out by some REDDY coaching institute in HYDERABAD. There I just attended a single mock interview and nothing much. I clearly mentioned it to the reporter and asked him not to mislead people with unnecessary MOVIE MASALAAAAAAA. It was agreed by both sides..


Next comes the magazine. I grabbed a copy seeing my photo on it. And just gone through what it written there. Most of the things are similar to what I have said, except one shocking aspect. I was dumb-struck to find it over there. It read asssssss (the content was translated to English here)------- One mock interview with _ _ REDDY IAS Study Circle helped me a lot in my success.. What the F they have written.

God! I did 2 mocks with UPSC and they too were not helpful. Moreover this time I got very less score (less than 50%) in the interview. I have mentioned it clearly to them even before it was published, that my interview was bad.

In the end, it is a good lesson to come to a conclusion that what reaches common man is spiced up and changed to someone's advantage.

Global crisis and related

Very nice insights into the co-ordinated action of the countries across the globe though delayed. Better late than never.

http://www.imf.org/external/np/speeches/2009/051509.htm

PS: Picked from IMF


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Marksheet

Roll No. : 074599
Name : D PRASANTH KUMAR REDDY

Civil Services(Main) Examination 2008
Subject		Maximum Marks	Marks Obtained
Essay(Paper III)		200	094
General Studies (Paper-IV)		300	183
General Studies(Paper-V)		300	170
Optional I,Geography	Paper-VI	300	188
	Paper-VII	300	152
Optional II, Public Administration	Paper-VIII	300	189
	Paper-IX	300	157
Penalty Marks			0
Written Total		2000	1133
Interview Marks		300	135
Final Total		2300	1268

Remarks : Recommended.

I have no words to comment on my interview performance. Three interviews same score, 135. This time it was Parveen Talha's board. I worked hard from December. We formed a group, gathered around 300MB of online content, got deeper into many issues and more over worked good bit on personality. So much of discretion that it makes or mars one's chances. I am the last one in the day to be interviewed. It was almost 5:45 PM by the time it started. Meanwhile I gathered profiles of all those who will be interviewed before me by the same board, observed the plan of UPSC, its architecture, surroundings, directions which we are facing and many more to answer what you have done here from afternoon. Quite unlucky after so much of effort, before and during. My Honest feeling is that I deserve a place in top 20 if not 10. I belong to that school of thought which treats IAS as a passion and not just a career. Interestingly, I hold the honours for topping from below the interview score amongst top 100. Please correct me if I am wrong! On the other hand my written score should well be in the top. A Perfect IRONY, something like an oxymoron. Anyways have to accept it as there is no other alternative and move ahead. One guy in the same session got 85. Atleast I should not feel bad after hearing this. Its better if UPSC has some feedback mechanism atleast.

Oil Diplomacy

Here I give a few hints of what should never be forgotten while answering the question related to India's Oil diplomacy. Mind you ! Examples for each will add value to the answer and put you in 50+ bracket.

New Strategic partnerships with oil exporting countries ,, ex: Nigeria and leveraging the existing relations to further such partnerships.

Acquisition of oil assets abroad either by Public sector or Private sector or Joint. This can again be done solo or in combination with other countries/their companies.

Entering into long-term agreements with countries having oil/gas assets.

Oil/Natural gas Pipelines.

Cooperation at international level to secure the prices.

Initiatives to ensure safe passage of ships ex: Gulf of Aden.

though not directly related to diplomacy, the following can also be included relevantly

Encouring Technological co-operation with foreign companies, FDI and also allowing them to explore within India. Ex : Cairn

Maintaining oil reserves in India.

All about current affairs books

Current affairs part constitutes a major in Civil Services exam. It is also a bit tough and puts exacting demands on the aspirant. It is the very dynamic part and keeps changing continuously. Below are my honest observations of a few magazines which cater to this part. People who get offended are requested to take things in the lighter vein.

I too had come across a few magazines and knowingly or unknowingly used to buy a few of them so as to make my preparation easy. First it was the Chroni"KILL". It was so exhaustive. They term it as current affairs but I don't understand if some of the topics form part of current affairs last year. Irony.

Now I need to mention about another called "Lizard". It is just the dumpiest of all. All news paper articles will be dumped in the point forms. God ! we already have newpapers to serve that purpose.

Then it is about some BC Reddi Current Events and Analysis. The analysis part will be ok compared to other things but man you miss some current events and make the name itself a misnomer.

Have you ever heard about TIMES(not monthly magazine but current affairs special)- I could not find sufficient time to dig deep into it. Comments are most welcome.

After wasting so much time finding which one is the best, I conclude no size fits all and its upto the individual to come to a conclusion. But my honest opinion goes below.

Rely mostly on internet and a wide variety of newspapers rather than magazines atleast if you have time. Develop some interest in whatever you study and try to analyse various dimensions. Only then a comprehensive answer can be written and that too it will avoid last minute rush of buying magazines, mugging them up and ................

It is quite unfortunate that I found this only during my 3rd attempt and lost some valuable time.

My tryst with destiny

Its a bit long story full of twists and some masala just like any Indian movie. Overall it took roughly 4 years and 3 takes to release the film " civils aa majaakaa"

tatttadoooooooooy !!

Take 1:

The cinema started in 2005. The hero goes to his old friend to find a lil bit about acting. He gets frightened seeing the enormity of the stuff needed to prepare. As time approches for Part1 (Prelims), the hero dreams and thinks that first take ll be the best one and it will be a super hit. Some how he manages well and ensures that Part 1 is a succeess.

Here comes the next part - 2(Mains). Then comes the supporting actor- PM in TCS: Probably the best supporting actor the hero can ever act with. After a long plan , the hero manages to get a 3 week schedule. Things go on well but again fall short of expectation. But it is good enough that the director(UPSC) gave chance to perform the next part.

Somehow, he manages to start Part-3 (Interview). But, you know, what happens: Already full hype is built around it and this ends as an utter flop. The Director ditches the takes like anything.

Take 2 and Take 3

Now the hero has mastered part 1 and 2 ; but as each part 2 is very important , agains the director call for retake (number 3) to ensure the part 2 is Pacca...

Alas ! The film was released on 4th May and its a super duper tuper HIT.

PS: Haaaa, Acting is very tough. And some Directors are very strict.

ENNI TAKULU ANNADI KADANNAYYA , CINEMA HIT AYINDA LEDA

Probables for UPSC Prelims

Topics

Eurozone, new members, Financial crisis
Bluecard
RISAT 2
PSLV s
Indian Ballistic Missile Defense AAD PAD
AGNI system
UMPP
UNFCCC COP Meetings
NATO/OAS/G 20/ ... bakcground and meetings

Hat-trick with UPSC

Its 28th March. Interview was scheduled afternoon. Went with 2 other interview-goer frns to UPSC.
Again I was unlucky to be the last/5th member of the day. I had to wait from 1 30 to 5 30 for my turn but what to do? then chatted with others for a while , they include Deepa, Miss Dubey , Ravi and Zakeer Ahmed. When it was her turn, The first lady was so confident that she got up and said we will meet again in FC. :-) Then we all got engaged in some chitchat as one by one took their turn. It's as if narrated in Mahabharata. Each of the pandavas get out to get water but not to return. We don't know what is happening.

Now lemme brief about the main stuff-----

It was Parveen talha's board, supposed to be one of the good boards.

Brief of the questions.

on hindu , did u see the 50 years that age column ? I might have come across but not recollecting
say yes or no? No madam -- this is the main draw back

y u quit the job
dont u know that a bird in a hand is better than two in a bush?
do u think exit polls are good or bad?
problems of electronic media companies
then y cant they go for staggered news instead of 24 by 7

sebi
any scam which it probed? Yes bank IPO
what did it do ? barred some
name them ? gave up again

cyber security
cert and what does it do?
IT act

agripedia
village knowledge centre


geography:
hawaain Islands
panama canal
baikanur
time difference as we move by 1 longitude
seismic zones in india
where does delhi NE and HP fall
whats the problem ? dam burst
dont u knowabout run off the river scheme? what is its problem? temporary dams
name one such dam ? Pareechu
where is it ?

IPO fPO
IPO valuation? BRLM ? I gave up here

Result : Got 64 rank. Again interview is a dampener, 135. Disgusted coz 3 interviews 3 135s. Atleast I would have been in top 20 with 165.
God ! what does UPSC expect from you?