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