 Good afternoon. Welcome to this webinar. And it's great to have you here. Sir, Dr. Thangarajan sir, Mr. Sudhubhai Narayanan is there. Yes, yes. My dear students, again on behalf of the consuming and higher education cell of the Engineering College, it's my pleasure to welcome Mr. Sudhubhai Narayanan, an alumnus of the College of Engineering, Gindi, and all India ranks 75 of the UPSC 2019. Thank you sir, thank you for joining us and thank you again for accepting to motivate our students. And I welcome you all once again to this webinar and over to you for your standing here. Thank you. Thank you very much, Professor. Thank you. Congratulating College and Shankarayas Academy for giving me this opportunity. Very, very inspiring to hear ma'am right before I speak. I actually was a spectator for about 45 minutes before I bring Ramesh sir saying I'm actually there because I was actually very keen and interested to hear what ma'am was saying and I didn't want to switch on my video. So thank you very much. And as all of you would have known quite an unconventional journey, a story of courage, a story which is quite inspiring to tell us that each one of us have a different way of approaching life. All of our circumstances are different, but we can still overcome different challenges and achieve what we ought to achieve in terms of what we've decided. Now I'm speaking in Tamil and English. First of all, thank you to all the students who are here for 100 plus students who are here. It's a Sunday. It's afternoon. I'm sure there's some yummy lunch being made by your parents and I'll keep this very short. So other questions will take more of questions, but ma'am has covered so many beautiful things that I wanted to cover. So what I'm essentially planning to do is I'm just going to put them in some sort of 16 top two, three things and then just share my journey. And I want to keep it more from my college journey kind of perspective because most of them are college students here. I actually wanted to study civil services. I actually thought college was the first. When I was in college, I was asked a lot about the stools. When I was doing the stools, I was in college with Shankara Academy. I don't know if it's Shankar sir or Chandru sir's story, but a ma'am was sitting in that stall. And all the friends are now most of my friends who are of course very inspiring and they do amazing stuff in their own fields. Very skeptical about the government and government services. They said, you know, we should all do a startup. We should start a business together. We should all work in consulting and all of that. But I was always very interested in, you know, some sort of public service, right? I think that came from because my own parents come from very humble backgrounds, and they have been able to do something out of their share, hard work, sincerity. And in Chinnavesh, they have taken me through a lot of travelling. When I went to a lot of places with my parents, I was fascinated by the stories of each city. Be it a temple town, be it a national park, be it, you know, anywhere abroad. These stories of inspiration, the stories of courage, of people who have gone over and above what they had to do at a particular time. But they went over the call of duty to do things as always inspiring. And even my parents, they lead quite an inspiring life. So that seat was always there because ma'am, I have a humble background. You know, she had to overcome so many challenges and she had to do it. And I've always felt extremely grateful for what I've always had for my privilege. So when something is there, how can we give it or how can we learn it? I always think, what can we do to improve ourselves? Because when we have the basic necessities, we can always fulfil our potential much more, you know, to what we want to do. And when we have that capability, it's amazing. So I'm always interested in the public service because the government has massive scale. It has resources. You get the opportunity to travel, you get to meet people. And that's always been very interesting and inspiring for me. So when I went to the starlet of Shankar Academy, they gave me the syllabus when I was in college. So I think the story is, if you're in college itself and if you get some kind of exposure to what this exam is, it stays with you. I didn't take up coaching immediately. In fact, it was almost five to six years after that initial interaction that I had with that ma'am in that stall in college that I actually decided that I want to get into the civil services. But I was exposed to it. So at least I knew what the structure of the exam was and I knew that I'm interested in this. But of course my friends laughed and they said, Ida Lavanda insulted. I actually had a startup when I was in college. I was doing a lot of theater when I was in college. I really enjoyed my college time. And I think that's a very important lesson, which I cherish now to say that I actually was grateful to have a very good college education and made a lot of friends and was exposed to many things. I did theater, I did a lot of cultural, I did everything. So people who are in the second year, third year, fourth year, enjoy your college time. Those friendships make a lot of impact as you grow on in your career. So once I did that, I actually went on to do something called the Young India Fellowship in Ashoka University. It's a course in Delhi. It's a one-year program. The geography, geo-informatics, I was always interested in humanities and human sciences. I wanted to understand a bit of our own history of sociology, of international relations, much like the civil services syllabus. That's what it demands as well, a multi-dimensional approach. But in 2015, when I said that there is an opportunity in Delhi, I applied for it and luckily I got in. It's a very, very competitive process. It's a tough process. You guys should check out what Young India Fellowship is. I got through that and I was in the program. He's working with a lot of government projects now, but not as a civil servant, but as a consultant with a think tank. So he also told me a lot of things about the civil services, about the preparation. It was very interesting. It's primarily interesting, like Ma'am said, because it's an opportunity for you to learn. The kind of books that you get to read, the kind of exposure that you get and the intellectual stimulus that one gets because of just studying so much and understanding so much about our own history, our own society, our own culture, economics, how it works. It really opens up your mind to many different things. So if you're deciding to take the civil services, join coaching like Shankar Academy or like Ma'am self-prepare, the process of going through the entire civil service preparation is absolutely amazing. It opens up so many avenues. It opens up your own mind to different ideas. And I think that is something which is very valuable that I learned from and through this preparation. So I was interested in a lot of these subjects. Sociology, I studied there for the first time. So after I studied that, I took my option and took the sociology. It was a very interesting subject. I had some fabulous teachers like Andhra Bhatia, Amitabh Bhavaskar who are very, very renowned in this field. And I was lucky to have been taught directly by them. After that, I worked in the skill development space. In 2013, when the Companies Act was amended, the concept of corporate social responsibility came up. CSR Fund gave corporate support for a social cause. They had to contribute to NGOs and work on social projects. So I worked with NASCARM Foundation on a skill development project which was funded by Genpak. Genpak is an MNC. So that was funded by them. So I was managing a project in Hyderabad. So that taught me a lot of things again about administration, about monitoring, evaluation. How do you create criteria for a social project? If there's any project, you have to have certain policy criteria of who your end beneficiaries are going to be, what your baseline is, what your outcomes are going to be. So it was very interesting to brainstorm with people, with my mentors, both the NASCARM Foundation and Genpak to understand how the entire social sector works. So it was very interesting. But at the end of a year of work, I was in Delhi. I left Chennai for two and a half years. I wanted to be back home. And if I had said that I want to come back home and quit my job, my parents would have said no. So I thought, okay, let me say that I'm going to study for the civil services and come back home so that I get to study. At the same time, I'm back home. So that was the main reason I told my parents and they were very happy because my dad had also recently met an IPS officer and he had also suggested that if your son is interested in the humanities and in the social sector, he could always give a try for the civil services. So after I finished my work in Chennai, I went to Shankar Academy. So we had no idea, right? As a family, we had no relatives, no sister, no uncle, no uncle, nobody around me who is in the service, who is prepared for this. No friends of mine who are even interested in this. But I was interested in this. I needed this structure and some sort of a mentor who's going to take me through the whole process. And for me, it was Shankar sir, Chandru sir and Prajitamayam Rajan from the institution, right? So they were my elder brother and this is the uncle and so to speak who were there for me to give me that structure to say do this, do that. Ma'am, as I said, in the process, it is much more valuable than what you have to do because there's a lot of gyan out there and resources which tells you what you're supposed to do but what you're not supposed to do. So as Chandru sir said, you have to read these books and don't expose them too much. This exam has a lot of syllables and it has a 10 years question papers. First, look at it, attend classes, write tests and then do other things. Because when I came, I came with more of an academic kind of a mind frame where I want to write and read a lot but less is more in this exam, right? And the more you revise, the more stronger you get with the fundamentals, it becomes very helpful. So I joined Shankar Academy and that's largely my story, right? In terms of how I want to get into this. In the academy, largely, I hope all of you know that the exam is a three-part exam, right? So there's a preliminary exam, there's a main exam and there's an interview. All these three I studied at Shankar Academy. I did my sociology as an optional at Shankar Academy. And few very important points, right? It's very important for you to go through the syllabus for all three parts of the exam. There's a syllabus for every single part of the exam. And if you join a coaching institute or there are many blogs out there, there's an IS officer currently serving in Tamil Nadu, his name is Madhubalan. There's a very beautiful video that he's written which kind of explains the different parts of the exam, very succinctly with examples. It's an absolutely good video. I think you all should watch it. It inspired me as well. So syllabus, last few years, question papers and you writing tests with some sort of consistency becomes very important. I joined the coaching academy because I think that structure was important. As I told you, I don't have anyone around me. So I didn't trust anyone. So I followed that to the tea with a lot of trust, hoping and knowing fully well that they had my best interest in mind, right? So the prelims is about, of course, facts and about a lot of knowledge. It takes some time. Ma'am, you first need to... You are in 2nd year, 3rd year, etc. Just understand what many things are, right? Watch documentaries on history, the beautiful documentary, BBC documentaries on ancient medieval and modern history. Just understand the entire storyline of what things are. I kind of miss not doing all of those things in college. I was doing so much of theater and I had my own kind of startup collective in college. I was very, very busy. So I didn't have time to watch movies, documentaries and all of that. But for all of you who are in 2nd, 3rd year, 4th year of college, I think you can acclimatize yourself with history, with some good environmental documentaries, with good social documentaries, which will give you an understanding of what the current debates are, what are the most important issues that are happening. The YouTube channel that I normally recommend, it's called Crash Course. It's an absolutely free YouTube channel. You guys can start watching all of that, right? So that will give you an overall understanding of the storyline. You can read books, you can read audiobooks, there are many opportunities like that. But on the broad framework, you will see in the civil service exam, you have to think about it. When you are in college, this will give you that broad framework, right? And for the facts, if you join coaching or if you start studying, in about a month or two, you can start writing tests. The minute you start writing tests, if you go to an academy like Shankar or whatever, you'll have tests and you'll have a test discussion after that. The amount that you learn is through these tests and test discussions, because there's a constant feedback loop that comes, there's a constant feedback loop that's created. And that review mechanism becomes very important. So I'm taking a lot of tests and focusing in class for the first attempt or for the first year is the most important. Like we had Peres Rubin sir, who's also an Indian Forest Service Officer who was a faculty at Shankar Academy. He'd always say, he said, come with the vision that you're going to finish this exam in one attempt and leave, right? For that, just focus in class and do these tests very consistently and you should be okay. And you will hear it. But that's a very important lesson. Of course, I didn't learn the first attempt, but I took what he said very seriously, right? Because unfortunately that paper that year, the problems was extremely hard. But it kind of gave me that sense to say, okay, trust the class notes, there is no need to study a lot. If you know the story, you can go and take a look at the exam. And the subtext of what the problem requires is stress management, right? In the government school, you have to have a certain sense of stress management and your way to manage that kind of anxiety. Like I said, there are many ways. There's no music, yoga, meditation. Personally, I do a lot of yoga. I do a lot of fitness. So for me, that has worked wonders. The last one year, I do a lot of yoga and meditation. I got into that largely because of the Civil Services exam. So for balloons, like I said, class notes, and then your tests, you have to have a certain sense of stress management and then your tests and review, and then stress management. And of course, evening at CSAT becomes very important. The second paper, a lot of you are in the final year, placement, you are sitting, you are studying, that quantity of attitude will definitely give importance. When you are in college, you have to finish your studies. That gives you that sense of empowerment or confidence when you come into this exam. Data is everything today, right? Everything is numbers. Even if you go recently in December of last year, I had gone to Gujarat on a tour and we went to the chief minister's office and there's something called the CM's dashboard, right? Everything is on an indicator, measurable, quantified, how many beneficiaries, everything is so beautifully quantified and it's all data. So a good understanding of quantitative understanding, data-based reasoning is important. When you're in the final year of college, I think you should make use of it. Second part is means and people have been asking questions on note making and on answer writing and all of that, right? Note making, when you're studying, like I said, class notes is your first notes. If you're watching videos online, if you're reading also, just take notes from that, that's your main notes. You don't have to take, I never took notes from newspaper and all of that. For me, my class notes, and I used to follow some current affairs booklet. From that, I had tests in the moon source. What I remember from this, and in the 10-year questions, they asked me in common, if I was in the street, I used to make separate notes of that. So that helped me in my mains also. But specifically for mains, what I used to do is, I only studied the class notes. I'm being very honest. I didn't really have too much time to study anything more because my first attempt, like I said, I didn't clear. I started working immediately after my first attempt. So I was working throughout my exam preparation, so I didn't have time. So whatever I'd done at Shankar, I had all my notes for that. I just added stuff with the current affairs booklets that I kept reading. And of course, your perspective changes, right? When you're working, and as you mature, I think time also makes you a little wiser. All my learnings from my corporate experience, from my startup experience, I will think from the perspective of UPSC. For email, I would look at that as an answer-writing experience. For a page-to-speak, I'll be like, customer call porona, it's like an interview. Are you prepared for it? Do you know the content of what you're going to speak? Are you articulate? Are you clear? Is the audience understanding what you're saying? Any presentation that I make, I'll think, okay, it's going to improve my, you know, structural thinking, logical reasoning, so on and so forth, right? So I started working, but the notes that I'd made and answer-writing that I'd done, the previous helped. So I'd actually, after the problems, Shankasar asked me specifically to write some answers. So I wrote some answers, went to him, got them corrected, extremely, you know, thankful that I had those opportunities where I could actually sit with Shankasar and discuss some of those answers, right? But it takes some time, so you start studying for problems. Once you get a little confident with that, you can start writing answers. There are a lot of people here who don't have the command of language, so you have multiple fights you can't fight at the same time. First of all, do we know anything? Will it take 2-3 days to learn a thing? After that, answer-writing, try it slowly, it's optional, it's the first step. If you're going for optional coaching, if you start writing optionally, you'll get that confidence. If you're the main thing, if you study well, you'll have that knowledge in your mind. But like I said, if you start writing these short notes, you'll get that prudence to filter out. The main thing is, again, largely about the syllabus. How are you able to write a geography question from a cultural perspective, from a historical perspective, from an economic perspective? In the last year's main paper, you should just have the syllabus in front of you. Like Ma'am said, there is a method to this madness. And the syllabus in the old question papers is the method to the madness. Whatever they ask, are you able to write from that perspective? Shankar Sir had beautifully given a preamble. There was a preamble for mains writing. So are you able to analyze a problem from a social, political, economic, legal, technological perspective? That is what the GS requires. You can't give too much time to the GS because it's everything under the sun. But if they ask you anything about agriculture, can you speak about agriculture economics? Can you speak about geography? Can you speak about even politics? Because you have minimum support price, you have Essential Commodities Act, you have the Monday Act, which has recently been performed. So there is certain political implications and decisions which have an impact on economy as well. Which is why they call it political economy. Traditionally, the subject is called political economy. So are you able to make those interconnections as what is very important? That multi-dimensional thinking is what the mains checks. And you, writing answers, like I said, for your optional. So you need to select your optional well. Now geography, undergraduate, I took sociology because I was exposed to it when I was in Delhi and I found a fabulous teacher in Jajjita Ma'am at Shankar Academy was so much of a mentor and very comfortable with the subject. So I took that subject. So are you comfortable with your optional teacher? Are you comfortable with the subject? Can you think about it even without the exam? Are you interested in that subject even without the exam? Right? Even if I was not writing civil services, I'm very interested in sociology. Every problem I would look at it from multiple social institutions and social forces, so to speak. So very interested in that. So optional becomes very important. Preana again had told me one thing which I think is still the mantra essay optional ethics are the three important subjects for the mains. So optional focus just like I said basics and syllabus should definitely help you for ethics, I did take notes and how I did that was all these kind of inspiring stories like now Ma'am gave us so many nice stories. In the what are the inspiring stories that I had heard of books that I had read of audio books or webinars that I attended I would put it under brackets on integrity, transparency, fiduciary, responsibility, honesty, courage. You know these important words that are there in ethics which becomes very important normally in governance. I used to write these examples under these for ethics. So that would be an important hack for ethics which will help you when you're writing the exam. Lastly the interview of course my interview was in July of this year and I went for my marks at Shankar the interview again has a syllabus there is a method for the madness and I didn't know that for a really long time I thought it was English English English English English English English English English English English English English English English English English English English English English English English English English English English English English English English English English English English English English English English English English English English English You have to practice a lot and I practiced a lot with my mother and my brother. They used to like literally drill me for about 30 minutes every day. And I used to vocalize my thoughts. If we talk, we get the clarity. Or else I can write. I even write. So I write a lot of interviews. What are the top three strengths? What are the top three weaknesses? What would you do if you become the secretary? What would you do if you become a district collector? So on and so forth. So it's sort of a vision document for how you want the government service to be. And how your own career to be. So interview becomes very important. Ganesh Sir again from Shankar Academy. I had this very enlightening conversation with him. So he asked me questions about myself and I fumbled on those. And that was like a very important session for me where I understood that they're actually asking questions about yourself. So are you clear in your own understanding of yourself? Which is the most important part for the interview, right? So this is the large structure. I've given you my journey. These are the three parts of the exam. And last but not least, like I said, I saw the beautiful motto of Congo Engineering College, which is love, knowledge and service. Very beautifully encapsulated. Like I said, make a lot of love, make a lot of friendships. You know, develop your emotional quotient early on in your 20s. Because it's the love that takes us through always. Knowledge, very important for the civil services. And even otherwise, we are in what is called the fourth industrial revolution or the second machine age. So it's a knowledge society. So you need to have that sense of critical thinking to say what is important, what is not important. How do you make decisions? How do you make choices? So knowledge becomes very important. And civil services preparation and coaching gives you that framework. So that's a good starting point. Even if you don't have that, it's a very important learning opportunity for you. And knowledge is very important. Service, of course. Of course, in the study, in the civil service, as I said, that sense of public interest, we serve for a cause, we serve for our country. And I've been thinking recently, right? There's so many people of so many of us who are studying for this. And not many people get through, but we still study. We are all from very good educational institutions. We're so bright and young, and we're so young as a country. Certainly in our lifetime, I think we have to take it as a cause to make this country great. A lot of opportunities and entrepreneurship. Now, the public service industry, the space has expanded exponentially over the last four, five years. You have what are called think tanks. You have research organizations. You have development consulting. Nascar Foundation will work for Madhyaan organizations. Even an IT job, I think, is very, very important today. Now, I work on a startup is ChargeBee is an IT company. But it was a startup. The kind of learnings that I've had there, the kind of friendships that I've made there is fantastic. And if everything around us is going to be data and technology, and if we fear it, I don't know. I took it up as a challenge. In fact, I'm an engineer and I hadn't worked in technology. I wanted to understand what all of, you know, software, SaaS, startup order, all of these things. That's why I went and applied. It was a six round interview. I hadn't even told my parents I went and I got the job. And the last two years have been the most enlightening for me. So that's very important. And there are many ways to serve this country. Like I said, there are many opportunities wherever we are. I think it's once we understand our own strengths and weaknesses, we can always choose to go and serve wherever we want. Last story, what my mom had done, what my mom had said, right? When I came back from the interview from Delhi, there was a note in my room. I wrote a letter in my room and put a snake on it and put a candle on it. Because it was very stressful. Mask, face shield, etc. I and my brother had gone. After five years, my mom had written a line saying success is never a destination. But it's a new way of looking and doing things. And that tears in my eyes. And I called a friend of mine and I said, Bro, whatever it is, let's examine all of that. So many people have helped us to go to Shankar Academy. Our teachers, our friends, our whims and our fans, our tantrums. I think we have supported them. First, we need to be very grateful. And two, this knowledge has given us so much empowerment that we definitely have to do something about this and to serve the public irrespective of what the outcome and the result is, which is a very fulfilling experience. And I think it kind of changed the way I think, right? And I kind of understood that if I have changed mentally and if I'm not taking things at face value, I'm going to put my 100% effort without any regrets that I will feel happy. And in that enlightened self-interest, we are helping people around us also. It was a very profound thought. And I hope this was helpful. And if you have any questions, you can please ask me. There are five minutes. You can please ask me if there are any questions. I know lunch is waiting for all of you. If you want, you can always send your questions to Ramesh sir or Prem sir and they can get back to me. But thank you again. Thank you, Ramesh, for that fabulous talk and all the students for this opportunity. Thank you very much. Thanks, Shrutanjay. It's again one of another blasting session from you. Like I would say it's another master blaster session. So Prem has... I mean, there are somewhere... Prem, there are somewhere nine questions from students side. Shrutanjay, believe me, having time, you said only five minutes. Yeah, I'm okay. I'm okay. Can we hold you? We can also send it to people who are probably not here. Okay, okay. Prem, can you... Yes, yes, sure, sure, sure. Thank you. Thanks, Shrutanjay. Actually it was a power packed session. You have largely covered all the parts of the examination. So there are only like eight to nine questions in the Q&A box. So I will ask some questions on behalf of students so that it can even address their concerns with respect to the examination. So the first question is like you have done your degree. Then you have gone for some job. Then again came for the preparation and again turned to the job, right? It was really not a linear, like it is not a normal career of civil servant aspirant. It is something like job, then again to the preparation, then again to the job. So what you will suggest for the students, right? Many students will have a lot of like confusions in their final years of their colleges. I think like they need to go for a full swing of like preparation or they will think like they can go for a job, then they can do their preparation. What will be our advice? Because it differs from person to person. But still you have done something which is different. And you will suggest for the students who are in final year of the college. Thanks for the question. It's a very important question and I speak about this a lot to my friends. So it's very important I think and this is totally my personal opinion. It depends on you know the personality and the person, right? They are coming from the financial background. And will you be able to study for the first time? Or do you have the compulsion to work or earn? I think in the exam, if we study a little stress-free, we feel a lot more confident about this exam rather than giving 2, 3, 4 years and then when we are 25, 26, suddenly having an existential crisis of sorts, right? Shankar Sir had told me in the beginning itself to have an exit strategy. When I didn't clear my first freedoms, all of us were very hopeful but I had studied for a very short time, only for about 6 months and then I had to give my exam. But Sir said only one more attempt and he was very clear about it. And he also said do some kind of part-time work for your second attempt. Don't even study full-time because for a person like you, it's not required. You will feel lethargic, you will not invest your time properly and all of that. So that exit strategy I think is important, right? For people in the final year of college, if you have mentors, if you have that sort of financial backing, right? I think it's great to probably study immediately after college and if it doesn't happen, you can start looking for a job or something like that. And Thangradan Sir, this is just an idea which I've always had, right? How can you kind of help people who are very clear that they want to study immediately after college but they want to give only one attempt or something like that. What can you do to help them probably in terms of placements or whatever. It's in fact a recommendation from other committees also. So it's very interesting, like how can college empower us. But even otherwise, if you are taking a risk, I think it's important that at least one attempt, after finishing college, we can study fresh and leave immediately. I know a lot of people who have studied in Shankara Academy have worked for 1-2 years after their work. They have worked for a year and then again. Because of that, you have a work experience for a year. So you're not as raw, right? So you get that kind of corporate exposure, some of the professional skills, how to carry forward, how to communicate, we need some empowerment and confidence. It will definitely help. I did it because of that. I think I wanted to increase my own confidence. I was not very confident. The kind of English that I speak now was not so 4-5 years back. It was only because I went to Delhi and I was exposed to such such thinkers that actually was exposed mentally. Right? We'll have all of those things. So what makes us empowered for our life in general is important. But one attempt, one option to be immediately after college or 1-2 years, even if you're 20-23, it's fine. Like 20-24, you're still young only. But 20-23, you start studying for it, give one or two attempts and then have an exit strategy. Which is why I suggested a lot of options today. I gave you guys the options of think tanks and research organizations, NGOs, fellowships. You have public policy courses now in terms of masters. You have fellowship programs abroad. So look at all of these kind of things. It's important. I could probably send a list. You can actually view all of these things so that you're not shooting in the dark. You know that there's some exit strategy. Because the social cost of you investing your prime time when you're young is very high. So unless you're very clear that your family is dependent on you you might want to get married when you're 25-26. These are very important decisions. But if you have these options, you can do it with a little bit of freedom. I know it's a very vague answer but I'm just throwing the options out there for you guys to make the decision yourselves. It is not a vague answer. We have said a word called exit strategy. It is actually a very nice word. It should have an exit strategy. Not even for the examination. For the entire life there should be an exit strategy. Otherwise you will get stuck in a place and you will be confused about our future. There is a nice book called The Dip by Seth Gordon. It's a very interesting book. So he says, where can you invest more if the marginal increase in the utility is going to decrease? There's no point. So you probably might pivot and do something else. So the dip is very interesting. I also read the dip on YouTube. It might be helpful for you. That's great. So next thing will be the process of the examination. It's a year long examination. It needs a lot of motivation factor. And it leads a lot of patients also. People will not have that much patience to sit for a long year and prepare every day with books and be with books for at least five to four to five hours a day. Because till college days we will not have that kind of mentality. Of course, ma'am said that we should inculcate the habit of reading books. As students are coming in, they will not feel that much difficult to have the book with them. But most of the students are not so in the present scenario. So keeping the motivation is very important. And going with the flow of the examination is also very important. How would a student be motivated for the year long period of time? And what you have followed in that case? Like I said, sumi structure is very important. Which is why I joined the coaching academy. Because they take you through the flow. You know that syllabus in the test cell, you have to decide what you want to do, you have to go through the test series, you have to go through an interview, there will be that structure. If you go to class, you have to talk to your teachers, you have friends and all of that. So you are not completely alienated. Which is why for me, coaching was important. I don't know if I would have been able to study for myself. That's an honest answer in terms of how I kept my motivation. Because I can't read too much. I am more of a listener. I listen to all the audio books in class. In the academy, there was a structure that helped me. Which was my second attempt. I couldn't again sit at home and study. I went and worked with the bureaucrat. For about two months, he was an absolutely inspiring bureaucrat. Much like ma'am. So many life experiences that I learned. And immediately took a job. So the job gave me a structure, which meant I again had to utilize my time very well. Time management became very important. So every minute was productive in some sense. Like when I go to my company, when I go to the car, when I come again, when I wake up in the morning, when I do fitness, when I study. Time was packed. Now I am actually waiting for the service. I understand how important it is to have a structure. Because even if I sleep one more day, now it's like, oh my God, I am wasting time. So I have now again started waking up at 5. Do my fitness, do my studying. Studies never ends, right? I love studying. So I do my audio books. I have certain goals that I want to finish before service starts, before training starts. So routine and structure is very important. You need to know what you're doing when you wake up. That's very important. We can't plan in the morning. We have to plan in the morning. If we go to the coaching, they would have planned in the morning. Chandraseer, week out of time table, they would send one week in the morning. So you know what test is going to be there, what you're going to study and all of that. But even otherwise, personally also, I think it's an important skill to have. I think it's still in terms of time management and optimizing your productivity. I had a lot of friends, Prem, to be very honest, who are very good with all this and a lot of conversation with my friends certainly helped. People are doing very well in corporate. People are doing well in business, their own endeavors. But I keep learning, just keep observing my parents. My mom is fascinating in terms of how she manages her time. We know that each and every one of them manages their time very well. I think that's important. We think it's boring, it's boring. But because of that routine, over time they're able to get so many things done. So routine becomes very important. So it's again, individual choices. If they work and study, or if they're studying at the coaching academy, that's one style. You can do it yourself. And the routine, we're going to do it at this time, after we form a habit, if we continue doing it, it becomes a compound. Last time I spoke to Mr. Ramesh, I told him about the compound effect. When I was 21 years old, the thing I knew was that when I was 23 years old, it would keep building. But that's because of that routine. If I keep reading about politics, I become better. If I keep doing economics, I become better. If I keep studying, when I was a kid, when I was 48 years old, they would say, we're going to sing well. But it's because of the kind of training that people have had in that stage, like exposure, why a bomb is able to sing, the way she is able to sing, or you know, Hariharan is able to encapsulate us with their magic. It's that compound effect which comes through that routine in practice. That's great. That's great. So next thing is that, regarding the examination, see the first stage of the examination is like, it's an objective, then it's a descriptive. So students like, many students will like clear the problems. Some students will have difficulties in clearing problems, but they will be having good writing skills. So, but the process is actually a holistic process. The preparation is starting from the problems till the interview. It is a holistic process. But people think that an objective is a different part of examination and descriptive type of examination, or the main examination is a different kind of thing. An interview is a different kind of thing, but it is not so. So how you had a preparation holistically in clearing all the three stages of the examination and be a successful candidate of them? Which is why I don't talk too much about films because I'm still very scared and I salute everybody who goes in. It's a preliminary exam, right? Some people get that in 40, 150 years. Sorry to interrupt, Shudunjay and Prem, you can't say that, you can't escape by saying that you are scared of problems. But there are questions about problems here. That is why that was... Of course we will say, why we are scared? That is more important. No, I think it becomes very important of why I said yoga and meditation and all of that. Right, right, right. That helped me last year because I went again with that sense of confidence. And I know it has had an impact. And thank you to myself for stopping us there because again, that is not how you need to work on it. So when I understood that the first part of the exam was what was hard for me, I really put in a lot of effort, right? So the way I did yoga and all of that, just to calm my nerves and how am I able to handle that becomes very important. I had some fascinating colleagues at work who are so good with data that I was so scared of CSAT. So now I've understood that it's an important skill set. So like you said Prem, it's a holistic process. Every part of it is important, right? And you need to clear the problems and I should probably correct myself and say, okay, I don't know a strategy to probably hit 140, 150 consistently. But I know what it takes to clear it now, right? When each of us are thresholds, our own approach is different, right? So it's important for you to craft the understanding of what is important for each part of this exam. Like I mentioned that Madhubalan Sir's video is very, very good. So he beautifully deconstructs every part of the exam and says what is important. But it's very common sensical knowledge. As a bureaucrat, you need to make decisions based on data. You need to write a lot of reports. You need to do a lot of, you need to read laws. You need to, you sit in magistrate, magistrate positions at many times and you also need to communicate a lot with people. This is essentially what the film means and interview tests. So all of it is important. Which is why I said when you're in college, it's important to, if you understand this, you can focus on those things. When you're in college, you can finally write a project and answer it like this. A beautiful project with a good citation, a good bibliography, if we write it. If you understand how you write scientific paper, how do you logically write, how do you argue? So if your final thesis is beautiful, that's like a good answer writing practice in itself. If you know how to research, that's an important skill set. If you're preparing for placements, if you're just doing quantitative studying, that'll help you for CSAT. So I did a lot of this when I was at YIF. We had to write a lot of papers. I learned Excel and I had to do a lot of data crunching and all of that. So I learned that in customer success, I understood a lot about communication, about empathy, about personality and all of that. So every part of it is important. So when you're in college, you can learn differently. Like I said, when you're in a project, you can learn from the project. When you're in an aptitude, you can learn from the aptitude. You can form a group and do case studies. In that case, the localization of the debates and small reasoning, you can do it. For your personality development, you can use your bio data or resume. You guys can start asking questions yourself. What are your three strengths? What are your three weaknesses? But one important point is it comes with practice. We'll be terrified to start. When you ask a friend a question, it'll be embarrassing for me to answer that. When my mother asks me a question, it'll be embarrassing for me. Why do you want to be an AS? They'll ask me and they'll ask me. We'll finish the question. Tell me how we're going to be. But we don't have to be shy to practice and do things for them. Otherwise, you'll get it over time. And you realize the more you put yourself under that stress, a little bit of stress is when you'll actually reap a lot of benefits out of it. So it's a good feeling to have. After a good workout, you have that slight pain. That pain is what means that your muscles are actually growing. So that could have a complete stress. That little bit of stress is important. You consciously put yourself in situations where you're learning. That will increase your output quite a bit. Thank you, sir. Actually, the next question is about answer writing. So answer writing, in Mains, we have different kind of subjects. You have essay, you have four GS papers and an optional. So essay is like you're going to comprehend certain things. For example, there is a topic called women empowerment. We know more things about women empowerment. But how we are going to write it coherently, how we are going to write a screenplay for around 10 pages to make a reader more interesting and make him to travel with our essay. That is more important. People have a lot of knowledge, but they do not know how to put it in a paper. One thing is that. And the other thing is that ethics. The other three genocides paper, you will study a lot of things about it in the problems itself. But ethics is somewhat different. You want to know how to approach a case study. These two are very important papers to score good marks in your Mains. So give some advices for those two papers. Essay is quite an interesting paper. And I learned quite a lot when I was studying for the essay. So like you said, Prem, it's about some sort of storytelling. First, for people who are new, who don't know too many things, it will take some time. So by the time you study for problems, you will get the content for essay. So don't worry about that. Don't worry if you don't know about women empowerment. Don't worry if you don't know about social issues. Don't worry about that. If you study for 6 months, you will get a lot of content. So after that content, you have that concept called, you know, your brainstorm or your brain, right? So you first write what all you know about that particular topic and you need to have a nice structure about it, right? The intro, body and conclusion is a typical structure. But how are you going to make it interesting, right? So this is, many people say it, but I didn't trust them until I implemented it myself. In terms of knowing quotes, in terms of being able to paraphrase, you know, I have an epitaph, start with a beautiful story, so on and so forth, becomes very important. And I focused on it before the memes and the marks haven't come, but I hope I've done decently well in the essay because I worked for it in the last few weeks, right? So over time, for at least some important topics and a lot of it is available online already. Some kind of quotes, which is translated in English or anything else, right? Of Confucius, of Gandhi, of Mandela, of Mother Teresa, so many people. So very prominent and profound, but it'll add that a-ha factor to your essay, right? It's important. So the story and the quotes become important, how you're starting with that punch and how you're ending. So I have had, like, good mentors. I watched these public lectures or a TED talk, right? You can watch 18-minute TED talks or a nice conversation. I have some mentors who tell beautiful stories. So, I'm a civil servant, so I know that they've also had a similar training which is why they're able to... I don't know if it's an essay or something like that, but very, very beautiful. So they'll start with a beautiful story, examples will be beautiful, ending with a quote or a punch. TED talks, many good TED talks are like that. If you guys go put on and sing top 10 TED talks or something like that, you know, how a Steve Jobs speaks or how Alan Debouton speaks or how some very prominent Simon Sinako speaks very well. So, if you people watch TED talks, that'll also give you how to structure it and you can write it with that one factor. So, that is for essay. Ethics, like I said, it's a subject that I really like. So I heard a discourse somewhere, I read a religious book, Rama and Mahabharata, I went to some place, I met a civil servant. Even though I met him, you'll usually compartmentalize it under different values. And this was again, Dinesh Sir from Shankar Academy gave me this idea. We said, you write down all the important words, like 50-60 words, and you write down nice examples for each of these things. So, what kind of... So, that's boring. But if you write a great example of what happened, let's say, in Abram Lincoln's life, or if you speak about reconciliation, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Nelson Mandela, or of what very beautiful things which many people have done, even in India, Ambedkar with his constitution, how inclusive the constitution has been and Patel in terms of national integration. Different kinds of examples, which normally people will not write. So, if you write that, you will have a better understanding of that value and you have good examples. So, I remember in the last 5-10 minutes, I think I had to write two questions or something like that. But because I knew so many examples, it was a very generic question on what is public service. I gave an example for each of these values from different sectors. Public service can be anything, like I said. It can be an NGO, it can be a multilateral organization, it can be government or it can be the corporate sector. So, I took an example from each, put a structure for it and I wrote it because I knew examples for it. So, values, what it means and examples for this which is a little different will definitely help. So, definition or a quote, right? On whatever, right? Harish Chandra or Honesty. Satya Mavijayate. For example, you start a question on honesty or truth with, you know, this quote from one of the Upanishads. It's always the motto in our national emblem, right? Satya Mavijayate. If you say that, that has so much more impact than you start with the truth is a value that's about honesty and integrity and so on. You start with truth and Satya Mavijayate and you say that a nation kind of embodies this value of honesty and it's celebrated it in our epics. That gives you that sense of impact. So, I think having these kind of quotes and examples would help. Yeah, great. So, the next part is like choosing an optional, right? It is very important in social service examination which is actually like, some people tend to choose their wrong optional then after one year of preparation they tend to change the optional. It creates a lot of chaos in that preparation, right? So, how do you choose an optional? How you have chosen your optional? Of course, it is like, depends on the interest of a candidate but apart from that, certain other factors also like are important for choosing an optional. So, what are the factors you think is more important to choose an optional? I trusted my teachers. So, I think you need to trust your optional to say that it will give you marks, right? I had studied geography in school in my 11th and 12th as well as in college where I didn't take it because I didn't trust that I'll get marks in it. With SocialG, I knew that I will get marks because I can think sociologically and I will be able to utilize this knowledge later on as well. And I knew it was a above average kind of an optional and I didn't want to take a science subject, of course. And I was recently good with social science because of my understanding in college. But even then, Mam had given me a test, Shankar Sir had given me a test. I had to write answers in both geography and sociology, right? Those were corrected. And in some sense, you need to know whether you're more left-brained or more right-brained. So, right-brained, if you want to take sociology, anthropology, you need to be able to think a little more holistically, you know, right-brained is more analytic, quantitative, right is more qualitative, it's more holistic, it's about, it's not black or white, right? So it's kind of some sort of circular thinking. So that's important. So Mam saw my paper and she said, I think you can absolutely do it. So those things help. I think, I also did like some sort of a personality assessment and all of that. You have the MBTI test and all of that. You can check what is more of your personality and what will work for you. Now that you have these resources, you can do it. There's a website called 16personalities.com, right? So it's an MBTI test. So it kind of gives you a personality. So if you're a little more right-brained, if you have a little more intuitive, you're more intuitive, you like all of those kind of things and all of that, social sciences will make a lot of sense. Very quantitative, very structured, you want those things so you can take economics and, you know, all those kind of science subjects, mathematics, geography and all of that. Shankar Sir has a very beautiful video you guys could just go online. I watched it last week also where Sir explains how you can choose your optional. He says, don't go with the tight, don't go with the trend, don't go with what your friends say. Do you have an attitude? So read those NCRTs of 11th and 12th. I was lucky to have been exposed to it before, but even then I wrote answers, took it to my teachers. We have spoke to a few people to say, okay, with the edukla, mylamar, parumar. You need to have that good rapport with your optional teacher, because that is very important. Because a lot of our tests, even in Delhi, a very good mentor, Nishat Sir, told me, I had Rajitha Mama and Nishat Sir, both of them supported me quite a lot in this. So that is very important. So they gave me that confidence. They trusted me that I could write. So it's nice to have good mentors in your optional, because that will help you a lot. That's great, yeah. So the final stage of the examination is interview, right? So you said one thing about like, you need to know about ourselves, right? That is more important for interview. So most of the questions are from our detailed applicants, our real analysis report, also a real application form. And like, most of the questions will be from our personal life. What a kind of person we are like, what positives, what negatives, what are all the work we have done in our, in our colleges and all those stuff. So how to like, how to prepare ourselves for a personality test. What is the difference between an interview and a personality test? Because in civil services, we call ourselves a personality test, other than an interview. But of course we need some knowledge about what is going around us. But apart from that, how we should groom ourselves for a personality test? Yeah, so I don't think it's as dichotomous as it looks. I think there are overlaps both in what the interview is and what the personality test is. Right? Even if how we're going to approach a certain problem, we'll have our influence of our personality in our circumstances, right? But the interview is also a little objective. It is also looking for, you know, some factual answers. It's also looking for an approach to solving. There are certain very clear red lines as what Nagarath said, come from one of our sessions. So it's a very clear red lines in terms of what is not supposed to be said. So in that sense, the interview is an interview, right? It is very objective. It is looking for certain criteria. Personality test? Yeah, I think I use this time very well. It is important to have a good understanding of certain subjects, of politics, of economics, of international relations, at least for the interview. Because many of the questions come around this and they actually ask you a lot of things. And this is not like answering a normal GS answer. You need to be able to articulate the specific fashion in front of the board. And these are all very, very big people. So a good understanding of economics, politics, and international relations is certainly important for you to feel confident. Because if mine was in March, I would have gone into the board with a lot of fear. Because mine was postponed because of corona. I was able to read some very good books. There was a book by Richard Haas called The World in Brief. So I kind of understood contemporary world debates. I watched a lot of economics documentaries. I watched a lot of understanding of politics. Because that's important for the interview. So in terms of interview part of it, I think these three parts become important. For the personality test, I think the DAF is your base. And you write, you kind of make mind maps of what could be the first level questions and second level questions from this. It's like a mind map. So you keep deriving one from the other. So my name is Shrutanjay. So we kind of knew that they might ask what does Shrutanjay mean. Because it's not a very common name. Likewise, that was the first question in mind. What does it mean? Where is this name found? So on and so forth. Where are you from? And then your job experience becomes most important because that's the most recent indicator of what you're doing and how it's directly influencing your personality. So I was working at a startup. So I started out with, what does Charge B do? What is the startup? Then you can always think Startup India and the questions about corporate governance, the question about investment, the question about economics, the question about the question. So, in one of the issues, in the daff line, we have to think about what questions will come to us. So, then it comes to a lot of practice. You can't mug everything, right? Many people wrote like pages. I've been seeing people writing pages. It helps. Initially, I thought it doesn't help, but it does. Because you can't keep saying new things every day. Right? Even when I talk today, I prepared a lot of things and came here. If I come here, it's going to be very difficult. I can't even write a point. It's going to become very difficult. And this I can kind of revise, refine and reuse next time. Right? If I'm going to speak to another cohort tomorrow, I have a basic structure. This is what I'm going to say. But it's going to help. So I started writing down a lot of answers. And then I used to practice eating with my mother, with my brother, even my father. He's asked me a lot of questions. He'll come from an outside perspective. What are the things of what an eye is officer supposed to be or a government. Very interesting questions. Again, right? I don't have any questions that reveal our problem. But it actually makes you think do you have an answer to this? Are you aware of what's happening in your surroundings? So sitting on that hot seat and practicing a lot is important. I did a lot of mocks. I think I would have done about five mocks, four to five mocks. But I did consistent mocks almost every single day with my family, at least for a month. That's a great question. This is the last question. So it was nearly two to three years of experience. Now you got into the service. So this two to three years of like preparation or like experience of this examination, right? So what kind of a lot of intangible things you would have got, right? It does like it will never like fade away from your life. So apart from service, what are all the intangible things you've got from this preparation of two to three years? So that will motivate a lot of students, right? Because knowledge is more important than what else, right? That is very important. Just give some insights about what are all the things you've got from the preparation? Absolutely. Like I said, the value of practice and consistency. When I was in college, I think a lot of the underconfidence came from can we do something? Can we be consistent? Can we follow a routine? That would be a lot of questions. So in the exam, when we write, we get a sense of confidence. We can do it too. Many of you in English, spoke in English, written in English, read English, wrote in Tamil, okay. But when we say, can we do this? When we practice it, when we write a question and answer it, we think, will we be empowered? It will make us feel very empowered. We can go do it. At the end of the day, you're going and writing the exam. Nobody's coming and writing it for us. So you feel very, very empowered because of that. It certainly teaches you a lot of patience and gratitude. It's a long process. You can give up. But like I said, I had the exit strategy in mind. So I knew that impoverikuna either pannano, but I pushed myself up to it. However way in which I had to increase my perseverance and persistence and consistency, that would be through watching motivational movies, videos, music, doing yoga, meditation, everything. But it kept me going. So that sense of patience. And yeah, gradually, like I said, it makes you very humble. I think it makes us very humble. It's exposed us to so much knowledge. So many people are doing absolutely astounding work. And last, but not least, a sense of hope and optimism. When I was studying, so many officers, so many people, so many people, so many countries are united. They are stable. There is no impact on the bureaucrats. Can we do a lot of things? Of course we can. And like I said, I think we ought to do it. And we need to be the change that we want to be. But you also become optimistic. You say, okay, there's a lot of scope to do things. There are many avenues to make change. Cleaning our own roads, making our own bed. I think I've never made my own bed. Three to four years back. But the routine of just getting up and the first thing is you do, is you make your own bed. You have a bath. You go feed the birds and go do your fitness and then have a bath and then eat that. Routine gives, makes you feel magical. Like, okay, we can do it ourselves. We can do it ourselves. We can help others. I feel very, what do you say? You feel a little stress. You feel a little anxious and all of that. But this exam, I think it's given me that sense of hope and optimism to say there are many ways to make change and it's our duty to do so. There was a great conversation with Anjay, actually. You have covered all the aspects of the examination and there's a lot of motivation you are given to the students. It was really a nice time talking with you and all the best for your career and your few words for the students. Thank you, Pramees sir, Dhangrad sir, Krishna sir, Kongu engineering college specifically and Dhangrad sir, initially when I said he covered a lot of exams. I was like, when I was in college, I didn't know there were so many exams. I didn't know there were so many exams and mentoring. So, see, from a Chiari cat to engineering service, UPSC, so many things he said. So, it's amazing and the 50 people are still there on a Sunday afternoon. I think you guys are very interesting, make use of the opportunity and all the best to everyone and I thank Kongu engineering college for this opportunity and Shankaraya's Academy for having me and for all the students, all the best, have fun. And like Man said, enjoy the process. It'll give you something or the other, right? Everything is not in our hands. It'll give you something or the other, invest in it and the results are not completely in our hands. Miracles happen. I believe in that and it might not happen in the way in which you and I think it is, but everything happens for good reasons. So, just have fun and enjoy doing whatever you Thank you so much. Thanks, Shudunjay and Dr. Krishnamurti sir would like to propose the vote of thanks. Yes, sir. Dear sir, good afternoon. Dear students, kindly fill your feedback form that has been posted on the chat box. So, dear sir, it gives me a great pleasure to say vote of thanks. If you want to say vote of thanks, you can say that you have experienced like a juice like a tree and a tree grows and grows and eats fruits. You have said everything excellently. You have said everything. You have motivated students. You have said everything. You have said everything. You have said everything. Looking good feeling good being good is what I think. Next, the students have sent me a WhatsApp and that is the things that are very important. You have said how you can study your current affairs and discuss and I will do 3 courses in audio reading It's a very important thing. It's a frequent test. It's a placement test. If you do a C-start, you'll get a better copy. The last note, you mentioned your role in Sangar Aayesh academy. The last note, you finished it. The last one, you finished it. The last one, you finished it. The last one, you finished it. You finished it. Here's the best tip for aolin players, Here's the best tip for aolin players, Here's the best tip for aolin players, You have your destiny. You have to prove yourself. You have to be in the hands of the right person. You have to be in the hands of the right person. What we have heard from your experience is that victory is a victory. We have to win and win. In this time, I would like to thank all of you. At this juncture, I would like to extend my sincere thanks from the bottom of my heart to our resource person, Suryudhan Narayuman sir. Then I would like to extend my sincere thanks to our Sangarai Sakadami, Chandrasekaran sir and Premaman sir. I would like to extend my sincere thanks to Ramesh sir because he is instrumental in making this program. I have been very dedicated and sincere and committed. I would like to say some words about Ramesh sir. Whenever I approach Ramesh sir with regard to this program, he is very polite. He will answer all the queries. And definitely sir, we are very much impressed by your way of answering and other things. Definitely, we need your advice and help for everyone. Our students are very sincere. They gave very good feedback regarding this program. Finally, I would like to extend my sincere thanks to Dr. Rajan sir, his advisor for continuing higher education. I would like to extend my sincere thanks to our principal and management. Again, I would like to extend my sincere thanks to Dr. Rajan Sarupathi, our chief coordinator for entire higher education. Finally, I would like to extend my sincere thanks to our students, our volunteers. Even though they had a thirst, even though they were hungry, they did not feel hungry at all. I would like to extend my sincere thanks to Dr. Rajan Sarupathi, his advisor for continuing higher education. I would like to extend my sincere thanks to Dr. Rajan Sarupathi, his advisor for continuing higher education. Thank you sir. Thank you so much sir. Thank you sir. Thank you.