 Hello everyone one more UPSC civil service examination result has come out and like previous years many Shankarayas academy students have cleared the exam. Today we have with us two such winners who are students of Shankarayas academy and have successfully cleared this year's UPSC civil service examination. We have Mr Akhil V Menon who have cleared with all in their rank of 66 and Sri Kumar Revidra Kumar who has cleared with an all in their rank of 192. So first and foremost hearty congratulations to both of you. Thank you. Now a unique thing about both this aspirants now going to be officers is that they are good friends not only good friends they are roommates also. So they have faced success and failures previously together. So it will be interesting to know how they have faced this journey together and now both of them have successfully cleared the exam. So let us go to Akhil and Sri Kumar. So my first question to all aspirants who cleared the exam how did you know the results and what was your first reaction after seeing your name on that holy pdf? I knew the result when I was in Alopee as a part of a trip because I am part of Kerala Administrative Service. So we were having this trip to Alopee. So we were in a bus everyone knew that results were going to come out anytime. So everyone were expecting at that point of time. So suddenly results came out and I knew that I was 66. So more than anything I feel that there was a sense of satisfaction at that point of time. I thought that it will be a later it will be very happy because I was dreaming about this very moment for a long long time. But contrary to all kinds of expectation it was that sense of contentment which came in at that point of time. So I think that moment was very special which I will cherish for a lot of long time to come. I know that it's a moment you will not forget till the end of your life I guess and what about you Sri Kumar how did you know that? Usually I like to be alone when these results are coming out whether it is negative or positive I would like to have in my own mind space. So accordingly I was at my home was just sitting in our flat and was waiting for the results to come out. The PDF came out I was just usually I type control f and put in my roll number but for some reason I was just scrolling through from page 1 onwards and when I did not see my name in the first three pages I thought okay this isn't going to be something very dangerous but then my friend was sitting right next to me so he put in control f and he put my name and he said that dude you got 192. So that moment of him telling me that I was secured around itself just like Akil mentioned just give me a sense of relief and relaxation because that cycle of four years of intense preparation and the understanding that okay now it has come to a momentary pause was a great feeling and then it was all you know mechanical calling home then you know sharing the pleasantries it's still sinking in to be very honest. Okay so just one quick question after you knew yourself did you check each other's results or how did you know about each other's results? Absolutely because I don't think that this success would have been sweeter if only one of us would have been would have cleared this examination because this preparation was a very combined effort so as as I knew my result the immediate thing that I wanted to know was whether he cleared or not but suddenly I saw his name as well and he called me up and he said that both of us have cleared so it was a very happy moment because for us this preparation this whole journey was a combined journey so we are very happy that we are in the rank list together and going to do FC together yeah absolutely great now let's talk about your preparation journey you are a lawyer by profession and you have done your bachelor's in commerce right so when did you both decide that you wanted to prepare for civil service examination where did that thought come that okay somewhere down the line I want to try for this exam it is a school time school time dream because even during the school time I always had this dream that I need to do something which I can relate to in terms of the social commitment that I have but having said that I did not take any kind of effort during school time and I opted law because I had an interest in law but during even law school time there were different choices which come comes up during the law school time let it be litigation or corporate law for that matter there were different kinds of choices but during my fourth year after having done a lot of corporate internships I knew that that was not my cup of tea I wanted to do something different and civil service was an option and I knew that I had to prepare thoroughly for that but having said that again the college atmosphere the hostel atmosphere was not very conducive for that and after I have completed my college in 2018 I started my preparation so immediately after college you started that's not similar for you right you work for a couple of years and then came to the preparation so what was that spark which made you feel or understand that okay I want to try civil service see my initial passion was not towards civil services per se it slowly evolved into civil services because my interest towards international relations global affairs and diplomacy right from when I was in 11th or 12th standard and a wish to pursue a career in diplomacy gave me the idea that you need to clear the civil service examination to become an Indian Foreign Service officer that was the starting but then I later understood that any career in public services is always a great opportunity to serve this country in any possible manner so that's how it evolved and while I was working for the you know for private firms where I was engaged as a tax advisor I understood that the work which I do over there probably does not give me the same amount of gratification which I would really like to have in my life so after a period of trying out several things in my life I understood that okay now probably it's time to pass and really pursue what my heart says rather than going mechanically by what you know things usually come in your way that's all great great twist to the you know journey of life now success we have spoken about you have succeeded but there were failures absolute both of you failed the first problems I think after the first problems failure you both met then you both together failed the second first mains right now successful so how did you face this failure because you know even now success is sweet there are many aspirants who success consecutively fail many ups even your friends who attend up this year's interview would have failed you know the list the percentage of failure is more than the success percentage so how did you fail and how did you both you were together when you face failure so how did it you help each other while facing that failure it was in 2019 that we made our first attempt and we were not able to clear problems at that point of time so the good part about that failure was that we met because failure was our first point of conversation that we had in common so we knew that some somewhere something was wrong in terms of a preparation strategy and preparation plan so we had to go through the drill properly that was in terms of having a strategy for problems that is something that we came up with but the most excruciating part of failure was the mains failure in our second attempt because we thought that our all bases were covered at the point of time and mains was something that we thought was our forte and we were not able to clear mains and I still remember the mains result came out on March 23 2021 and we were devastated we both were crying at that point of time next day we thought that we are going to end this preparation at this point of time and we are going to look a look for some other job I thought that I will practice and he thought that he is going to pursue his higher studies so that was a plan that was going ahead but later on we thought that you see we have come this way this far as well as our preparation is concerned and we know that we have enough knowledge base to go through the end of this tunnel so we thought that what if we made some mistakes in terms of preparation what if we can rectify those mistakes and come up with a better plan so as far as dealing failures are concerned I would say that we handled failure very gracefully that is that would not be a true statement but later after a point of time we were able to rationalize failure and we were able to draw lessons from those failures and I think it was because of the bond that we shared that we were able to deal with failure very gracefully after a point of time because we had each other to share our concerns to share our emotions so that we were not alone in this journey so I think that is how we dealt failure very important like rationalizing failures and you know moving forward is very very important and what about were you both together when you the results came no we were apart but we made a phone call I still remember that night where we made a phone call and it was full of silence because we did not have anything to speak about but we knew that that silence had a lot of words a lot of meaning because it was culmination of a two years effort which was coming to an end with that failure so we had to come up with a plan because at that point of time we did not have a job and most of our batch mates at that point of time whether it be in college or whether it be in school were all settled and we had that pressure to be honest so at that point of time we had different thoughts coming to our mind but because we had both of us preparing together we were able to again put ourselves back and start this journey over again great any thoughts to add yeah well as they say grief has different stages one of the stages is denial and I believe that that's the first stage that we went through when the results came we were like UPSC is wrong we have done our best the valuation is wrong this is not right the marks that were awarded to us are not fair this was initial reaction slowly then we started bargaining with ourselves which is the next stage in grief we started okay fine let's do something better in life probably let's skip this and the last stage is acceptance and then we probably start making peace with it and then we decide and then we do a self-introspection and then decide we have gone wrong somewhere it's not UPSC issue it is our issue we realize that there are some issues in our prep let's try it out once more because probably this may not be our best attempt who knows there is still young you know there is still as they say a core jungler may kill a javaani head so yeah so let let be our jeet birya no you are one that's that's the thing great man two things like you are as you said acceptance and making peace with failure I hope that message reciprocates to everyone who has failed at multiple stages we'll come back to that in the latest stage of the interview now let's come to examination process starting with problems so problems has kind of become like you know haphazard way of question framing and nobody can know what is going to come even in you sit in the exam hall you don't know 80% of the questions you both have cleared you know 2021 problems so how did you face problems and what will you advise to those aspirants who are going to face problems in the coming years as it is I am concerned I feel that the most important problems that I have attended was in 2019 because that is the problems that I failed and at that point of time I knew that I committed certain mistakes and it was very common with him as well because during the mocks I used to attend more than 90 questions but when it came to the prelims hall because of the prelims frenzy that happens at that point of time I only attempted 70 questions and as a result of it I was too much short of the cut off so later on when we thought about coming up with a strategy for 2020 problems we knew that the pattern is going to change because pattern is undergoing a lot of change for the past few years we knew that that is going to change so we had to come up with a strategy which will work for the next two years so that is how we came up with the strategy of preparation wherein we thought that we will consider that there will be a knowledge base that we will stick with and that knowledge base base will remain the same but apart from that we will master what is called as a logical elimination technique so over a long period of time we practiced a lot of questions in such a manner that we had that elimination technique with us so I think that was the primary part as well as prelims preparation was concerned as well as we are concerned we always used to solve 50 questions per day that was the first thing that we did after in each morning because we woke up and we solved 50 questions we used to compare our scores and we used to make that time frame also just you know you have done it for a whole year every day used to do it no it took four months to prelims or three months to prelims it was a daily ritual that the first thing in the morning after just getting ready the first thing was just get in front of the computer or in front of the paper just solve 50 questions and then start your day because that golden hour is really crucial to be in the question solving mode this I think that is the most important part as well as prelims strategy is concerned because reading a lot of books and getting a lot of information may not be the way ahead as well as the prelims is concerned especially seeing the pattern in 2020 as well as 21 basics are important we absolutely admit that basics are important so once these basic books are done I feel that we need to go for questions and that has been our approach and we have a structure that approach for most part of our preparation to solving more and more questions yes and maybe revising the questions and having an elimination strategy of how to solve questions yes absolutely you can go and crack prelims with 100 percent knowledge yes the questions in which you can solve with knowledge maybe 2025 or max to max 13 every prelims the rest 70 are something where you use the elimination tactics great now when you prepare for prelims did you make notes so aspirants who have just started the preparation will have doubts like sir should we make notes from Lakshmi Khan spec from basic books and MCRT should we make notes so did you both make notes or was it directly reading the books and what about current of phase preparation as far as basic books are concerned mostly we stuck to the textbooks itself because making notes from these books maybe a very tiring process because most informations which are mentioned in those books are important but what I did was that when it was nearing problems I used to write few information which I used to forget from these books so that I only need to read these information as far as the final week is concerned so that I used to do apart from that there was no note making from these standard books as far as current of phase is concerned I am not a big fan of newspaper reading but I would say that newspaper reading is not very essential as far as preparation is concerned but it is something which can be substituted with so I used to read articles on different issues different topics which are very important from a means of problems angle that has been done and apart from that current of phase preparation has been basically taken care of by current of phase magazine of different institutes so that is how it is done so you read magazines and prepared current of phase right what about you well the same thing with respect to standard books you do not need to sit man make a separate notebook out of it because that becomes another tiresome journey and then and there is a chance of that your notes become you know fatter than the actual textbook so there is it is a wasteful exercise so we used to feel like that personally and plus you know additionally I use to read newspapers but probably towards three or four months before the prelims newspaper reading becomes a you know probably a rare affair and then that is where the current of phase magazines comes in okay so that is problems one one question because problems is almost near the corner so the last week before problems should we solve more question papers or should we revise basic books a question again aspirants generally I would say that just reduce your workload and have a more relaxed mindset and be more you know in a right mind space to attend those 100 questions because we both say that it's like a 2020 match see the ball hit the ball that's what probably you can do in freelance as far as I'm concerned I feel that basic book books have to be revised in this last one week because that is very important even if we see 2021 pattern I would say that the economy questions were all basics and I think these are sitters that we need to take as far as these basic questions are concerned because most aspirants will be able to solve those questions so basics have to be revised in this past week last week and in terms of question as a solving I would say that attending a mock may not be a very good idea especially in terms of the scores which might come up which can vary so solving a few questions I think that might be a way ahead great so mixing both yes maybe right regarding mains let's come to mains now when did you both start answer writing practice like first problems again first attempt is probably the difficult attempt for most aspirants because you have classes you have first time studying optional so time crunch you will feel so did you do answer writing before the problems or after then you fail the problems so you got a one-year time span before the first means for second problems first means then again a one-year time span before your third problems so when did you ideally start this answer writing process and when should an aspirant start this process as as far as answer writing is concerned the mistake that I committed as far as my preparation journey is concerned I did not know the demand of this examination mains is a very important stage and mains is a stage that can determine your rank so answer writing is very crucial and I would say that two to three months in your preparation you can start your answer writing but I hardly did that even though I had enough resources to come up with answer writing because of the lack of discipline in terms of preparation during the first attempt I did not do that but it was during the after the first problems failure that we came up with an answer writing strategy we used to regularly write answers and we also used to attempt tests after a week weeks time so that was answer writing strategy for us so I think answer writing strategy is very important even during this means we used to do daily answer writing at least five or six questions per day were attempted each day and we used to compare our answers as well so that any kind of value addition or any kind of improvement and innovation in terms of presentation can be incorporated in each other's answer and that also gives you a practice which will enable you to emulate the same in terms of the examination condition so I think answer writing is a very crucial aspect of preparation and is a game changer anything to add yeah well with respect to means I believe answer writing practice is the key and the best part of our preparation was the fact that just like he mentioned when you discuss it with each other you tend to remember the facts and figures that you had quoted in each other's answers in a much more clearer fashion he might have quoted some reports some examples best practices which he would have learned from his coaching preparation stage and I would have probably noticed something else different which would have made my answer a bit different so when we share it with each other we'll never forget the example for a I can quote an instance where this year's means there was a question on India Africa relations and it was just a few weeks back before the means that we were just sharing the India Africa and we just shared about the solar mama initiative between India and Africa and because of that particular one instance that we had a conversation we were able to write that point in our answer so like that there were several instances where one of the points or statistics that we shared between ourselves became a really good part likewise for ethics where we share the examples situational awareness examples which you can write in the answer the keywords can be shared which really makes it worthwhile exercise now regarding this answer writing did you ever go through toppers answer copies and you know get points from them this is some exercise which some toppers do or people who clear have you ever done that going through toppers answer copies yes absolutely that is something that we have done so what we did as an approach was that mostly when it comes to the answer keys which are published by different coaching institutes that will be a very standard answer which is very well researched as well so it is not something which is generated from an examination point of view or an examination environment as such so we used to download copies from institutes like Shankara is and we used to write the same answer and then compare our answer with the toppers answer so with that exercise we know what is something what is that which is significantly in their answer and how we need to improve to reach up to that level so that kind of an exercise is very useful so even I have taken examples from many toppers copies so that we could directly replicate that in our answers so that is an exercise that we used to do even diagrams and figures these are things that we used to regularly take from toppers copy definitely the way that the toppers write is essentially a practical example of how you do it in an exam hall rather than a well researched well substantiated answer you would probably get a better idea about how you would be able to emulate it in an examination hall so especially when the previous year toppers answer sheets are uploaded by on the coaching websites especially on Shankara is we downloaded and we check it out as to which point have they highlighted what dimension what dimensions have they brought into the answer how good how crisp is their points have they written a very broad introduction or conclusion have the included diagrams which are well could be emulated in our answers is it something which we should not be doing it because not everything needs to be taken we can also have our own approach to it so probably we take one and say okay this is not something that is going to work for us both because it is not fitting into our template so we discard that and we do something which is absolutely something which is okay by us so it is more like a hybrid approach where we mix our own techniques our own strategies and try to deceive and accept some things which is absolutely possible in the exam hall great now regarding current affairs preparation for mains what differences did you make between prelims current affairs and mains current affairs preparation again was it monthly magazines or you prepare notes for mains current affairs it is monthly magazines alone but what we did differently was that there are syllabus pointers as well as means is concerned unlike problems which is very broad in nature so we used to compare the syllabus pointers with the current affairs topics and prepare notes accordingly and we will discard all those current affairs which does not fit into the syllabus pattern so we used to have a broad listing of topics which can come under the syllabus and then prepare current affairs accordingly it is also a matter of paucity of time as such because we were both engaged at the point of time we were both busy with our respective jobs so we only had limited time as well as means preparation was concerned that is why we came up with this strategy which I feel is very efficient in nature so as well as means is concerned means does not ask you a very specific question the questions are more general in nature which needs you to approach a question in an analytical manner so I think current affairs has to be understood in such a fashion not in a fashion that is required for problems so that is my approach with regard to that I think with respect to means it's very important to have a current affairs which is theme based analysis because for prelims you do more or less like you know catch all way where you put everything in the basket you try to look through it but for means you don't need to go through every factual details because for example for GS3 you need to have themes like for example economic development under economic development infrastructure manufacturing or probably service sector so we divided by theme wise banking regulations so we put it theme wise and see what are the major developments that has happened okay is there something which we can put it as a good example okay which are the latest reports that have come through rather than you know going around all around taking random facts and checks you know classify it into theme based and connect it with the syllabus especially with respect to downloading the syllabus pointers and you know checking it out and ticking whether have we covered all the syllabus pointers is very crucial which we I think we forgot to do it in the second attempt but we ensure that that was something which was very crucial and which helped us a really to improve our marks and G. My next question is actually related to this only like from second first means to second means first means you failed second means you both cleared so what differences did you make in the preparation of first and second means terms you already told that you solve more questions what changes did you make in the mains preparation. In my first means that is in 2020 our marks were very similar our marks had only a difference of two marks so my GS marks were was around 357 and I knew that it was absolutely inadequate to clear this examination so the differences that I made was firstly in terms of micro management of time for attempting each and every question. So in our first attempt what we did was that for seven questions we used to allocate one hour the problem with such an approach is that we used to compromise on one or two answers and we used to maximize our time for five answers so that was the problem with that kind of an approach but in this particular attempt we used to dedicate equal time for all answers that is if it is a 10 marker it is a seven minute so after that seven minute is done we used to go to the next answer the good thing about this approach is that each and every question is given its numerator so that has helped us to elevate this code and secondly in our first attempt in terms of all GS answers we were more focused on objective details that is objectivity was given more focus and what we missed was our own perspective so our essence was not reflected in the answers that we wrote which we thought did not make our answers unique so in our second attempt when we made a conclusion we ensured that our perspective our viewpoint on that particular topic is reflected in such an answer so that our answer stands out so that has helped me to secure 421 marks in GS this time so that's a very good improvement so I think that was done through a bit of changes small changes but these small changes are very effective in terms of preparation. What about you any like preparation wise changes have you made like this answer writing you told time management and preparation wise also any changes? Minimalism is something that we focused upon while in the preparation because rather than going for sources from across this broad spectrum we used to pick and choose what is really required for example if it is for GS1 world history we don't need to go and look for all the standard books and try to mug it up because there is a limitation on which UPS usually ask world history questions so you just need to have a broad themes just read up on those and remember the same details geography let's come to geography and let's see that yes there can be some really challenging questions technical questions but the basics needs to be covered so if that is not going if that is not done then your GS preparation is not completely then and another example would be ethics where most of us have make a mistake of not including ethical terminologies in our answer which makes our answer a lot more less authoritative so trying to understand what are the good ethical terms that needs to be used in an answer discussing it understanding the meaning trying to put it in the answer practically is something that would have helped us really lot in our GS prep. Now let's discuss about your optional subjects you are a lawyer you studied LLB and took law itself but you are a commerce graduate and you took PSIR so anyway you had your backing as a graduation subject why did you move to PSIR after commerce? Well it was pure interest towards IR that first inspired me to take PS political science and international relations but later when I went on researching about this subject as such the syllabus pointers in political science paper one which is theory part really interested me especially learning about political philosophies different political philosophies different political thinkers was something that really suited my taste one second thing is the guidance that is easily available for this subject across the country and the content and the kind of materials that is easily available so that's three major reasons why I shifted to political science one would be interest second would be the guidance and the third would be the accessibility to materials. Now law is an optional which is not very popular among aspirants only lawyers can take it and so what will you suggest to those aspirants who are thinking about law as an optional like the do's and don'ts of law as an optional. Nowadays there are people who are from non-law background taking law and excelling in it so that's there but the problem that we face when it comes to law optional is the lack of guidance so that is one major issue and secondly the syllabus as far as law is concerned is very vast in nature so I think that is another issue that we need to that we need to address so in order to address both of these issues the first point that we need to keep in mind is that the preparation has to be done according to the demand of the examination though the syllabus is vast in nature the questions tend to get repeated and there is only so much that you can write for a 10 marker 15 marker 20 marker so that has to be kept in mind so rather than studying from starting to the end of a particular book or standard book which is prescribed for law what is most suited for this examination is studying in a question answer format especially for law optional so I think that is a strategy that many can follow especially when they are having a law background so that can help them write good answers as well so that's the strategy that I followed for this attempt especially because I had paucity of time so what I did was that I used to write question and answers and then used to revise from that so any kind of case laws or any kind of additions that I need to make I used to make in that particular answer that I wrote so that this is something that I can easily revise and I also had a list of case laws which are very important as well as law optional is concerned which I can revise on the day of the examination so these are something which always sticks in the short-term memory so that has to be revised after each and every point of time so I used to have a list of cases that used to run to 100 or 150 number of cases but that has to be revised that is the nature of this optional so it is a bit of a tricky optional but it can be safe if it is prepared in the right direction right what all changes did you make between your first means and second means regarding law optional my marks are not very different when it comes to first and second means even I had a very comfortable or above average score in my first means as well when it comes to law option I had a 10 marks improvement this year so the preparation strategy was not very different but I gave focus on answer writing this time around because which is not something that I did last time because when you have enough content you can write answers but the problem is if you don't have answer writing practice you don't know what what is the content that you need to prioritize as well as your optional answer writing is concerned because the different ball game when it comes to GS answer writing and optional answer writing you need to write as an expert so during my answer writing strategy I evolved a pattern wherein what my introduction will be and where will I fit in case laws and statutes regarding a particular questions that will be asked and what is the kind of conclusion that I need to come up with so having a contemporary issue that is coming up in conclusion that can help you boost your marks especially in law so these are little bit of changes that I made in this attempt and I think which is work for me as well great now PSI are the do's and don'ts what all will you suggest right sticking to the syllabus and having conceptual clarity is really crucial because most of them one of the let's start with the don'ts before we go to the do's the don'ts is that first one is to go behind a lot of materials yes there are several books available for political science there are lot of authors who write political science of notebooks but covering all of them is not possible so most of the content which the aspirants write is the same the only way where you can make a difference in your answers is by quoting the right author the right name the right thinker and under and ensuring that the key words the key concepts are visible to the evaluator that is one thing and structuring your answer so if one thing would that you shouldn't be doing is that second thing is not doing enough answer writing practice because for any optionals especially political science requires a lot of writing practice and understanding and putting the your thoughts in a really really concise manner the third one would be to ignoring the second paper which is international relations paper many of them focus solely on the first paper which is a theory part where they have said syllabus second paper is a bit tricky where you have international relations dynamic concepts especially this year they asked about very factual questions like what were India's commitments at the COP26 so those are things which are straight out of current affairs and something also out of a GS question so those questions also need to be given due focus and you need to prepare and understand what is happening around the world in geopolitical with geopolitical significance make your own notes about it and have a really good understanding of these things so one thing would be the presentation of answers I would say that my in my first attempt though I had above average marks in my first attempt I wouldn't say that my answers were really presentable most of them were clumsy and was not present at this second that in this my in this attempt I gave more focus on having a more concise manner to my answers second would be time management I used to spend a lot of time on 10 markers and spend very less time on 15 and 20 markers so a rolled reversal where 10 markers are given due attention but sticking to that 6.5 7 minutes and finishing of those section was one change I made now let's move to the interview phase which is one of the most anticipated phase by any aspirant so this was your first interview right both of you went for the first interview so share of your interview experience was it like really in the expected way because we attend a lot of mocks and we get feedbacks from the mocks but when you go and sit in that room the experience is totally different it's what I have felt you know initially I went blank and then I gathered all my bits and started answering so how was your experience sitting in the actual UPSC interview I think the actual interview is a different ballgame when it comes when it compares to the mocks that we attend I think when it comes to mocks there is a lot of diversity in terms of the questions that that is posed to us I think they test is on different kind of subjects but when it comes to UPSC interview it depends on that particular day what is the kind of questions that they want to ask on that particular day for me it was a very cordial experience because the board was very forthcoming and very warm in terms of the questions that they posed and in terms of the time that they gave me in terms of giving answers for that however the questions were only from a limited topics especially in terms of constitutional law that is the area where I got most of the questions from I had to answer a few controversial questions like the Shavarimala issue the Hijab issue how I consider the genital mutilation that happens in the Dawadiwara community these are issues which are subsidized in nature but questions were posed from that and apart from that there were a few questions related to insolvency and bankruptcy code and company law which are all related to my graduation subjects so I would say that only topic which was asked was law and none of the other topics from DAF were even touched upon by the interview panel so it's a different bargain it's a different experience but it's a very good one a great which part did you get and what is the score this year my board was Nagraj ma'am and I got a score of around 185 great great it's a great score now if you I don't know if you remember the answers but what was your answer for the Shabarimala what was the question what did you answer do you remember the Hijab question issue and all when it comes to Shabarimala issue my stand on that issue was obviously asked and I said that the stand should be one which is very constitutionally sound in nature as it is a subsidized issue I made a comment that it is subsidized in nature but still I gave my opinion on an academic note I said that the entry is something which is restricted on the grounds of the biological nature of women and that has to go away because of article 14 and many other rights which are conceived by the constitution itself and no religious right should come in conflict with the right to live with dignity as such and that has to be ensured for each and every one of this country and without any kind of discrimination as far as gender is concerned and even in terms of hijab issue I made a balance stand though I knew that the Karnataka High Court decision was upholding the ban I made a comment which stated that that should have been reasonably accommodated though uniform is absolutely necessary in terms of school premises I said that because it can impact the school education of Muslim girl children what has to be done is reasonable accommodation of that price and gradually coming up with the social engineering strategy wherein something which is not conducive like hijab can be gradually phased out but an abrupt change was not recommended from my part and I think the board was kind enough to accept that great any other questions interesting questions which you remember immediately any funny questions or any moments you had a like you know soft moments with the board I did not have any soft moments as such but one question which I remember precisely was the constitutional history of India what are the highs and loss of constitution this was one question which was asked so when it comes to highs there are obviously this instance of public interest litigation Keshavan and the Bharati case basic structure doctrine which all comes which comes to the mind of any UPSC aspirant but when it comes to the law of the constitution as such I said that it is the emergency era I think that was a very good moment as well as the interview is concerned because I was able to effectively substantiate why the emergency era has to be the black moment or the low moment of the constitution as such great great so you had a good feel when you came out of the interview not a great feel because my interview was limited in terms of the time it took it was 20 to 25 minutes so I thought that if it was a bit more longer I could have said a lot more things but that is how the nature of UPSC interview is something that is not in your control and you only control the controllables great what about you my interview was really different as he said from the mocks because I expected a lot of questions from my DAF personally with especially with respect to my service preference with respect to the hobbies that I had mentioned and everything because I had a quite a lot of quite a number one or two hobbies which were probably not so much seen in a DAF so I thought I would probably get a lot more questions on those things however the board seemed to be interested to be asking more questions on my graduation topic which was commerce and they asked me lot more questions surrounding GST finance commission FRBM about the manufacturing industry in India about how nuclear energy can be made more safer about the Russia-Ukraine conflict one question was from IR though I had expected a lot more it was more on the factual basis I was also asked a few bouncers like where was the next commonwealth games happening where was the next station games happening which I did not know the answer to and probably he asked me about one of the members asked me about whether the 2022 World Cup is happening which I happened to know because I had studied in Qatar for around 12 years so these were some of the questions which were asked to me highly factual in nature would say probably four or five analytical questions but there was a moment in interview when the interview panel had my panel was headed by R. N. Chobhisa Chobhisa had asked me whether he wanted to whether I wanted to share something with the board apart from all of these questions after they had finished for when and I told the board that I would want to thank my mother and my father and my grandfather who was the pillars of strength behind my behind my all-day preparation journey which I which I felt that the board seemed to like rather than me telling out all my DAF in front of them and saying that okay I do this I do that and blah blah blah which were probably one of the soft moments and one of the goof ups that I made in the interview was the panel asked me to name a few nuclear accidents in nuclear disasters in the world and me coming from a political science background there was an author whose name is Francis Fukuyama and instead of saying Fukushima I said Fukuyama and he said humane Fukushima and they had a slight okay okay apart from that the interview board was really cordial Chobhisa especially is known for making that board really you know the environment really cordial yeah what about the scores was did you get the scores you were expecting or like on that front I'm a bit disappointed because I expected a little more probably somewhere in the 18 late one you know latter half of the 180s however I you know the interview score of this year was around 177 okay reasonably good score only but yeah you can you expected more yeah right now let's do something light you know let's let's make it a bit lighter we'll do something like a rapid fire okay I'll ask you small questions you can answer very you know quickly don't think too much whatever comes to your mind most of these are yes no questions you can answer yes or no so first question the subject you like the most in the end of preparation and I hope you won't be diplomatic policy international relations the subject you hated the most geography economics one officer that inspired you in the you know in the services at least now it's yes or no questions you can answer yes or no I think the first question you already answered before but still I'll ask at least once in the journey I felt that making preparing for UPSC was not a right career decision after my main sphilim after my first plumes failure yes okay at least once I have thought about changing my optional after my main sphilim same here we both discussed it over the phone shall we shift the optionals because before even coming the months we thought we lost the means because of our optionals but our option was not the villain option was not the villain because so yeah this are all thoughts which go through aspirants minds basically I stayed away from social media to avoid friends and their stories yes absolutely for five years at least we were away from social media for five years okay one of the inspirations for writing the exam was the fame that we will get after the results not really one of the problems one of the reasons yes absolutely the day where yes probably yes probably yes I have skipped NC at is no yes news another question was regarding newspaper but you told that you are not fans of newspapers obviously have skipped newspapers right I have created hobbies to add to the daff no no now last question at least one person have told me that you should not do UPSC yes yes so how did you overcome that see generally when people start you know said why are you are a lawyer why can't you pursue low commerce ca ca why don't you do that so how did you reply to that how did you overcome because when it comes to these kind of questions always this can create a amount of self doubt especially when you're going through such a rough phase when someone asks you this question why why are you not pursuing law and why are you going for civil service which is very uncertain nature and then you question yourself are you having that enough in you in order to clear this examination you have those kinds of self doubts but what you need to do is that you need to go back to why you started why you started this journey and what is that thing which always used to push you and I used to go back to that and then I gather enough courage to go through this process of examination at the end of the day if you question yourself you can't clear this examination and it is very important to trust yourself and trust your strengths and understand your weakness as well great great apart from whatever he said I think very simple thing just smile at them and be like probably I'm doing something which suits my mind my peace so probably I just go with it no no offense but probably have a smile at them and just go and do you know carry on with your own work probably your efforts and your results will be an answer to them and you have proved it right now and one question I want to ask there are subjects which are like a personal favorites of aspirin subjects people find it difficult to prepare rather than the word hate how do you deal with those subjects which you find more difficult you feel bored reading how do you deal with those subjects because my that subject was geography because I did not understand geography per se so what I did was that I used to listen to geography lectures very keenly so that I understand at least the basics of that so I only learned the basics of that I don't go deep into it and then I also make certain cosmetic arrangements when it comes to presenting my answers when it comes to geography I used to draw maps even though I'm not very well versed with where are these countries place where are these channels placed I'm not very sure of it but I draw a map which suits all these requirements so that is something that I used to do but I don't use to study these subjects in a very deep manner because the cost benefit is very low even in terms of my problems preparation my geography knowledge would be in such a manner that the questions that everyone would mark right I would also mark right but I won't go that extra mile in order to get those questions which a very good person who is very has a having an expertise in geography would attempt so I would ignore that and probably I would maximize my score in a subject like quality or economics for that matter economics for you I'm a commerce graduate so I shouldn't be telling this but weirdly enough some there is something about economy that probably gives me a lot more of a dry feeling probably because of that and I'm more fascinated towards IR maybe because of that but one way I deal with a difficult subject is to spend more time with the difficult subject as they say when the going gets tough the tough gets going so probably spend more time with the tough subject spend enough amount of time to understand why is it why things are happening the way it is watching YouTube videos to make this concepts much more simpler trying to have my own mind maps or diagrams over things that probably will help you understand better trying to write and more practice more answers and as he said if you get very really really technical questions for in the prelims very conceptual we will attend it but if it's something that is beyond my comprehension I'll probably skip it great great thoughts now you now let's discuss some few things in general the way in the interview like UPSC preparation is a long journey we have been into the cycle of almost four years finally have succeeded so how did you deal with stress in the entire preparation process obviously I know friends support each other is a great relief and you told how you face failures together apart from that how did you deal with stress I mainly want to know about your hobbies you told you had a couple of hobbies you wrote in the dark did you get time to pursue all this hobbies while preparing how did you deal with stress I would say the stress is not something that I managed really well because I was a person who used to be consumed by stress even during the examination process itself so that used to happen but what I did was that I have managed my response towards stress stress happens every time even during the last things it has happened in a huge manner but I manage my response towards stress that so when it comes to my main examination or when it comes to my problems examination in general in 2019 the night before problems I was not able to sleep because of anxiety because the next day I'm going to write my first problem and it's a very important examination in my life I knew that so I was not able to sleep and the next day it reflected in my problems attempt it was not the sleep deprived person that created a huge trouble for me but it was that thought that I miss sleep which created that kind of a trouble so later on when I gave my next attempt even in 2020 I knew that I may not be able to sleep what I did was that even before that problems examination I created such an atmosphere or environment wherein I'm not getting so much sleep and I'm still attempting a mock test so I did that I emulated that so during that examination point of time when in 2020 when I did not get a lot of sleep still I was able to clock 120 marks in problems because I knew that it is a factor that I can manage and I also had this wonderful story coming from Sachin Nelukha wherein he was saying that even while he was playing one of his greatest innings he had nights wherein he was not able to sleep because thinking about next day's performance so that happens and apart from that I also used to pursue meditation in order to manage my stress levels and we used to go out for movies like we did not have a schedule wherein we used to study 24-7 we used to plan our movies together we used to go for movies Saturday night and we also used to play badminton regularly so these are things that we used to do which were part of our time table itself because we knew that if it is only preparation we can we can be consumed by preparation itself and this will suddenly come to an end but we need to have we needed to have that balanced lifestyle and we need to take everything in moderation we knew that and that was put as a part of our time table that's how we dealt with it great I think understanding stress and you know keeping it aside and dealing with it is something which you worked on yes well as he said we are not good managers of stress we have our points where stress consumes us but I believe that the way in which we deal with stress I've changed over the time and me personally my greatest stress buster is food whether you're really happy whether you're really sad food is something that really is more like a therapy for me of course quite visibly of course so definitely that's one of these things and secondly as you asked me do I get my time to follow my hobbies one of my hobbies is cooking so definitely I make sure that to suit my taste but I spend time in the kitchen so that my stress is also being busted over there secondly washing formula one races is one of my favorite hobbies every Sunday night we have races so I watch races get my ensure that my dose of daily dose of my you know entertainment is solved over there there's one way to deal with that the usual preparation stress when it comes to examination maybe you may not be able to do all of these things but as he said going and playing a few rounds of badminton on the court or having watching a few movies really helps a lot great now three mistakes you feel you have done in the preparation or retrospectively these three things you would not have done now looking back believing in certain dogmas especially newspaper reading during the first part of my preparation because when I used to read when I used to miss one newspaper or two newspaper I used to feel that is the end of my preparation so that kind of believing dogmas that is one thing secondly not understanding the requirement of examination and studying everything and anything that came my way just to make it more clear understanding the requirement of examination when it comes to preparing subject like modern history what you need to do is that you need to know what is asked for problems you don't need to read two or three books you don't need to read bibin chandra then go for spectrum that is not what these examination demands you just need to stick to one book and maybe solve a lot of questions that is what is the approach that is needed for the examination but I used to read from different sources then I don't make notes from that so it's a haphazard preparation so understand not understanding the demand or the requirement of the examination that is one part which basically understanding the questions of UPSC yes understanding the questions of UPSC the trends and patterns that is very important and thirdly ignoring answer writing during the first phase of my preparation which I feel would have at least saved one of my attempts because if I have started answer writing from my first attempt probably by second attempt I would have had a crystal clear clarity with respect to how or what kind of a template that I would have used for answer writing but I think it was I was a late starter when it came to answer writing okay so now I think all the aspirants who are listening to it can correct all those things while they're preparing what about you during my first phase of preparation I don't think I used to follow a disciplined pattern which led to the failure in first rooms I believe not having a regular sleep pattern disruptive sleep pattern waking up or at odd hours in the night slaying too much they're not having four to five bare minimum three to four hours of sleep I don't think that works shouldn't be done which I have solved it at a later phase secondly would be not practicing enough mock papers and not finding your optimum attempts level in especially in brilliance which which will cost you very dearly if you are going for a brilliance like that third one I am I thought that I'm not a I'm not a person who is really excelling in CSAT I failed my first CSAT examination because I'd not give much attention to my first CSAT examination but later on I understood that if you don't practice CSAT and take it for granted it really can spoil your chances okay so I think these three things with very specific to prelims I would say rest of them whatever he did is also as we went through the similar phases these are mistakes which have been committed by me as well all right all right now you are both good friends imagine today you are meeting Sri Kumar who failed his first prelims you have cleared it and you are meeting Sri Kumar who's failed his first prelims what advice will you give to Sri Kumar I would say that you are much better than the results and you will anyway clear problems examination year next attempt so that will be the kind of advice I will give him because I feel that when someone fails problems what he needs is a kind of validation from someone else because I have received from that few people that from few people so that's the reason why I was able to give my second attempt so rather than giving you a minutest details with respect to your preparation you need someone to put your put an arm around your shoulder and tell you that it's okay there's next attempt coming up and you will clear and what about you you are meeting Nagil who failed his first prelims you have cleared the exam and what will you tell okay next question well the first thing that I would like to say is that see a UPAC results whatever it is whether you have cleared the examination or not is never an indication of your intellectual ability just because let's say in reality even though we have cleared it we can't claim ourselves as the most intellectual people in the country or the 600 and or candidates who have been elected it's just that things have gone right for them probably in this point of time maybe or the others might be deserving them probably this year but their time will come probably where they will hit it so a sense of vote of confidence that as he said this is something that will be achieved by you sooner or later and just work towards it with a happy and relaxed mindset is something that I would like to say I think one of the best parts of the entire interview is that you both are totally honest upright and you know telling things really truly which rarely happens I'm happy about that now Shangri's Academy is happy to be a part of your success journey and you know it's a privilege that we could help you out in this entire process of clearing the exam and you would like to hear your experiences with Shangri's Academy especially in terms of the materials that I've used I've used materials when it comes to medieval history environment when it comes to Shangri's and even the current of his material for that matter the environment materials are absolutely a absolutely a high standard when it comes to Shangri's and when it comes to my own preparation journey I would say that the support that was extended by Lena man from Shangri's Academy has been spectacular because I would say that there was a personal touch in each and every kind of steps that she took when it comes to my preparation because she personally arranged different kinds of sessions for me when it when it came to her notice that I was lacking in terms of preparation on this particular subject especially on the interview phase because I was telling her I was not getting enough time when it comes to interview preparation because I had to balance it out with my KIS training which is the state service service in Kerala so she told me that you don't need to worry about that I will arrange some sessions for you so that was taken care of by her so I did not have to put a lot of stress in terms of my interview preparation because I had that support system from Shangri's Academy and especially I need to give a huge thanks to Lena man for that it's always our pleasure to help you out with respect to prelims I believe Shangri's is an integral part of it I think prelims preparation especially Shangri's environment textbook is something most of the aspirin is really referred to when it's coming to environment studies second thing is soon after prelims is over we all refer to the Shankar cutoff prediction and the Shankar keys because I think it's one of the most vetted ones and the most you know credible ones which most of the aspirin will refer to rather than a lot of other things and with respect to interview especially in Trivandrum where I was attending interview one-on-ones even though I had a very few time you know time limit before my actual interview within that particular time period Lena man was really kind enough to arrange three to four one-on-ones within that very specific period of time and I think her key remarkable feature is that she's very cordial to anyone who comes and just asks you personally is there something that we can do for you now I don't know how many of them will really take take a time out of their personal schedule and do that for you and go that extra mile and with that respect I believe it's a wonderful job done and making this job making this journey much more easier has been you know done over there so yeah great great again as I said Lena man was the branch head of our Trivandrum Shankar's academy and a big shout out to her to all the help extended to all the candidates now because we have discussing about I wanted to ask about KS because it's UPSC like what a difference you felt between the preparation of KS and civil service because you have cleared both now so are these the preparations similar or like what differences I would say that there is a difference when it comes to the approach that has to be taken the problems I wouldn't say that there is a huge lot of difference KS is more factual in nature so you need to have more factual information when it comes to clearing KS problems so that is there but when it comes to the main stage there is a difference that is the space that is given when it comes to each and every question is very limited in case and the questions are also asked in a factual manner so objectivity is very key when it comes to writing answers but that is not the case with civil service means examination because you have a space which is given wherein you can write any kind of an answer and you are given 10 marks and 15 markers and 20 markers wherein you can express your creativity and ideas so you need to bring in that perspective of your own when it comes to writing answers for civil services means so that is the kind of difference when it comes to both these examinations and interview pattern I would say that it is very similar great now last couple of questions the advice you would like you can give to those aspirants who have given multiple attempts but is failing at different levels problems multiple problems or multiple means even interview what would you like to tell to those aspirants who are you know given multiple attempts and have failed I would not ever romanticize failure in any manner because I know that failure is tough and I've dealt with that but I would say that if one believes that after any kind of failure there is any scope for improvement one should take that because that is something which determines whether you need to go for an extra attempt or whether you need to stop this journey if you feel yourself that there is a bit of improvement that you can do which can enable you to clear this examination and there's a dream that you need to fulfill then you need to go for the extra attempt so I think that is what one need to keep in mind because failures are lessons that we need to derive lessons from so failures are different chapters that we need to derive lessons from so I think failures are part of life and that goes the same for UPSC as well and when it comes to UPSC we know that failures can be tough but at the same time we need to have the courage and conviction to move ahead well yes covered it all there's nothing much to add to it honestly see one thing is that it's a cliched dialogue which I probably often repeats everywhere because this is very close to my heart personally it's just one thing that we always hear when everything probably when you feel that we say right how would how I used to say it every time and now that it's not probably the end yeah it's never the end actually you know if it is all right and if you feel that this is the end it's not actually the life still goes on and as I say in Hindi right picture so just keep going and wishing and just have a feeling that there is some light at the end of the tunnel and just keep working towards it sooner or later your efforts are going to be rewarded one way or the other and there are people with you to support throughout that journey and everything is okay at the end if it's not it's not the end that's great great advice now what will you advise to those aspirants have just began the journey especially those who are taking you know they're coaching now they are mainly they would be facing time crunch they're confused whether to read newspapers NCRT is optional you know they are you know you also have gone through that phase first year of preparation where you don't know what to do what not to do to those aspirants what will you suggest or those who are planning to take attempt in future what would you advise firstly we need to understand the demand of this examination because there's a trend in the society wherein it is it is a perception that we need to study each and everything under the sun when it comes to UPS examination but that is not the case so we need to understand the demand that is the first thing secondly there should be a clear timetable for each day because the problem is if you don't have a timetable you read a lot of things and you feel that you have done a lot of things on one single day but you may not have covered many things you have just remained in one topic so you need to have a clear timetable so that you can complete the syllabus on time and thirdly you need to have a credible set of vendors whom you can rely upon in this online era this is something that is very feasible because there are youtube videos or guidance which are available online which is freely accessible as well but if you are going through some institute go for a credible institute which can offer you good mentorship support and fourthly answer writing even if you are two or three months into the preparation i would say that you need to go ahead with answer writing so these are the few things that i need to tell the aspirants anything to add yes the only thing to add is that when you're starting with the preparation there will be many things in your head running whether to make notes whether to do this right now or read three newspapers read kurishetra original front-line magazines there will be several things that is going coming at you in the initial stages you'll have classes from probably nine to four or rather you'll have three or four hours of going into the class and you hardly have two to three hours to preparation so everything at the weekend will look like things are piling up on and you suddenly seem to be lost and then there will be people around you whom you are studying where they might be if you knowing a few concepts better than you and you're still sitting in the class where you are wondering okay what's going on so you will feel a lot more demotivated but this is where the you know the saying as he's a fan of such an i'm a fan of amazon there's a famous thing which he always says trust the process this is a process where you have to always trust that particular game which is a long-term thing every day is a work in progress you are also a work in progress so you will get better by every day and at the end of it you will reach that goal and that's it really great advice i hope it reaches out to many aspirants who are preparing now my last questions like whenever we start the preparation journey there would be thought process in our mind that one day i'll become an is officer for you it's an ifs officer this is what i want to do like have you ever thought of that day obviously you're going to for the training and then you will become you know for you it's is and this year i think you will be getting irs and probably in the coming years into ifs so what would you like to do as an is officer in the future i hail from a small town called as iringalakorayatsentrishu district so i haven't met a lot of civil servants when i'm a child but i've heard of them and i have visited several government office as well so after all these experiences what i feel is that my only dream when i become a civil servant if for that matter an is officer is that anyone who visits my office returns from my office with dignity that is the only thing that i dream of because i don't have any kind of projects or any kind of innovation in my mind at this point of time obviously i would like to work on social sectors so that is my area that i would like to focus on but this is the principle that i would like to keep in mind really great and what about you Srikumar as an ifs officer have you ever thought what all you'd like to do and i lived 13 i lived around 12 to 13 years abroad in in the middle eastern state so i've seen the plight of migrant workers in medleys and my dad was also one of them who reached gulf countries at a very young age so my fascination towards Indian foreign service was not only my fascination towards international relations it was also the difficulties that many of the Indians face abroad so as an ambassador or as an Indian foreign service officer you also have to have a humane face where you become a spokesperson for your country for these people and become a channel or become a bridge to have better relations not only with those countries top political spectrum but also with the common man who is working for India and for Indians abroad India so this is also and be a better host and make those countries their second home that's it really great i mean the best way to end the all interview like your words your thought process the way you analyze things itself reflect how mature you both are as aspirants and how you're going to reflect that in future as officers so all the very best and eagerly waiting to see both of you on ground doing tremendous credible you know work uplifting and you know making the new india as we all wish so once again congratulations and really happy to be part of your success journey and all the very best thank you