[Topper’s Interview] Vijay Sharma (CSE-2013/AIR-614): Public Administration, First Attempt, BE Computer, TCS Business Analyst from Madhya Pradesh

1. Details
2. Education
3. Introduction
4. Electronic Vs Paper material
5. Tempo and style
6. Working professional
7. Prelims (CSAT) General studies
8. Prelims (CSAT) Aptitude
9. Prelim accuracy
10. Mains: Compulsory language paper
11. Mains: Essay
12. General Studies (Mains) paper 1
13. General studies (Mains) paper 2
14. General studies (Mains) Paper 3
15. General Studies 4: Ethics, Integrity, aptitude
16. GS4 Ethics case study answers in Mains 2013
17. Mains answer-writing?
18. Public Administration Optional Subjects
19. Before the interview
20. During the interview
21. CSE-2013 Marksheet
22. Career Backup
23. Insecurity about profile
24. Wisdom
25. Credit: Friends/family
26. Marketing Propaganda

Details

Name	Vijay Sharma
Rank in CSE-2013	614
Roll No.	315534
Age	27
Total attempts	1
Optional Subject	Public Administration
Medium chosen for Mains answers	English
Schooling medium	English
College medium	English
Home town/city	Sausar(Chhindwara) M.P.
Work-experience if any	2.5 years with TCS
Details of other competitive exams, including success/failures	No
Details of coaching, mock tests, postal material, if any	Used guidance of Brijesh Sir of Aavishkar IAS Mumbai.

Education

% in class 10	85
% in class 12	78
Schooling (Medium)	English
Graduation course and %	B.E.(Computer Science) 75
Name of college, city, passing out year	Ramdeobaba Kamla Nehru Engineering college, Nagpur,2009
Post-graduation	Tata Institute of Social Sciences Mumbai, M.A. (Globalization and labour),2014
Any other professional courses	No
Hobbies & Extra curricular**	Following latest happenings in particle Physics, particularly string theory, dark Energy and multi universalism. Watching Cartoons, watching movies, listening to music And public speaking.

** I was filling the form without any worry of space or any guidance so stuffed lots of things, I urge candidates not to write too much, it may hurt in interview.

Introduction

Q. Tell us something about yourself, your family, when and why did you enter in this field of competitive exams?

I am from a place named Sausar, it’s in Chhindwara district of MP. My father is a small businessman and my mom a homemaker. After my graduation I settled for a job with TCS. There was always a urge to sit for this exam but my fear of weak background and fear of failure was not letting me. Whenever I read topper’s interviews I would find IITs, IIMs and what not, I started feeling that this exam is not for me.

I wanted to go for higher studies and this time I chose passion over money, joined a course in TISS Mumbai which was focusing on the unorganized sector. I took LWP from TCS and started pursuing this course and during this year that is 2012 august I thought of pursuing my dream again. I decided to chart out my own path; I started this while pursuing M.A. from TISS. This was tough to manage college and studies but somehow my dedication conquered my laziness.

I was completely focused on this exam and didn’t took any other exam.

Electronic Vs Paper material

There are lot of sites but we need to choose what is best for us. I relied a lot of mrunal’s blog. I must say that my economy preparation has a substantial amount of Mrunal.org in it. The food processing stuff, I just chose mrunal because of paucity of time. What I am suggesting is if you can read more that’s fine but if not do not leave the fundamentals. I tried making notes, it didn’t work for me was making more notes than reading so I rejected notes making.

Tempo and style

Q. On an average, how many hours do you study? How do you keep study momentum going on? How do you fight against the mood swings?

A typical day of my life:

• Morning 9 Am college till 1 pm/4 pm.
• 5 PM : studies till 7 30.
• 7:30 to 8:30 Dinner + Night Walk
• 9pm to 3 Am: studies.

I made a point not to shorten my study hours and maintain continuity, but there were side effects too I missed my macroeconomic paper at the university though I passed somehow.

I watched a video of Shah Faizal IAS, his message really stuck my chord and I took it very seriously. He said why are you waiting for attempts, put your best efforts and go for it. I decided this is my chance I have time and I must utilize it to the maximum, either this time or never. This thought kept my momentum going, whenever I felt I need inspiration I would watch his video.

When I felt mood swings I would go for a long walk alone. Understanding your feelings is the best remedy to cure yourself. It helped me.

Working professional

If you’re a working professional, share some tips on how to manage studies with job

• In TCS, I worked as a Business Analyst, my work profile included interacting with the clients , taking their requirements and then conveying the same to the developer. Depending on the inputs and feasibility from the development team on the requirement would plan the schedule for various testings and final deployment. It was like an interface between the developer and user.
• But as I said, I had taken higher education study leave from TCS without pay. So, I was not working while preparing for civil service exam.
• The only tip that I can give here is that time is there we must know from where and how to snatch it. In my case I skipped everything other than classes in my college, didn’t go for any parties or any other fun activity.
• Minimized the usage of phone, made sure that every moment that I am spending I am using it wisely.  During my third semester it was really hectic as I was doing internship with SEWA Delhi, I would leave for work at around 7 30 Am and would be coming back by 6 PM. It was from june to oct 2013. After some refreshment I would continue my studies till 1 or 2 AM. On Sundays I tried to study atleast for 10-12 hours as it was the only day without any work for me.

Prelims (CSAT) General studies

Topic	strategy/booklist/comment
History Ancient	NCERT
History Medieval	NCERT
History Modern (Freedom Struggle)	BIPIN CHANDRA+NCERT
Culture society	Wonder That Was India – A. L. Basham
Polity (theory + current)	LAXMIKANTH
Economy (theory + current)	RAMESH SINGH+MRUNAL
Science (theory + current)	THE HINDU+MRUNAL
Environment (theory + current)	Environmental Science Senior Secondary Course(FROM MRUNAL’S SITE)
geography physical	NCERT+GOH CHENG LEONG GEOGRAPHY
geography India	NCERT
geography world	GOH CHENG LEONG GEOGRAPHY
other national/international current affairs	RELIED ON NEWSPAPERS I READ INDIAN EXPRESS+ THE HINDU, MAGAZINES LIKE FRONTLINE
Schemes, Policy & Filler Stuff	CONCERNED MINISTRIES’ WEBSITES

Any observation / comments / tips about GS prelims.

Gs is all about awareness, the more you are aware the better are the chances of selecting the right option. No matter how many tests you take for GS 1, until and unless you read and assimilate the information tests wont help.

Prelims (CSAT) Aptitude

Topic	strategy / booklist
Maths	Arihant book on cracking csat
reasoning	Arihant book on cracking csat
comprehension	Arihant book on cracking csat
Decision Making	Arihant book on cracking csat

Any observation / comments / tips about GS prelims.

It’s all about practice here, the more you practice the better you will be placed in the real examination.

Prelim accuracy

Q1. Did you attend any ‘mock tests’? do you think they’re necessary for success?

Personally I haven’t enrolled for any mocks but I would suggest go for Csat mock, because there is always a chance of improvement. The more you do in csat the less tense you will be about GS.

Q2. Approximate no. of attempted answers vs. correct answers. in CSAT-2013

I am not able to recall lets wait for the marksheet here.

	attempted	correct
GS
aptitude

Q3. Your score in prelim (when UPSC uploads it please mail me your score)

Ans.CSAT Prelims: GS 88.66 + Aptitude: 161.68 =Total 250 marks.

Mains: Compulsory language paper

Q1. Please fill this table

Compulsory language paper	Your preparation strategy / booklist?
English paper	Didn’t prepare anything
your regional language	Hindi, a little practice writing hindi

Q2.other observations / tips / comments on the length / difficulty level of compulsory language papers in CSE-2013

They are manageable but don’t get overconfident, do watch last year papers and practice a bit just to feel how you are going. If any problem rectify if not go ahead.

Mains: Essay

Q1. How did you prepare for the essay paper?

There was no strategy for essay paper. I decided that before writing I will make sure that substantial points are mentioned in the essay so I will not rush to writing but point making and then will expand them. I put that in practice lets see how much marks it fetched me.

Q2. What Essay did you write? What key points did you include in it?

I chose – Be the change you want to see in others (Gandhi), the topic required not only philopsphical analysis but practical application. I started on that note only explained the relevance of this quote in this corruption ridden world. Then further elaborated with real world examples at that time some CBI cases were put up against honest officers related to coal block that was one such. Then tried to connect the quote and its message with different aspects like bureaucracy, politics, governance as a whole etc.

Ended the essay with Gandhiji’s Talisman.

General Studies (Mains) paper 1

Topic	How did you prepare?
culture	Nitin Singhania ji ke notes
Indian history	NCERT +Bipin Chandra+ spectrum
world history	Norman Lowe+ Mrunal.org history section
post-independence India	GUHA+ BIPIN CHANRA JI
Indian society	RELIED ON NEWSPAPERS FOR THESE ISSUES
role of women, poverty etc.	Platform India Country Report for ActionDepartment of Women and Child Development READ BRIEFLY. WORKED AT SEWA DELHI SO GOT PRACTICAL UNDERSTANDING OF THE SAME.
globalization on Indian society	NEWSPAPERS
communalism, regionalism, secularism	BIPIN CHANDRA INDIA SINCE INDEPENDENCE
world geo physical	NCERT 11 , 12TH , GOH CHEUNG LEUNG
resource distribution	PAUCITY OF TIME USED MRUNAL.ORG EXTENSIVELY
factors for industrial location	https://mrunal.org/geography
earthquake tsunami etc	R K KHULLAR CHAPTER ON DISASTERS
impact on flora-fauna

General studies (Mains) paper 2

Topic	How Did You Prepare?
Indian Constitution, devolution, dispute redressal etc.	LAXMIKANTH
comparing Constitution with world	BRIJESH TRIPATHI’S SIR NOTES
parliament, state Legislatures	LAXMIKANTH
executive-judiciary	LAXMIKANTH
minsitries departments	RAJNIGOYAL
pressure group, informal asso.	LAXMIKANTH
Representation of people’s act	THE ACT ITSELF , BRIEFLY THOUGH MADE A SUMMARY OF IMPORTANT POINTS THAT WERE IN NEWS
various bodies: Constitutional, statutory..	LAXMIKANTH
NGO, SHG etc	WAS WORKING WITH A SHG HELPED ME
welfare schemes, bodies	INDIA YEAR BOOK+ PRS BLOG+ MRUNAL.ORG+12TH PLAN DOC
social sector, health, edu, HRD	INDIA YEAR BOOK+ PRS BLOG+ MRUNAL.ORG+12TH PLAN DOC
governance, transparency, accountability	SYNERGY NOTES
e-governance	SYNERGY NOTES
role of civil service	SYNERGY NOTES
India & neighbours	THE HINDU+ INDIAN EXPRESS+ IDSA+MRUNAL.ORG
bilateral/global grouping	THE HINDU+ INDIAN EXPRESS+ IDSA+MRUNAL.ORG
effect of foreign country policies on Indian interest	THE HINDU+ INDIAN EXPRESS+ IDSA+MRUNAL.ORG
diaspora	THE HINDU+ INDIAN EXPRESS+ IDSA+MRUNAL.ORG
intl.bodies- structure mandate	COULD HAVE DONE BETTER HERE.

General studies (Mains) Paper 3

Topic Indian economy, resource mobilization inclusive growth budgeting major crops, irrigation agro produce – storage, marketing e-technology for famers farm subsidies, MSP PDS, buffer, food security technology mission animal rearing economics	How Did You Prepare?
	R K KHULLARDUTT AND SUNDARAMTHE HINDU
	DUTT AND SUNDARAM,Mrunal.org
food processing
land reforms
liberalization
infra
investment models
science-tech day to day life	News papers+mrunal+india year book
Indian achievements in sci-tech
awareness in IT, space, biotech, nano, IPR
environmental impact assessment
Disaster Management	Vajiram notes
non state actors, internal security
internal security – role of media, social networking site
cyber security
money laundering
border  Management
organized crime, terrorism
security agencies- structure mandate

General Studies 4: Ethics, Integrity, aptitude

Topic	How Did You Prepare?
ethics and interface, family, society and all the hathodaa topics	Brijesh sir notes
attitude, moral influence etc.	Ethics in public administration- Patrick sheeran,Gurcharan das – Difficulty of being good
civil service: integrity, impartiality, tolerance to weak etc	Brijesh sir notes
emotional intelligence, its use in governance	Goleman Emotional intelligence selective reading
moral thinkers of India and world	Makers of modern india, brijesh sir notes
ethics in pub.ad, accountability, laws, rules etc.	Synergy notes + my pub ad preparation
corporate governance	Brijesh sir notes
probity in governance, work culture
citizen charter, ethics code, work culture etc.
challenges of corruption
case studies on above topics

Keep concepts clear, you will able to write well.

GS4 Ethics case study answers in Mains 2013

Q. Narrate one incident in your life when you were faced with crisis of conscience and how you resolved the same.

• I used an analogy between respect of woman and losing a cherished friendship.
• The incident involved the boy calling the girl and using loudspeaker to entertain his friends, I as a friend told him several times not to do this. He did not stop and I told this to the girl. They broke away but I was the casualty in the crossfire.
• I lost a friend but upheld the dignity of woman that was my point.

Q. in GS4 ethics papers, please give a sketchy overview of your case study answers:

case	your approach/answer
1: RTI: To hide or not to hide	Every question had a different answer, you have to understand whether what you are choosing to do is the right and ethical thing. If it is unethical no matter what deadline, try to justify the ethical side.
2: Engineer: Bogus flyover vs deadline
3: Child Labourers in Sivakasi
4: Nepotism in Job recruitment
5: Leaking information

Mains answer-writing?

Q. How was your experience with the ‘fixed space’ answer sheet?

It was my first attempt had no prior experience. Fixed space is a novel idea it saves time you don’t have to write question number and just start with questions you want to answer first. Fixed space also help write what is required not everything and not anything but only what is needed.

I thoroughly enjoyed the adrenaline rush and the anxiety of finishing maximum number of questions.

Q. In the mains answerwriting, did you follow the “introduction-body-conclusion” format? Because some mains-qualified candidates claim they simply wrote the points they could recall within the time, instead of bothering with proper introduction and conclusion.

I did not follow any set format, after some questions only the first thoughts were going into the answersheet due to paucity of time.

Q. Did you write answers in bullet points or in paragraphs? Some players (who cleared mains and got interview call letter) were claiming that they wrote entire paper in bullet points, so it doesn’t matter….whether examiner is asking ‘examine, comment, discuss or xyz’….simply write in bullets and points.

I wrote in bullet points for most of the questions. But depending on the question in some I chose to use paragraph too.

Q. In GS papers, Since UPSC came with those 100 and 200 words questions. What was your approach in the exam?

• I believe start attempting questions that you are much able to answer. Once you have finished them then jump to the next level that is question on which we have some awareness, in the final stage if the time permits go for the Tukkas hehe.
• But one point attempt as much as possible. Quality might get diluted but you have to stick to limit and answer most of them.

Q.How many marks worth questions did you skip/couldn’t finish in the GS papers?

GS1	2-3 questions where I could do justice.
GS2	1/3 questions where I could just touch the surface of the answer.
GS3	1.5 questions with 2 tuqqa attempts. In the umpire decision one I created a theory of germanium semiconductor in the bat that can deflect the signals!
GS4	All with last 2 case studies written very shabbily.

Q4. Did you use highlighters / sketchpens in your answers?

NO.

Q5. Did you draw any diagram in any paper? (e.g. in GS1 Geography)

NO

Q6. if yes, Did you draw diagrams with pencil or pen?

NO

Q7. Did you use ruler to draw the lines in diagram? Or did you just make it by hand?

No

Q8. You wrote the answer in blue pen or black pen?

Only BLUE

(Mrunal – since readers keep mailing such queries, therefore I’m asking the topper to clear all the air haha.)

Public Administration Optional Subjects

Q. Your booklist strategy and analysis for the fabled Public Administration:

• I relied most on books rather than on notes. Brijesh sir of Aavishkar ias Mumbai guided me in my preparation of pub ad. Here is my booklist
• Mohit Bhattacharya
• Prasad and Prasad
• Arora and goyal
• Laxmikanth pub ad one
• Synergy notes for some paper 2 topics – admin law, accountability and control
• 2^nd ARC reports on some topics viz governance, ethics, centre-state – briefly.
• IGNOU material– only selected topics.

Q. last 2 pub.ad exams had been tough, with less questions coming standard reference books. Even toppers received just two digit marks. So aspirants have started digging websites of all those American journals and universities to learn new theories and terms. But then they get frustrated at this ‘endless research exercise’. My question: is it a fruitful exercise? How much of internet-research / current affairs have you done for Public Administration? Any web resources recommended?

I just used the books that I have outlined but I tried to connect the thoughts of the thinkers wherever I can do that. Let the marksheet come then I would be better able to judge how I fared.

Q. Do you maintain self-notes for revision of Public Administration? In which format- electronic or paper?

I just used books and synergy notes for some topics. I am very bad at notes making. I revised using lines that I have marked in the books.

Q. How many months did it take to finish the core optional syllabus?

It took me around 2 months but cant claim I finished , I covered the best as I could.

Q. How much did you skip OR couldn’t answer properly, in Public Administration?

Paper I	Could not give justice to the last question of 50 marks.
paper II	Attempted all

Q. Your observation about the difficultly level of Public Administration in 2013 mains. And what precautions / rectifications are necessary while studying this optional for 2014?

Difficulty level was from moderate to a little hard. What we need to do is to write answers to the point and for that we must have sound awareness about that topic. Topics which are difficult should be done first and then revised later as and when needed. If you have writing speed problem then I urge you to try to improve on the same.

Q. would you advice any interested party (new player) to pick this optional? nowadays wind seems to be flowing towards sociology and political science. Some senior players advice new players not to pick Geography or Public Administration given the step-motherly treatment in scaling and odd questions.

I would advise that go for it if you really have an interest in that subject, I chose pub ad because I loved reading it.  Picking or rejecting should not be based on speculations but on your comfort level , if you feel you can do it, you can do it, if not don’t choose it.

Q. What is your view: (A) that computer / IT should be offered as an optional OR (B) that optionals should be removed altogether.

It is not needed; it will further make life hard for humanities aspirant.

Q. Any other reforms that you wish in the UPSC civil service exam?

Those who clear mains should be provided with opportunities to appear in other govt service interviews at least for a year.

Before the interview

Q1. How did you prepare for the interview? Particularly college graduation subjects related questions?

I joined Samkalp Interview programme at Delhi. As I was pursuing my last sem of post graduation so had to brush up some subjects like important labour laws, unorganized issues etc. For my engineering stream I called up a friend and had a detail discussion on some topics of interest.

Q2. Did you attend any mock interviews by coaching classes? how were they similar / different than official interview? do you believe it is necessary to attend mock interviews

I attended 3 mocks of Samkalp, they did motivated me but at the end it is the final one that counts. As far as I am concerned in the final one I forgot all the techniques that I got from mock. I was just the Vijay I was without any upgradation.

Q3. What did you wear? Some experts say coat is must, some say tie is must, and some say black shoes must. What attire did you pick up?

I wore a light blue shirt and a black pant with a dark blue tie. Its upto once comfort level what one should wear. The focus should be on how you put your point across. Delhi ki garmi me coat pehanane janlewa ho sakta hai. (wearing coat in Delhi’s heat can be fatal).

Q4. Where did you stay for the interview? (Hotel / friend’s home …) and what books/material did you bring for the ‘revision before interview’?

At a hotel. Brushed up questions related to my profile. For that I used internet extensively.

During the interview

Q1. Who was the chairman of you interview board?

Madam Kilemsungla.

Q2. How long was the interview?

About 30 minutes

Q3. Why do you want to join civil service? [Since I don’t know whether they ask you this question or not. But if they had asked- what will be your reply?]

Took lot of time to prepare this but was not asked L

Q4. Please narrate your entire interview- what questions did they ask and what did you reply? (earlier some toppers only tell me their question but not their answer. I would appreciate if you give both Question + your original answers)

Interview started with chairman asking me what is good governance. I replied but I am not able to recall now. It was fine answer.

Chairman: You are from Nagpur.

I interjected and told her that I am from Sausar its in Chhindwara district, I was born in Nagpur.

Chairman: Suppose you have to improve tourism in your area what you will do.

Though I had thoroughly prepared tourism but at that point I had gone totally blank.

Vijay: Madam, the connectivity of my place is very poor so we need to work upon the infrastructure.  There are many unexplored areas what we need is to publicize them and let people know such place exist at my place.

Chairman: Fine if all this is done what else needs to be done?

Vijay: Madam, as my place is predominantly tribal region so we need to provide training to the guides because they do not know the custom and culture of the place and the tourists do not get the true feeling of the region. Along with this we have to sensitize the police in how they deal with tourists.

(At this point madam interjected and asked)

Ch: Police is rural areas are quite mischievous and their loyalty is questionable? What do you think?

Vijay: Madam, I will not be able to comment on loyalty because most of them are loyal but yes a section of police do indulge into mischievous activities.

Ch: What will you do as DM to solve the policing issues?

Vijay: In the short term we have to sensitize so that they register complaints on the low as well as the high ones. During my SEWA Delhi internship I found police not registering complaints of domestic workers till as sewa worker is with them. In the long term we need grand overhaul of the police force with changes with the inclusion of sensitization training and other best practices from around the world and if they are placed in tribal areas, they must be made aware about the tribal practices customs and culture.

Ch: Vijay tell us the important fundamentals on which our country is standing?

Vijay: Madam, first one is the diversity , in my place that is Sausar we have majority speaking Marathi population in a hindi state that is Madhya Pradesh. (at this point one member interjected)

Member: Is it not because you share boundary with Maharashtra?

Vijay: Sir that is correct but the point is Marathi speaking population doing transaction in Hindi without any feeling of being sidelines. That is the aspect that I was making a point about.

Chairman: Any other important aspect?

Vijay: Madam, our economy though at this time is reeling but our fundalmentals are strong, if we can focus on agriculture and make avenues for secondary sector then that can add value to our standing in the world.(I fumbled a bit when answering this question)

At this point madam passed the baton to the next member.

M1: you have written you interest in particle physics? Tell us what is higgs boson?(It was not latest to say the least and somehow I did not go through this part had read way back)

Vijay: Sir it is force carrier.

M1: Why it is so important?

Vijay: Because sir it provides to the other particles in its vicinity.

M1: What is does to make this happen?(My nervousness was increasing as he was firing questions on just particle phyics and going into deeper aspects.)

Vijay: It creates a field and  that field is responsible for mass of the particle.

M1: No please explain in detail.

Vijay: Sorry sir I am not able to recall the exact technicalities.

M1: What are the particles that are smashed in CERN.

Vijay(This I should have known after interview I got the answer): Sir I think it is protons and anti protons.

M1: Are you sure(he asked after giving me a scary look)

Vijay: Sir I am not able to recall at this moment.(Confidence level was going down and my eye contact was getting disrupted that I realized)

M1: Who was Abdus Salaam?

Vijay: Sir, he was one of the creator of the standard model and was awarded nobel prize for the same.

M1: Who else was the creator?

Vijay: Steven Weinberg.

M1: And?

Vijay: Sir I am not recollecting the third person.

M1: There is some Su1,su2 activity which is happening in the field of particle physics? What is it?(this is really a bomb for me)

Vijay: (I guessed it was related to super symmetry and I avoided going into that field or I would have never come out)Sir I am yet to come across such terms will update at the earliest.

M1: You have written you follow latest happenings in particle physics(he forgot to read “particulary string theory, dark energy”)

Vijay: Sir I do follow.

Next member

M2: You are computer science graduate tell me what recently has Microsoft done.

Vijay: Sir, it has recently stopped the maintainence of window xp.

M2: Who uses windows xp?

Vijay: Sir it can be used by anyone.

M2: It is mostly used in banks. Tell us what we can do now?

Vijay: Sir we can go for updating the system to windows 7 or 8.

M2: Any other thing that we can do?

Vijay: Sir we can go for open source, in my college we used open source ubuntu operating system.

M2: What are the benefits?

Vijay: If we want short term benefits then we can go for windows7/8, it will cost money and we have to rely on Microsoft for updates. If we go for long term then we have to go for open source there is no cost for updations the only things is we have to cope up with the initial system changes.

M2: Will it be easy?

Vijay: NO sir it will take time and efforts.

M2: Some days back there was an ethics report which gave wipro and tata motors as best ethical company award. Why not TCS.

Vijay: Sir may be the parameters on whch the companies were judged might be different and as far as I know TCS has one of the best work ethics.

M2: Are you sure best work ethics

Vijay: Yes sir TCS has very good work ethics.

M2: what about wipro?

Vijay: Sir  I have not worked in that company neither I had any communication link with its work force so will not be able to comment on their work ethics.

Next Member:

M3:  You have written particle physics as your interest, let us go to south pole , there was one experiment named Bicep, tell us its implications on humanity?

Vijay: it is related to the discovery of gravitation waves, it has profound implications because it will validate einsteins concept of space time continuum and generation of gravity, further if we can find thte gravity force carrier then may be through string theory we can unify the forces of nature.

M3: Now let us move to north pole. He asked me about who was Rashtrasant tukdo ji maharaj. Why he is called Rashtrasant.

M3: Then he asked me about gram geeta , its application in multi diverse society as ours.

M3: Who is ramdeobaba?

I answered the questions satisfactorily .

Next Member:

What were you doing since 2012 after leaving TCS.

Why did you join TISS Mumbai.

What are the problems of unorganized sector.

Don’t you think large trade unions with political motive harming unorganized sector.

Last question there is a talk about labour reforms on free entry and free exit. Do you appreciate this reform.

Vijay: Sir I do not appreciate this reform, though this will generate jobs but we have to understand what kinds of jobs we are generating.

Madam:Thank you your interview is done.

Q5. Was your interview on the expected lines of what you had prepared or did they ask you totally unexpected questions?  Was it a stress interview? If yes, how did you handle it?

It had many unexpected questions.

Q6. Any side details about technicalities like “make sure you bring xyz document, or you’ll face problem”?

Naah

Q7. Any word of wisdom / observations about medical checkup?

Naah.

CSE-2013 Marksheet

CSAT Prelims: GS 88.66 + Aptitude: 161.68 =Total 250 marks.

Essay	101
GS1	70
GS2	69
GS3	87
GS4	94
Public Administration Paper 1	90
Public Administration Paper 2	89
Written Total	600
Interview	180
Final total	780

Career Backup

Q1. If you were not selected, what was your career backup plan?

I was granted leave without pay to pursue higher education, so plan would have been to join the parent organization TCS.

Q2. When were you going to “execute” that backup plan?

If my name was not on that list, the backup plan would have been activated without delay.

Insecurity about profile

Q. Many candidates prepare sincerely but constantly live under fear about ‘profile insecurity’. I’m not from a big college, I’m not from English medium, and I don’t have work-experience. What if they ask some stressful questions in the interview about this? Did you suffer from such insecurities? What is your message to these candidates?

That insecurity was holding me back from taking up this exam, so my message would be do not bother about insecurities they are going to do no good to you. Believe in yourself, read everyone’s strategy but decide what is best for you.

The only thing that can put you in or out in this exam is your hard work and if one passionately work towards it, I am sure anyone can crack this exam.

Wisdom

Q. Through this journey and success, what have your learned? What is the wisdom of life and competition?

Time is something that will not come back so utilize it to the fullest.

Even if we lose we should face it with our head high.

There is no such thing as failure it is just fear of failure that hold us back.

You have to start saying NO to things that distract you from your goal.

Competition is all about who performs better at that moment, it is not verdict of God ,so put your best and leave the rest to God. God helps the hard workers.

Luck matters only when you have spared nothing for luck.

Q. What is your message to the future aspirants?

Keep struggling and don’t settle till you tame the upsc.

Credit: Friends/family

I am thankful to the lord Vithal  who helped me at every stage. I express sincerest gratitude towards my parents who brought me into this beautiful world, my family motivated me at every instance. I would like to thank Mrunal who is selflessly serving the aspirant community I can say that without you it would have been a very difficult task to crack for me Thank you dear friend.

Marketing Propaganda

Q. You are well aware for the sacred rule of conducting toppers’ interview- the last question must be about self-marketing. So, Did you use Mrunal.org for your preparation and if yes, how did it help you?  And you can even reply “No”. I’ll publish your answer without tempering/editing it.

Yes I used mrunal.org comprehensively during my mains preparation. The result is quite visible I guess.

Mrunal: Thanks Mr. Sharma for sharing your journey and mains experience. We wish you the best for service allocation. Keep in touch!