[Topper’s Interview] Dharamvirsinh Jadeja (AIR-357/CSE-2014) Chartered Accountant, Commerce Optional, Kutch Gujarat

1. Candidate Profile
2. Education
3. Introduction
4. Electronic Vs Paper material
5. Tempo and style
6. Struggle of a Senior player
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 2014
17. Mains answer-writing?
18. Mains Optional Subject
19. Before the interview
20. Mock interview Video
21. During the interview
22. CSE-2013 Marksheet
23. Career Backup
24. Views on UPSC reforms
25. Insecurity about profile
26. Wisdom
27. Credit: Friends/family
28. BOGUS Marketing Propaganda

Candidate Profile

Q.	Details
Name	Jadeja Dharamvirsinh Ranjitsinh
Rank in CSE-2014	357
Roll No.	007242
Age	27
Total attempts in CSE (including this one)	5
Optional Subject	Commerce & Accountancy
Schooling Medium	English
College medium	English
Medium chosen for Mains answers	English
Medium chosen for Interview	English
Home town/city	Anjar ( Kutch)
Work-experience if any	NA
Details of other competitive exams, including success/failures	NA
Details of coaching, mock tests, postal material for any competitive exam (if used)	1.SPIPA, Ahmedabad 2 Rankers classes for Commerce 3.Notes from Crackias.com (only worth mentioning)
Service preferences (Top-5)	IAS, IPS, IFS, IRS (IT), IRS(C&E).
state cadre preference (Top-5)	GJ, MH, RJ, MP, Punjab.

Education

	fill the details here
% in class 10	84
% in class 12	87
Graduation course and %	B.Com , 68
Name of college, city, passing out year	H L College of Commerce, Ahmedabad. Year 2008-09.
Post-graduation	NA
Any other professional courses	CA
Hobbies & Extracurricular achievements	Sports, Public Speaking.

Introduction

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

Hailing from the town of Anjar (Kutch) and belonging to a family running transport business, I completed my graduation from Ahmedabad. Simultaneously I was pursuing my CA. CA articleship training experiences (not so interesting) and my quest for a challenging career led me into civil services exam.

Electronic Vs Paper material

Q. In recent times, there is spur in electronic material- blogs, sites, pdfs, RSS-feeds. Many aspirants feel bogged down by this information overload. So, how much do you rely on electronic material and how much on the paper material (Books, newspapers)? If possible narrate a typical day in your studylife. What is your style of preparation (e.g. I continue making notes no matter what I’m reading, I just read multiple times but don’t maintain notes, I make mindmaps on computer …or xyz style)

I prefer reading newspapers in paper format because reading online or via app didn’t give me the feel and satisfaction. I used to make handwritten notes from newspapers .Also, if there was some topic in newspaper which I found important and it needed more study then I used internet to prepare that topic in detail.

I made use of Microsoft One Note for different topics and at the end I took printouts. (Not a fan of e-reading).POCKET is another app which helped me to save important articles and refer them later esp. during interview. So basically I made use of Paper and Pen, Smartphone, Laptop, Internet et al.

Tempo and style

Q. People know what books and syllabus points are to be prepared. But most of them lack consistency in their preparation. So, how do you keep study momentum going on? How do you fight against the mood swings and distractions?

Usually mood swings and distractions arise when you are reading some not so interesting topics. So I used to ensure that I don’t get bogged down by such topics and switch to an interesting subject. A leisurely walk and a cup of tea with friends at regular intervals would help to keep the study momentum going.

Struggle of a Senior player

Q1. How did you survive through this mental prison and what’re your words of wisdom to other senior players? If any specific inspirational incident(s), please share.

Ok. I guess to answer this question in a best possible manner I should narrate the story of my struggle (more than 5 years). Without any guidance, immediately after graduation and during CA articleship I appeared for prelims (NO CSAT but optional subject) and cleared it. After results of prelims decided on Pub Ad as second optional! (Decision which I regret till date). Didn’t clear Mains. Again cleared prelims in second attempt but could not pass Mains. Third attempt- CSAT introduced. Got the interview call, reason being that it was in my third attempt that I had completed both optional properly. But Pub Ad didn’t help.

So basically my third attempt should have been my first attempt! Ok so I was all set and best prepared for the final attempt. Had both optional well prepared. Appeared for Prelims. I was very confident so started answer writing .Meanwhile, Prelims’ results were out and for the first time in my all four attempts I failed to clear prelims !Game over! Done with Civil Services.

After one and half year of exile, one fine day came the re incarnation into civil services -two extra attempts. Gave the fifth attempt with a thing in my mind that I had nothing to lose and secured 357th rank! And I started believing in a thing called DESTINY.

I survived through all this because I never lost self belief and always knew that I was good enough to crack this exam. To all those ‘senior players’ – it’s just another exam and not a question of life and death. If it’s in your destiny, no one can take it away from you. Hang in there!

Q2. What went wrong in your previous attempt? What changes did you make in this current attempt?

For one and half year I was completely aloof and disconnected from this exam. It helped me to reflect back on my mistakes. Sometimes a break helps. In this current attempt the first change that I made was in my mental approach. I was more relaxed and hence more focused.

In terms of preparations, I relied more than ever on my own notes.I focused on revision and not on completing the entire course. Also I gave importance on better presentation.

PS: Pub Ad was no longer a second optional. It was also an important change ;-)

Prelims (CSAT) General studies

Topic	strategy/booklist/comment
History Ancient	Old Ncert
History Medieval	Mostly skipped
History Modern (Freedom Struggle)	Spectrum/Crackias notes
Culture and society	Mostly skipped for prelims
Polity (theory + current)	Initially Wizard Polity and Constitution and later Pub Ad was second optional so it helped.
Economy (theory + current)	Ramesh Singh and Mrunal.org
Science (theory + current)	Ncert and mostly used common sense and some luck.
Environment (theory + current)	Crackias notes
geography physical	TMH manual
geography India	TMH manual and Crackias notes
geography world	Mostly relied on Maps.
other national/international current affairs	Indian express and Business Standard
Schemes, Policy & Filler Stuff	Indian express, Business Standard and Internet.

Q. Any observation / comments / tips about GS prelim 2014 paper?

It was more unpredictable and departing from trend of previous few years. I attempted more number of questions than usual and tried my luck at some as there was a cushion of paper 2.

Q. in GS-Prelims 2014, there was unusual questions from environment and agriculture portion. If you were to give the attempt again in 2015, what new strategy / books / sources would you focus?

It is not possible to cover every question from environment and run after more number of books. I think many questions can be covered by reading newspaper like The Hindu daily and preparing notes relating to environment. Book on Environment from Shankar IAS academy is a good read.

Q. Now that Aptitude paper has become qualifying, obvious more attention needs to be paid on the GS paper so apart from the books that you already have gone through, what else would you have tried for CSE-2015 (if you were going to appear)?

Focus on covering areas which I have skipped so far for prelims and now take care in trying my luck.

Prelims (CSAT) Aptitude

Topic	strategy / booklist
Maths	R S aggrawal
reasoning	R S agrrawal and some common sense
comprehension	Just practice
Decision Making	No specific preparation

Q. Any observation / comments / tips about GS Aptitude 2014 paper.

Prelim accuracy

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

No. No need for mock tests for GS, they do more harm than good.

Q2. Approximate no. of attempted answers vs. correct answers. in CSAT-2014

	attempted Q.
GS	80-85
aptitude	70

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

<tdeight:31px;”> GS<tdeight:31px;”> 93<tdeight:31px;”> Aptitude<tdeight:31px;”> 135

Mains: Compulsory language paper

Compulsory language paper	Your preparation strategy / booklist?
English paper	None.
your regional language	Write few pages previous day .Nothing more

Q2.other observations / tips / comments on the length / difficulty level of compulsory language papers in CSE-2014

Nope.

Mains: Essay

Q1. How did you prepare for the essay paper?

The only preparation which I do for essay paper is to prepare 5-6 good introductions which can be used in different topics. I choose essay topic in exam based on good introduction which I can use and rest would flow.

Q2. Which two essays did you write and What key points did you include in it?

1. Is competition good for Indian youth?

Broadly, Points which I can recall:

1. Compared with trees as how they deepen their roots on arrival of storm and similarly we need competition to prepare Indian youth for future challenges.
2. Developing Leaders of tomorrow and competition for that.
3. Need for Competition in different fields.
4. What would happen if there s no competition

Unable to recall more.

Had a cautionary stance at the end that need to ensure competition doesn’t lead to stress and managing ill effects of pressure.

2. 50 Gold Medals in Olympic.

1. Sports as a power status, emergence of China as a power centre and its performance in olympics

b) Problems of sports development in India

c) Building a sporting culture and infra at school levels

d) Using natural advantages like kids in villages are natural swimmers, tribals as archers etc.

e) Govt support, Use of corporate funding or CSR in sports.

f) Professional sports mgmnt, Chinese model not possible in democratic India. Etc

g) Promotion of diff sports through media. ex of Hockey league, Badminton league.

If India can go to Moon and Mars, produce excellent doctors and engineers we can surely produce sportspersons who can win not 50 but 100 medals!

General Studies (Mains) paper 1

Topic	How did you prepare?
culture	Nitin Singhania’s Notes.
Indian history	Crackias notes
world history	Crackias notes
post-independence India	Crackias notes
Indian society	No specific preparation. Common knowledge
role of women, poverty etc.	Same as above
globalization on Indian society	Same as above
communalism, regionalism, secularism	Same as above
world geo physical	TMH Manual and notes from diff sources
resource distribution	Vision Ias material
factors for industrial location	Mrunal.org
earthquake tsunami etc	TMH manual
impact on flora-fauna	Can’t recall preparing it.

General studies (Mains) paper 2

Topic	How Did You Prepare?
Indian Constitution, devolution, dispute redressal etc.	I had Public administration as a second optional in earlier attempts so I had covered most of these topics from pub ad books and my notes and ARC reports.
comparing Constitution with world
parliament, state Legislatures
executive-judiciary
ministries departments
pressure group, informal asso.
Representation of people’s act
various bodies: Constitutional, statutory..
NGO, SHG etc
welfare schemes, bodies
social sector, health, edu, HRD
governance, transparency, accountability
e-governance
role of civil service
India & neighbors	Indian express /the Hindu and Internet
bilateral/global grouping	Same as above
effect of foreign country policies on Indian interest	Same as above
diaspora	Same as above
international bodies- structure mandate	Prepared only on bodies in news from newspapers and internet.

General studies (Mains) Paper 3

Topic	How Did You Prepare?
Indian economy, resource mobilization	Mrunal.org, Ramesh Singh and Business standard.
inclusive growth	Selected articles from Internet
budgeting	Financial administration part of pub ad
major crops, irrigation	1)Arihant publications book on paper 32) Articles in newspapers on current issues. 3)Mrunal.org 4) Specific articles from Internet and had prepared notes in short on each topic.
agro produce – storage, marketing
e-technology for famers
farm subsidies, MSP
PDS, buffer, food security
technology mission
animal rearing economics
food processing
land reforms	Indian express / Business standard ( mostly current)
liberalization	Thanks to Pub Ad. Have much ‘fodder’ on it.
infra	Indian express/Business standard
investment models	Ignored except PPP which was daily in news.
science-tech day to day life	Didn’t bother.
Indian achievements in sci-tech	Whatever little in newspapers
awareness in IT, space, biotech, nano, IPR	Selective reading from newspaper and internet
environmental impact assessment	Google
Disaster Management	ARC report
non state actors, internal security	1.)Goggled it mostly and referred some notes of Vision Ias.2.) Indian express and Business standard.
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	Arihant publications book andUsed Internet extensively for each topic.
attitude, moral influence etc.
civil service: integrity, impartiality, tolerance to weak etc
emotional intelligence, its use in governance
moral thinkers of India and world	How many thinkers did you prepare?Indian thinkers only. Famous ones.
ethics in pub.ad, accountability, laws, rules etc.	Pub Ad books.
corporate governance	Google
probity in governance, work culture	Mix of above mentioned sources.I had prepared short notes for each topic for ex. integrity, probity, accountability etc
citizen charter, ethics code, work culture etc.
challenges of corruption
case studies on above topics

GS4 Ethics case study answers in Mains 2014

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

case	your approach/ keypoints
case1: your friend preparing UPSC	Can’t recall exactly. But was not satisfied with my case study answers. I found that it was repetitive and not as good as part one of the paper 4.
case2: Rameshwar the uptight UPSC topper.
case3: no bribe no contract.
case4: corrupt subordinates file bogus rape complaint against you.
in the remaining bol-bachchan type questions (e.g. why ethics important, why probity difficult etc).

Mains answer-writing?

Please tell us how many marks worth attempt did you give? along with comments if any, in the following cells:

Paper	Best attempted	Average quality	namesake answer	Total attempt
GS1	80	110	60	250
GS2	100	100	50	250
GS3	70	110	70	250
GS4	120	100	30	250
Opt-P1	140	80	10	230
Opt-P2	160	90		250

I attempted almost all the questions. It was a mix bag. Some answers were written perfectly, some were written in words lesser than word limit but to the point and I had made up around 2-3 questions in each of first 3 GS papers.

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

It was a blessing in disguise. Good move by UPSC.

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 answers in both- points as well as paragraphs .Most of my answers had both paragraphs as well as points wherever possible. Answers for which I didn’t have much ‘fodder’ I wrote them in Points.

Q. 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.

Answering the questions which I knew well, I used “introduction-body-conclusion” format. Others I wrote in points and just concluded them.

Q5. Did you use highlighters / sketchpens in your answers?

No. Didn’t have enough time for such indulgence.

Q6. Did you draw any diagram in any paper? (e.g. in GS1 Geography)

Yes. Very few. Could have done better.

Q7. If yes, Did you draw diagrams with pencil or pen?

Pen

Q8. Did you use ruler to draw the lines in diagram? Or did you just make it by hand?

Hand drawn diagram

Q9. You wrote the answer in blue pen or black pen?

Blue Pilot pen, to be precise.

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

Mains Optional Subject

Q. What’s your optional subject and why did you chose it and not something else?

Commerce and Accountancy. It was a natural choice for me given my academic background.

Q. If a new player wants to pick this subject, would you advice for it or against it? (e.g. every senior player in Public Administration seems to be advising against pub.ad)

Commerce graduates should pick it. Personally, picking an optional subject would be the last advice I would give anyone. (But Surely No Pub Ad)

Q. First the essential book/resource list. (Also mention which one is the “Base book” for covering the theory? + Whatever comments you’ve for a particular book e.g. “my seniors said read xyz book but I found that ABC book was better”. “xyz topic not given properly in this book, so prepare from xyz website or book…” OR and so on.)

a) Notes of Rankers classes esp. for Paper 2

b) Business Standard newspaper.

In addition following books and sources:

Paper 1	Paper 2 ( Majorly done from notes of Rankers classes)
Accounting – 1.)Latest ICAI IPCC material2.) Book referred in your graduation or Mukherjee and Hanif TMH publications.	Few books I referred to ( Selected topics only)1.)Management by Stephen Robbins and others 2.) Organizational Behaviour by Hershey and Blanchard 3.) Organizational Behaviour by Fred Luthans 4.) HRM by Ashwathapa 5.)HRM by VSP RAO 6.) Industrial relations by T N Chhabra and R k Suri.Internet for other misc. issues
Costing – 1.) M.L Agrrawal or Maheswari Mittal2.) Book referred in your graduation
Auditing – ICAI IPCC material.
Taxation – Standard book used in graduation/ICAI IPCC material.
Financial Management , Financial institutions and markets – R P Rustagi and Rankers classes notes.Internet for other misc. issues

Q. How much of internet-research / current affairs is necessary for this optional? OR can one simply rely on the books and be done with this subject?

Reading a business daily and making notes from it is useful. It helps to write better answer by quoting current examples.

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

6 months if you have done only BCom. Lesser time for CA or MBA

Q. How many days/ weeks before the exam, you started answer writing practice?

Last one month. Answer writing practice is an area I wish I could have done better.

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

Yes. In Paper format.

Q. Your observation about the difficultly level of 2014 mains vs previous papers. And what precautions / rectifications are necessary in the future strategy for given optional subject?

2014 Commerce & Accountancy paper 1 was comparatively easier than previous papers. Paper 2 was of similar standard.

Since Commerce syllabus is a bit lengthy, a gap of one day after GS Papers is not enough to revise and have a look at entire syllabus. So it is important to completely revise the syllabus at least twice before the exam and prepare notes in short to refer them the day before the exam.

Another mistake which I made was choosing the 3 questions apart from compulsory Q 1 and Q 5. Choose those questions which can fetch more marks and can be completed in time. I was unable to complete paper 1 because I choose an easier but a lengthy question. Not completing the Optional paper is a risk which should be avoided.

Before the interview

Q1. How did you prepare for the interview? – for college grad, hobbies, place of origin, current affairs at national and international level?

For hobbies – Internet and common sense.

Place of origin and other DAF matters – Local newspaper, local government websites and publications and Internet.

Current affairs and other- Newspaper, Rajyasabha Tv Debates, Discussions with other aspirants.

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 such mock interviews?

Mock interviews conducted at SPIPA and one at Samkalp in DELHI. I felt I was grilled in my official interview which I didn’t experience in Mock interviews. Yes attending mock interview is like a practice session before the real match. Maximum 3 mock interviews are enough.

Mock interview Video

Here is a YouTube videolink of my mock interview conducted at SPIPA Ahmedabad with Interview panelist: Shri. VRS Cowlagi (Retd. Addl.Chief Secretary of Gujarat, IAS), Dr. Rohit Shukla (Professor of Economics), Dr. Chintan Patel (IRS) and Mrunal Patel (Core Faculty, SPIPA)

During the interview

Q. Describe the formal-dress worn by you in interview.
Formal suit with Purple shirt. (for details see my first picture.)
Q. Where did you stay for the interview? (Hotel / friend’s home …) and what books/material did you bring for the ‘revision before interview’?

Gujarat Bhavan. I went a week before the interview so carried many books and notes. But it was unnecessary luggage. Hardly read anything. Just newspapers and a smart phone is enough.

Q. Who was the chairman of you interview board?

Mr. Vinay Mittal.

Q2. How long was the interview?

25-30 mins.

Q3. Why do you want to join civil service? Why don’t you continue in your graduation field? Social service can be done from private sector too. [Since I don’t know whether they ask you this question or not. But if they had asked- what will be your reply?]

I was asked this question that why not CA and why civil services. My answer was that civil services as a career was more diversified and challenging as well as it gives a legal rational Authority to make a difference. No further arguments.

Q4. Please narrate your entire interview- what questions did they ask and what did you reply and other pleasant or uncomfortable experiences during the interview. (Earlier some toppers only tell me their question but not their answer. I would appreciate if you give both Question + your original answers)

1. You have a long name .How many letters are in your name? (Could answer that)

2. Why civil services?

3. Questions on US subprime crisis of 2008.Many questions and arguments on that. Why no one could predict it? What steps were taken by US govt.?Fed Tapering. Impact on World economy, how it affected India? Steps taken by RBI.

4. Again on US economy, How it survives being Net importer? Gold standard vs Dollar. Printing of money by US FED. Etc..

5. If you are Kutch DM what would be your priority? ( Water availability was my answer) So was asked supplementary ques as how would you do it etc. What is USP of Kutch ? Ques on Kandla and coastal security.

6. Service tax rate and negative list, issue of one rupee note, Use of RTI in curbing corruption and Give specific examples for it.

7. More on US crisis and did US money came into India? Does present Indian economic situation resemble to pre US crisis economy. Ques on Indian IPOs and US investment in them. Asked specific about Coal India IPO.

8. What are emerging economies ? Why do they drive growth?

9. Questions on Encounters and if you are an IPS how would you deal with it.

10. If you are Sports minister how would you handle the issue of suicide by female athletes in SAI complex in Kerala?

11. Questions on Social media and its use.

12. If your client asks you to windowdress the account and make balance sheet in such manner that it helps to available loan, then what will you do as a Chartered accountant?
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, did they ask any uncomfortable questions? If yes, how did you handle it?

Questions on US economy were out of the blue! They tried to put me under stress for ex. On encounter ques I was told that “your state is famous for Encounters”. Also mostly they never agreed with me and countered me. After completing his questions the chairman started reading a Novel ! He was pretending as if he was uninterested. I think I handled it well and was calm and confident. I wasn’t rattled.

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

In such matters UPSC is very accommodative so nothing to worry about.

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

U can meet fellow candidates from your panel and discuss the previous day.

CSE-2013 Marksheet

Q1. Please attach both prelim and final marksheet. (when it comes)

Subjects	Marks
Essay	142
General Studies -I	96
General Studies -II	89
General Studies -III	66
General Studies -IV	88
Optional –I (Commerce & Acc.)	118
Optional –II (Commerce & Acc.)	138
Written total	737
Personality Test	179
Final Total	916

Q2. After looking at the marksheet, suppose you had to prepare again next time, what changes will you make in your studies?

1. Concentrate on General studies paper IV of Ethics more and try to improve on Case studies
2. I will be careful in choosing any 3 question out of 5 so that I don’t repeat the mistake of not completing the paper even when you know it.
3. More answer writing practice.

Career Backup

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

Entrepreneurship in the field of international trade.

Q2. When were you going to “execute” that backup plan? (e.g. after __ failed attempts/ after I cross __ age/after dad retires/ after girlfriend dumps me etc.)

I had already executed the plan during my period of exile.

Views on UPSC reforms

Q. Optional subjects should be removed altogether. The present stalemate is helping no-one, except coaching-owners, book publishers.

I am all up for removing optional subjects so that everyone answers the same questions and there is more level playing field.

Q. Your views on the decision to make CSAT paper 33% qualifying?

Retrograde step. Band aid.

Q. Despite what UPSC has done in recent years, it has failed to curb the nuisance of Delhi’s coaching factories. In fact it’s increased under the new syllabus in 2014. Let’s face it, most candidates who gave Mains-2014 have relied on (authentic OR Xeroxed) coaching notes because there was hardly any time left to prepare so many topics in such short time. This system work against an individual preparing from far-away area, without any financial resources, high-speed internet or contacts in Delhi.

On the contrary I believe new syllabus has made coaching factories less relevant. Yes without Internet it becomes difficult to prepare on your own. ( so may be Digital India is the solution ;-) )
Q. UPSC should disclose official prelim answerkey and cutoffs, immediately after prelim is over, instead of postponing it till interview phase is over.

Yes it will go a long way in reducing anxiety levels and aid in better preparations for mains.

Q. UPSC should be conducted online like IBPS and CAT exam to shorten the duration of exam.

May be after the success of Digital India plan.

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?

No. I was always confident about myself and my abilities. Even I come from a small town but that never created any insecurity in my mind. In Civil services exam there is no bias towards any ‘Profile’. At the end of the day everyone has to prove oneself irrespective of one’s profile. If Hard work, Dedication and Perseverance is a part of you, you have the right profile to succeed.

Wisdom

Q. Through this struggle and success, what have you learned? What is the wisdom of life and competition? What is your message to the new aspirants?

More than the success, the struggle in this exam has made me a better human being. I have learned important lessons of life- lessons of labour and luck, of dedication and destiny, of perseverance and patience.

To the new aspirants I would say that there will be days in your life as an aspirant when you will have questions about self belief and whether all this is worth it or not, but never lose enthusiasm to work harder.

Q. Many hardworking candidates have failed in Mains/Interview of CSE-2014. They’re feeling cynical, hopeless and depressed- what is your message to them?

You have to enjoy what you are doing otherwise it will become burdensome. Failure makes us realize the amount of unknown courage we have. Have the resolve to stay happy. It’s just another exam and not a judgment on your abilities or talent.

Credit: Friends/family

Q. Behind every topper are many people who stood by during those uncertain times when he/she was merely an ‘aspirant’. Would you like to tell the world, who were those people in your case? Any specific incidence that you would like to share with the readers?

Family members – for their constant support and encouragement. Childhood friends– who stood by me through every thick and thin and always kept me in good spirits. Teachers-for laying the foundational values. SPIPA– for providing excellent platform and facilities. My friends and fellow aspirants at SPIPA for a wonderful company. Also a special mention of SPIPA Sports League and its members for those weekend cricket matches and TT games which reenergized and rejuvenated me.

BOGUS Marketing Propaganda

Q. You are well aware of the sacred rule – 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 still publish your answer without tempering.

YES. Whenever and wherever did I mention the word ‘Internet’ by default first its Mrunal.org and then Google. You also helped me during my interview preparation at SPIPA. The mock interview question asked by you that what will I do as a CA, if a client a client seeks help in tax-evasion…similar question was asked in official UPSC interview as well- about window-dressing of the Balance sheet to get easy loan.
Whenever someone asks for guidance-I simply tell him/her to visit Mrunal.org.