#362: PYQs, Indian cities & UPSC | Around the corner
read this till end and you will want to hug me!
It’s 5:29 AM as I start to write this
Life is moving fast
Faster than any chapter of Laxmikant in 25th revision
I am riding empty Delhi roads to leave the city. That anxiety of every new city sits inside you
But you see, our cities are homogeneous.
Same metro, same airport, same hotels same brands
I didn’t say similar, same. S-A-M-E
Unlike Questions from PYQs! Yeah, they look similar. But never same
Except this one time in 2021 when a Q from 2019 on money multiplier was repeated word to word
Another time, in 2019, options as it is repeated from 1996 on Mughal Emperors
I laugh it off as the cab paces on my out of the city. The sky is clean. It’s blue.
And greens? Ah! Sweet pleasant greens of south Delhi’s thick cover romancing with sky is blooming!
I am reminded of my grandfather. The man who taught me to look up, always, while feet land on the ground
I drove past UPSC on Shahjahan road. I wonder if kings of Dholpur ever planned their legacy?
Even if they did, it would have been at best in their then kingdom and now ‘region’.
Little did they know that their geographical union with Mughals in Delhi (or New Delhi?) will decide next crop of Bharat (Bhagya Vidhata) on a road named after Shahjahan (SJ)
Funny how SJ is credited wit architecture. Dholpur house sure, in my opinion, is an architectural wonder.
Must be! For how many anxieties it bears of young Indians. Smiles too! And oh, did I miss the aspirations? Hahaha, worthy dreamy aspirations
I glance outside to find a tall Lord Hanuman Murti. I bow down!
I am reminded of Bal. Buddhi. Vidya. Core theme of CSEWhy!
I sit with an extreme calm in myself.
Cleaner gut, healthier body and inching closer to an end of decade.
Sounds cryptic? Haha! Life is such.
I have stopped writing prayers down. Only goals and actions. Prayers are to serve as a reminder
A painful one if the things don’t convert as you want them to! That’s what I used to think as a 12 yo
Why am I saying this? Caught hold of a diary. Some prayer of being at Shri Mata Vaishno Devi if XYZ happens
It didn’t happen. I didn’t go!
Maybe I’ll plan now (or as they say, I’ll be summoned by the holy goddess) this year
You see this text isn’t meaningful. Yet its meaning will change your life.
It’s just a flow. Flow of words in sync with speed of my cab throwing me out of city at an unforgettable pace.
Flow to be in rooms that change course of lives.
Not mine, alone. Yours, dear reader, too!
Cruising past the Aerocity, I sit back. Relaxed. With a smile, ofc!
I know time is changing. Just around the corner. There’s new, fresh and important air. Air that serves as a fuel.
And this time, it doesn’t matter if you’re writing the Prelims at UPSC bhawan or in a remote Indian town,
I want you to know, this air will fuel your drive. Breathe. It’s going to change.
Fast! Really fast. Don’t be blown away in it. Live it.
Every room where you take this exam in, your performance, practice and street smartness will force the decision makers in that room to stand straight and? And take a note!
You’re about to win.
You know it.
I know it.
It’s happening, around the corner.