How to Ace Anthropology Optional: Book list and Basic Plan

By | February 11, 2024

Note: There a total of 3 blog posts on Anthropology. This first article primarily talks about my book list and the basic approach I followed. The second and third articles deal with topic wise detailed plan for Paper I and II respectively. Marksheet Book List These are the sources I referred to for my Anthropology optional. There is… Read More »

How to Answer GS 4 Ethics Paper in UPSC Mains

By | February 3, 2024

Note: This is a free chapter from my book, Fundamentals of Essay and Answer Writing. I have previously published two excerpts on GS-2 and Introductions to Essay. The book has similar detailed chapters on Essay and answer writing for GS-1,2,3,4, including the Anthropology optional. You can get the book here. GS-IV can be confounding. That’s because the questions in this paper tend to… Read More »

Small Wins

By | October 29, 2023

Is the job of an IAS officer impactful? Can an officer bring about change for the better? When we think of transformative change, we often envision a rapid and dramatic impact during an officer’s  tenure. We all aspire to make a significant, positive difference in our domain, but it’s essential to recognise that immediate results are not the… Read More »

Silicon, Steel, and Stagnation

By | June 27, 2023

The AI revolution is here. Generative AI products across audio, video, image, and text are being developed at an astonishing pace. The current AI revolution marks an important milestone in humanity’s unrelenting march in the digital realm. First came the Internet, then the smartphone, and now AI. I am convinced that developing an Artificial General Intelligence that has… Read More »

The Joy of Two Pedals

By | May 7, 2023

Today, I rode a bicycle. The moment I got on it, I remembered that the last time I rode one was almost 18 years ago. It had been a long time. In my school days, I used to own a Hercules AXN. During the time, it was the latest and the most expensive one around. My bicycle was… Read More »

The Greater Good

By | March 24, 2022

During my stint at Google, I was really impressed by how much of the company’s  decision making had been data driven. From the founder’s vision to an employee’s OKRs (Objectives and Key Results), metrics are used to assess performance,  measure progress and help every employee make objective decisions.  On the other end, working for the Government made me… Read More »

Defining Success as Less

By | March 11, 2022

Back in 2020, I maintained a 100-day workout streak. Each day I would find time to ensure that I don’t break the chain. My fitness improved and I felt great.  Then life happened, had other responsibilities to take care of and as a result, I took a long break from exercising. Consequently, I put on weight, felt lazy… Read More »

Lessons of 2021

By | December 11, 2021

December might be just another month on the calendar, but perhaps this is the only time we take a pause from our hurried lives and reflect on the year gone by. This contemplation gives us a chance to relive the happy moments, feel proud about our accomplishments, regret the opportunities not taken and, of course, plan for the… Read More »