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First of all, please let me tell the 2 year long story of my hard-work.June, 2015:My journey for IES started when I graduated from my college "jobless" in 2015. I didn’t have any job in my hands, not even a low paying IT job. But my father working in Railways wanted me to become an Group-A officer, which he himself wanted to become but couldn't because of not so good financial conditions and lack of resources. So he advised me to prepare for UPSC Engineering Services. I agreed and planned to move to Delhi for coaching in MadeEasy. Actually, there was no other option as I had no job in my hands. Though I said that I was going to prepare for IES, I internally didn't have the confidence in myself due to my below average academic track record and I thought that I will prepare for GATE and get any "choti moti"(small time) job. Actually, I was not aware of the level of GATE. I actually thought that IES was the tough one, and GATE would be easy. But when I reached Delhi and attended the introductory lecture in MadeEasy on 15 June 2015, I realized that GATE is even more difficult and has a fair share of luck involved. I was convinced that IES is comparatively easy to crack because of having big syllabus and more number of hours of the exam. It reduces the luck factor and depends more on hard-work (which is somewhat true). So at last I decided to prepare for IES.July - August 2015:The thing that I did good was that I searched heavily about the level of ESE exam and strategies to prepare for it because I was very skeptical that whether I will be able to tackle this exam or not. I followed Aditi Saini and her blog IES All I Know on Quora. She is a brilliant writer and motivator in the field of IES. Her writings gave me the required motivation and confidence for IES. I followed the blogs of ESE toppers. One thing that I found common everywhere is that ESE depend more on hard-work and is relatively easy to crack (this scenario has been a bit changed right now). By using common points shared by everyone I prepared my own strategy.September - October 2015:Coping up with the huge workload of coaching was very difficult in starting, but I managed to remain motivated and dedicated. As my basics were dead weak many things I was unable to understand. But I always remained consistent. No matter what, I always moved forward. Subjects like analog, communication and EDC always went over my head, but I kept on learning.November 2015 - January 2016:Then came the November month and I decided to leave GATE this year because the syllabus of IES was huge and I knew that if I want to get selected this year, I will have to leave GATE and have to concentrate solely on IES as conventional questions practice was also required along with thorough revisions (a decision I still appreciate). In the month of January when everyone else was preparing for GATE and were solving test series, I was revising my short notes and solving previous year conventional questions. Conventional questions were a bit different from objective questions and it was difficult for me to cope up with them. Again even though on slow pace I kept on moving.February - May 2016:Then came GATE-16 and I attended it just by revising short notes and yes, I failed. Got 40 marks and 4200 rank. But I didn't feel low because it was my decision. Always remember one thing"Think 1000 times before taking a decision but after taking decision never turn back even if you face 1000 difficulties".I followed it religiously. Then I took BARC exam - failed. I took NIELIT exam - failed. But I kept on studying whatever I was taught in coaching. This period was most difficult of my preparation as I had to study for 12–14 hours daily including coaching timings. Still, I prepared everything at my best and was confident that I would get selected. Then came the D-Day 27 May, 2016. After 1 full year of dedicated preparation I appeared for IES-2016. 1st day - GS paper. My hands were shivering and heart was racing. But as the exam was easy I managed to do well. 2nd - Day. I reached exam center 20 minutes before exam time to find out that my roll number is not in the seating plan. Rechecked thrice but it was not there. I panicked and ran to administrative section and they checked and found their mistake. Then they took me to the supposed classroom and I reached into my seat just in time and didn't even get the time to relax. The exam was a bit lengthy and due to this I panicked a lot in Paper-1 and I ended up doing it badly. Paper-2 was good, but the damage had been done. Conventional papers had also gone Ok Ok due to nervousness and I was pretty sure that I would not be selected this year. It is very important to control your mind during those exam hours and I failed in that. I was very sad and cried that night to sleep. At that time I started to think that all my hard-work has gone in vain.June - October 2016:After that I gathered myself for next one week or two and again started studying as NPCIL exam was coming. I analyzed all my mistakes and decided to concentrate more on my weak subjects. Then came NPCIL exam - failed. But still I didn’t lose hope because I knew that this phase comes in everyone's preparation when one has to face a lot of failures. Then came ISRO exam - exam gone well and I was expecting an interview call. Then I prepared strategy for new syllabus of ESE-17 and started reading standard books for subjects which were weak. On 3rd August 2016, IES written result came and I was called for Interview. I was very happy that day. First interview of my life and that too in UPSC. I started dreaming of being an IES officer. But soon I came on the ground and realized that my written was not at all good, analyzed previous year marks and decided that there will be chances of my selection if I get 140/200 marks in the interview, which was difficult but not impossible. So I started preparing hard for the interview. I read every possible thing. But keeping in mind that chances of my selection are less, I started preparing for ESE-17 Prelims because of new syllabus.November - December 2016:Then came the interview on 4 November 2016 with Chairman - Vinay Mittal. The Interview was good but it was not that good that I could get 140. The result came on 29 November and as expected I was not selected. I got 132 in the interview and was just short of 10 marks from the final list. This had broken me down that I failed only from small margin and I will have to appear again in the exam. As vacancies were reduced by 50% in upcoming ESE-17, I started to speculate all the negative things than can happen to me. I appeared for interview of ISRO - failed. Appeared for NIELIT exam - failed.January - May 2017:But I continued my preparation and appeared for ESE-2017 Prelims on 7 January 2017. Unexpectedly, it went well and I was scoring good marks and was hopeful for selection for Mains. It boosted my confidence. Then I prepared hard for GATE-17. I knew this exam can give me a job in less time and can improve my situation. So I gave all my energy to it and it went well. On 26th March, 2017, result of GATE-17 was declared and I secured AIR-139. I was very happy that day because it was 1st success of my life. But I didn’t let my momentum get low due to the success in GATE. I prepared hard enough for IES - Mains. I wanted to give my best in this last shot. It was an exam for which I specifically prepared since last 2 years. The exam was on 14 May 2017 and it went well. I attempted 520/600. I made a lot of silly mistakes but was hoping for a selection.June - September 2017:I was selected in PSUs like Powergrid Corp., BEL, BBNL, BSNL, HAL and finally in ONGC. I appeared in IES interview on 31 July, 2017 and it went well. I was confident about my final selection. I joined ONGC and on 11th September 2017 when I was sleeping in a bus while travelling from my office to home, I received some messages on my WhatsApp of congratulations. I knew it was for IES, and my heart beat shot up. I downloaded final result and searched my name. There it was, on Serial number 2 . I hadn't believed it on first glance and again confirmed it. Yes, it is AIR-2, I said to myself. First of all I told this news to my parents and then to my friends. Loads of messages and calls kept on coming and people sitting in the bus were looking at me :D. Next day news spread like fire in my office and every other person came to congratulate me. My story was published in 6 Newspapers and I became popular overnight. This was my journey full of ups and downs.One thing I learnt during my preparation that hard-work, consistency and sincerity is utmost important for being successful in life. I have seen many people that if they work hard sincerely, then they will definitely get a good job. Many friends of mine who couldn’t get through Engineering Services but were preparing sincerely are doing jobs in great organizations like ISRO, BARC, NIELIT, Asst. Professor in Govt. College etc. So I believe that hard-work will definitely pay off to you in one form or another. Always remember,“ All the Hard Work, All the Sacrifices, All the Sleepless Nights, Struggles, Downfalls, it all Pays OFF. Just be a bit Patient and work Diligently. ”THANK YOU !!

After you somehow scrape through and find your name in the coveted "list" of UPSC- CSE successful candidates, you have 2.5 months of 'honeymoon' period comprising July and August. This is the period where you will feel like a local celebrity with lots of media attention, pampering from the entire family (in fact, this was the first time I came to know I have more than a thousand relatives, some of whom I was seeing for the first time in my life). Your old school(s) which earlier cursed you, day-in and day-out, for being such a bad student, insulting and embarrassing you in front of entire morning assembly for just talking/chatting; calling your parents, asking them to 'discipline' you; taunting you throughout your childhood that you are a worthless piece of s##t, beating the crap out of you for apparently no reason at all, will all line up and give you a call to come and 'enlighten' their students by delivering a 'thought-provoking lecture' . This is nothing but a publicity stunt on their part to use your "name" and "achievements" in justifying the exorbitantly high capitation fees/donation that they charge at the time of admission. Similar motive is also with the coaching centres, who despite serving BS, lectures after lectures, expect you to recommend their name for future aspirants. Last but not the least, your old crushes, which never trusted in your abilities to crack this examination even if you are given 50 attempts, stabbed you in the back and shattered your heart into quintillion pieces, even they will come back, saying that they knew all along you had it in you. I mean seriously. Do they really think you are dumber even than the 'rain man'. Anyway, all this helps you in further understanding the meaning of life, concept of opportunism, flattery, contemplating your purpose in an extremely limited stay at earth, and setting your priorities straight.But come September and you know some entirely different ball game is awaiting you. This is the beginning of "100-day long foundation course" (in my case it started on 01/09/2014 and will be over on 12/12/2014). In the first week, the course team at LBSNAA, Mussoorie try to cure your disorientation and illusions about what is gonna happen to you. We are a bunch of 284 OTs (160 engineers, 45 arts, 37 doctors, 22 pure sciences, 20 others) with 180-2=178 IAS, 30 IFS, 35 IPS, and rest are drawn from IRS (IT), IRS (custom and excise), IFoS, Indian railway services, Indian Postal Services, Royal Bhutanese Civil Services. This diverse group is soon made to realise that you have not become 'an elite' and are not bestowed upon with a divine right to rule over the rest of humanity. It's an important life lesson for bureaucrats and other power wielding authorities that the others, no matter what is their stature in the governmental hierarchy, are very much human, are not your slaves and are to be treated with dignity and respect.I arrived on 31st August, 2014 and was given a room in silverwoods hostel (read hotel). It is situated outside the academy and hence, the 50 odd residents of this hostel (all gentleman incidentally) are relatively cut off from the proceedings of the academy. The rest three hostels (Ganga, Narmada and Kaveri) for Officer Trainees (OTs as we are passionately called) are not so good as far as infrastructure is concerned. Yet, they being physically contiguous and situated inside the academy, have distinct advantage of being aware about the latest 'rumours' and can reach class and mess within 2-3 minutes.After getting done with formalities on first September, we were asked to adorn ceremonial dress of bandh gala jodhpuri suit (different from formal dress) as the Honourable Vice President of India, Shri Hamid Ansari himself was coming to formally kickstart 89th FC.First week was relatively chill as the academic hours were mainly restricted to ice breaking sessions, introduction of faculty, stupid exercises in team building and all that crap that typically occurs in such courses.Then in 2nd week, the dreadful nightmarish stuff started. It was waking up at 5:30 am, walking (running if you wake up late) for 1.5 km to reach the hallowed 'polo ground'. Then, PT session commences from 6-7, where we are made to do some light exercises and running for a km or something. Now comes the hardest part of the day. It includes an ascent of 150m to reach back to our hostels. People tend to take bath and get ready, while I spend entire 100 minutes on Internet, taking only 200 seconds to get ready before reaching the class at 9:00.We are typically taught law, management, accounting, history, polity, economics. Mostly the permanent faculty (includes IAS officers, central civil servants and expert academicians) deliver the lectures. However, sometimes guest speakers ranging from LSR, DU, JNU professors, to retired army generals, working/retired civil servants heading various departments, writers, authors etc. are asked to visit the academy to shed light on the areas of their expertise. Likes of Raghuram Rajan, Gopalkrishan Gandhi, Shobha de, Gurcharan Das, Tom Alter, Nachiket Mor, Tushar Gandhi, Sumanta Banerjee etc. have all come and tried sharing their wisdom with the batch (while many of us were dozing off).On every Saturday in September, a trek was organised which typically involved walking and climbing a total of 18-22 km from 8 am to 3 pm. You really curse yourself while you are ascending the hills. But the scenic beauty and the sense of achievement one feels on reaching the top is really worth the effort. Places which we have visited include Kempty Falls (if you go there and don't jump in the cold water fall, you are an idiot), Benog hills (best scenery in entire Mussoorie), Lal Tibba hills, known for its blood sucking leeches. Yup you read that right, I personally sprayed 1/2 kg of salt on myself and still a leech attached to me.Life in the academy revolves around OT lounge (for chilling, playing pool, drinking etc.), officers mess (duh ...for food obviously) and happy valley complex (sports and gym).In this first week of October, we were taken to a Himalayan trek. My group went to Uttarkashi. We walked and climbed 90kms in one week, ate food with live worms, slept on the ground, including tents, stayed for 2 days at a height of 4500 m. It is both, literally and metaphorically, the high point of our FC.Interspersed activities include, playing guitar, riding horses, firing guns, cooking, baking, cadre predictions, 'match making', river rafting, bungee jumping, et al.Anyway after coming back from a long, arduous and painfully amazing trek, there were many activities like submitting assignments, essays, book reviews, and the dreadful mid term examination on 22/10/2014. My level of preparation can be gauged by the fact that less than 48 hours before the exam, I was sitting in JLN auditorium of my almamater, AIIMS, New Delhi, just 10m away from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, listening to his electrifying and mesmerising speech and receiving my MBBS degree from the health minister of India, Dr Harsh Vardhan.Anyway, after the exams, there was a cross country run of 10 kms around the academy on 25/10/2014. A village visit was scheduled from 1-8 November for all the OTs where we were supposed to stay in the villages and have the taste of real-life practical problems faced by the villagers on a day-to-day basis. Our group went to a village in Moradabad, named Kaderpur. It was relatively well developed but was quite a sensitive area. We visited and gauged the functioning of PHCs, village schools, panchayat functioning. We went to the farms and observed the cropping patterns which were practiced. Every piece of land was covered with sugarcane and rice.On 15th November, India Day was organised which marked the extreme diversity of India and celebration of the same in the form of varied dresses, food, dances, processions, etc.It will be followed by an athletic meet and then finally an end term exam.The course ending will be marked by a valedictory function on 12th of December. Thereafter all the the other services except IAS, will leave.On 15th December, phase 1 of our training will start, with one week of classes followed by 2 months of India tour.Then, one year cadre posting, and finally Phase-2 which will be from June 2015 to June 2016.June to August 2016 will be phase 2, finally marking the end of two year training and transformation from a probationer to an IAS officer.

Yuvraj SinghHis life is a roller coaster ride, let's start from the beginning:Initial CareerIt was the year 2000, India was playing U19 Cricket world cup under the captaincy of Mohammad Kaif. This was the first time India won the U19 world cup. And guess who was the player of the tournament, yes you are right It was Yuvraj Singh with his all-around performance. After such performance, he got selected in Indian National team for the ICC Knock-out Trophy and got immense popularity.Natwest Series(2002)He was doing good but still, he doesn’t have a permanent place in Indian Squad. Now, the year was 2002, India went England for Natwest Series and he was picked in the squad. India reached final and the final was played at Lord's on 13 July between India and England. After winning the toss England elected to bat first and posted a huge total of 325/5 in 50 overs. In reply, India was struggling, India lost 5 wickets for the score of 146 in 24 overs when Kaif joined Yuvraj at the crease. The pair initially stabilized the innings and later scored at a lightning rate. The duo shared a partnership of 121 runs for the sixth wicket which came to an end when Yuvraj was dismissed for 69 (63 balls). India went on to win the game by two wickets with three balls to spare. This was India's first win in the final of an ODI tournament since 2000, after nine consecutive defeats. This win is regarded as one of India's greatest victories in ODI cricket.T20 World Cup (2007)Yuvraj was the vice-captain of the Indian team at the inaugural ICC T20 world cup in South Africa. We can’t forget that Super 8 match against England at Durban when he hit six sixes in an over of Stuart Board. He made the fastest fifty ever in a T20 game, off just 12 balls, which was also the fastest in any form of international cricket. India won that world cup and created History.ICC World Cup (2011)Yuvraj had an amazing run at the world cup, where he had an all-around performance. He scored 362 runs which include one century and four fifties. He took 15 wickets, won four Man-of-the-Match awards and was also awarded the Player of the Tournament. He got his name in record books, he became the first all-rounder to score 300-plus runs and take 15 wickets in a single World Cup. During, India's match against Ireland, he became the first player to take 5 Wickets and score 50 runs in a World Cup match. We all know Indian won that world cup and once again Yuvraj won all hearts.Diagnosed with CancerAfter the World Cup, he was diagnosed with a cancerous tumour stage-1 in his left lung and underwent chemotherapy treatment at the Cancer Research Institute in Boston, United States. In March 2012, Yuvraj was discharged from hospital after completing the third and final cycle of chemotherapy and returned to India. Yuvraj's cancer was showing full signs of remission and he started preparing for the upcoming T20 World Cup. He is a fighter even after getting diagnosed with cancer he fought and came back but sadly he lost the momentum. During his absence, many Young players came in the team and took over his place like KL Rahul, Manish Pandey etc. Notably, he was one of the five senior players who was not considered for the 2015 World Cup and was not included in India's 30-man probable for the tournament. It was sad to see the hero of the last world cup was not even considered for the coming world cup. It's not his fault, it was destiny that he got diagnosed with cancer at the peak of his career. He even started an NGO to support cancer patients. Link→ https://www.youwecan.org/ .Late-CareerBeing his fan I always wanted him to come back, he even got few chances but he never made it again. He was not permanent in the team, he was getting in and then dropped out. He performed in few matches but he was not constant. I believe at his peak he was one of the best all-rounders we had.I know he has not retired from all formats yet but I can sense his career is at the verge of end. In the ongoing IPL, his performance is below par. Just check out his career stats versus 2018 IPL stats:Considering his age, his performance and the current Indian Squad, I feel it is going to be really tough for him to come back in the Indian team. So, I feel he is gonna have saddest ending to his career. I wish he comes back and prove me wrong and once again hit 6 sixes. This the closest I have ever been to him when he came to Inaugurate a YOUWECAN shop near my house.Honourable Mentions:Ryan Harris: March 2014 he had a Knee Injury and later he announced his retirement from cricket due to the injury in July 2015, three days before the start of the Ashes.Matt Prior: He was at his best when he retired. He retired in June 2015 from all forms of professional cricket due to a recurring Achilles tendon injury.James Taylor: He was a young and promising English batsman. But on 12 April 2016, it was announced that Taylor had been forced to retire from cricket because he got diagnosed with a serious heart condition called arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC).Craig_Kieswetter: While batting for Somerset in July 2014 a ball penetrated the gap between his helmet's grille and visor and struck him in the face, damaging his vision. In June 2015, he was just aged 27 when he announced his retirement from professional cricket.Mark Boucher: Mark Boucher suffered a serious eye injury on 9 July 2012, after being struck on his left eye by a bail. He was not wearing a protective helmet or glasses when he was struck by the bail after leg-spinner Imran Tahir. Unfortunately, he retired from International Cricket on 10 July.My Tribute to Philip Hughes:On 25 November 2014, Hughes was hit in the neck by a bouncer, during a Sheffield Shield match at the Sydney Cricket Ground, causing a vertebral artery dissection that led to a subarachnoid haemorrhage. He died on 27 November, having never regained consciousness, three days before his 26th birthday. Phillip Hughes will forever be 63 not out after the official scorecard for his final match was adjusted by Cricket Australia.Keep reading and Keep Learning.Thank you so much for your time. See you soon.Manish Raj Srivastav (मनीष राज श्रीवास्तव)Source: Wikipedia