Civil Services Mains 2020 Results: In or Out ? Way ahead, gratitude and Pain

Last year, I was in first attempt prelims phobia. So the extension was largely a continuation of the padhai that I was doing earlier, with optional. This year as I’m much more satisfied on my static hold. So the plan is to cover optional, ethics, and GS 1 to the point it’s DONE (peak satisfaction level), as I go into prelims. I have no plans to join a Mains TS abhi, just some daily answer writing. Also, would keep covering CA side by side so that when I switch to prelims mode later, I can just focus on rapid revision of books.

Thanks@whatonly @SergioRamos @Villanelle :))

Kaun se optional me corner ko goal maaro seekhte ho re ramoswa? :p

Doosron ko bhi batao

No chill

Ye raaz bhi mere saath chala jaega! XD

Ah.. yeah right, that's the 'essence' of a philosophical essay, any essay. 

I know of a guy who thought the "ships don't sink" essay was purely about climate change and rising sea levels.  Substantiated with stuff from Mains 365. Examiner must've had the ultimate mindfuck. I believe one's score in the philosophical essay is directly proportional to the depth of the mindfuck. Come to think of it, that guy's a genius.

And there I was, writing pretentious crap about how a mindful manifesto is a catalyst to a tranquil self. My self was anything but tranquil. My self was shitting bricks at his first mains. Ugh.

There's this famous Punjabi couplet by a poet called Muneer Niazi which fits in so perfectly here, "kujh onj vi rahwan aukhiyan san, kuj galay vich ghaman da tauq vi si,kujh shehr dey lok vi zalim san, kujh sanu marn da shauq vi si." 

Rough Translation: some of the ways in my long journey were full of hiccups, sometimes neck was collared with sorrows, some people of the city even were repressive and at times, even I had a desire to die" :p 

Btw thank you for all the inputs. Just went through the thread regarding mains, fellas. :') 

Ye ladka aage IAS bane na bane, Global Warming to yahi rokega! :P

Hi guys, could someone PLEASE help me understand how defence expenditure works?

if question is - what is India's military expenditure - how does one answer?

1) as per SIPRI report, The US spent a total of $778 billion in 2020, China spent $252 billion andIndia's military expenditure was $72.9 billion

2) as per budget 2021 - 2022 -->India has allocated Rs. 4 lakh crore to defence ministry

PLEASEhelp me understand how this works. Sorry for this really silly doubt, I am highly confused. :/

Last year I was still trying to break my prelims curse. Worked like anything in that time to perfect my pre knowledge. Completely forgot that something like the mains exists in fact. I was the boat guy in the “it do go down” video posted here. 

This year I’m not joining a TS as of yet. The realist in me is like “abhi se paise barbaad karne ki kha zaroorat hain”. I’m working on consolidating my notes for the 4 GS papers, especially ethics. Last year I had only two page notes with which I could answer the entire paper. This year I’m working on more substantial notes (3 pages 🤣) and case studies as well as optional