Education

 

Despite being not well off, they educated me (and my brother) well.

My family isn’t the richest out there - my father is a nurse and mother is a teacher - both in government sector. They had moved in from the village my father is from to city just so that we could gain a good education.

My father was a bright student, but he could not become a doctor because of the abject poverty my grandfather lived in. So he decided to never compromise on his sons’ education (one of his sons ended up becoming a doctor from AIIMS :). We always got new books, got admitted to good schools, and got whatever we wanted. They cut short their expenses and dreams to make sure we get the best education.

Let me tell you an anecdote to answer this better. When I was in class 9, I was selected for the International Astronomy Olympiad camp in Mumbai. In order to prepare for it, we needed to study a book called “Roy and Clarke: Structure of the Universe.” It cost around Rs 5000. At that time, Rs 5000 was a VERY big deal for my family, and I decided against it.

My father ordered me to order it right away without second thoughts. This made me realize how much he cared about our education - and I tried my best to study well.

Today my brother is doing his Masters in AIIMS Rishikesh and holds an MBBS from AIIMS Jodhpur. I am studying CSE in IIT Bombay, and working on a profitable Tech Startup. The single most important reason for that is my family’s committment for our education - irrespective of the financial condition.

Invest in your education - you will not regret it. Buy that book you always wanted. Pay for the course you need the most right now. Attend that coaching if you can. The returns are huge.

  

 

-Kalpit Veerwal,IIT Bombay CSE '21, Founder AcadBoost & SkillBoost

JEE Preparation & School

During class 11th, I used to go to school around 2 days a week. I was preparing hard for JEE, and spent all my time locked up in my room studying. In my mind, going to school was simply a waste of time, and hence I tried to go to school as less as possible.

However, I ensured that my marks in school did not suffer, as that gave me a leverage to bargain with the school for low attendance. I was always present during Mondays for the weekly unit tests whose marks were counted towards the aggregate score.

While the school was definitely not happy with my attendance, they could not do much because I ended up with the highest overall score in each and every subject in class 11th, in all sections combined.

In class 12th, with JEE drawing closer, my attendance dropped even further. I started visiting the school only once a week on Mondays for the weekly unit tests. I had regular fights with my class teacher but I always ensured I had leverage by scoring well. Despite her warnings that I would fail, I ended up scoring 94.2% in the 12th Board exams.

I ensured I had all the time I needed to prepare in peace for JEE, because JEE had always been my primary goal. I realized early on that school was a complete waste of time, because the school syllabus was much easier than JEE syllabus. However, I ensured the school could not do anything against me, by building leverage. My leverage was my performance in school. I mean, how could they possibly justify taking any action against the school topper just because of low attendance?

The two years of JEE preparation also taught me the importance of having leverage in life, especially when you are going to go against the traditional set of rules.

   

-  Rohan Jain,B.Tech(CSE) IITK'15, IIMA Batch 2015-17

Getting Stressed? Do this..............

My Teacher used to say we get stressed mostly due to 4 types of problems.

When we understand these problems and their root causes and solutions most of our worries and stress will go away

1. Some problems are like too small, but we over emphasize . But since it has recently happened, we get swayed away. For example a distant relative taunted you something or a friend said you something. You got hurt, you overthink, you spend your hours, days on this. Now look at your life since childhood. So many people came in your life and left. Only few stick with you. Only few. Majority are gone. You used to take stress for them, you used to overthink which has no value kind. It's like when you observe the world closely you understand we get worried mainly on trivial stuff which just comes and goes. Get above it. When I was drawn into spirituality I realized it much better. Most of the things in our lives are not worth taking stress.
2. Solutions of few problems are in your hand. Give your maximum on those. like you have some exam or you want to achieve a goal in career, then again stress won't help. Work on the skills to achieve the goal. Work on what is required for the goal.
3. Those things which are not in your hand accept the way they are and do not try to change much. For example we may not like something our parents, siblings or partner and we try to change them. It's not so easy. Changing a person when he attains 20+ age is very difficult. Accept them the way they are. Another example you can not do something on China-India relations now or you can not change the nepotism Bollywood. So instead of spending time, energy on debates and news related it spend time on enhancing your skills, ensure that you do not promote nepotism in your own life whatever circle you have.
4. Often our future too worries us. Thought about future. Remember you may be the richest man or the poorest no one knows what will happen next. Covid has at least made us realize this. All of us have so much plan in 2020, but who knew this way it will turn out to be. Live in the present. Whatever you have accept it.

-Abinash Mishra,IAS | IIT Kharagpur

 

Hight Lighter !

 

Many of the UPSC aspirants and other students use Highlighter for underlining important dates or points.. which they use FABER CASTELL Highlighter…most of them don't know that they can be refilled through the same ink…There is a refill bottle which can refill for 8 times and the cost of the refill is Rs.40/- .

Attaching the pictures below.

IT IS AVAILABLE IN ALL COLOURS.

Thank you…

Img source: My phone gallery

Edit: I have purchased it in Universal book store

 

-Srinivas

IIT-R

I was first allotted Kasturba bhawan (hostel) .Here are some pictures of Kasturba hostel:-

1.KASTURBA BHAWAN BUILDING

2.

3.

4. CYCLE PARKING

5.MAIN ENTRY OF KASTURBA BHAWAN

6.

7. RECEPTION AREA

8.VISITING ROOM

9.

10.MESS OF KASTURBA BHAWAN

11.

12. INSIDE VIEW

13.

14. PARLOUR

15.CANTEEN

16. MY ROOM IN KASTURBA BHAWAN

17. WALL PAINTINGS IN KASTURBA BHAWAN

After some days I was shifted in new hostel VIGYAN KUNJ. In Vigyan kunj , all rooms are single seater. It has 5 blocks.

18. VIGYAN KUNJ GIRL’S BLOCK (E block)

19. VIGYAN KUNJ BOY'S BLOCK

20. VIGYAN KUNJ BOY'S BLOCK

21. MY NEW ROOM IN VIGYAN KUNJ

22.

23.

24. MY ROOM AFTER DECORATION 😀

25.

26.

27.

28.

29.I haven't decorated my room completely yet.

30.WASHROOM AREA

31. WASHING MACHINE which is provided on each floor.

32.CUPBOARD

I will edit the answer if I find more images.

I hope it would help you to create some imagination in ur mind that how are the hostel rooms at IIT Roorkee.

Have a nice day 😀

-Poonam Chaturvedi,Ph.D ( Research Scholar) from Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee (2023)

If I am confident I will remain employed for next 15 years (with my salary increments comfortably beating the inflation) then I am not average. I am either exceptional or ignorant.

 

An average IT employee can't remain comfortable for too long. Every year there are millions of debt-ridden and desperate engineers graduating world over. If I don't build my own niche I will be replaced like a worn out tire in 15 minutes.

 

Sorry. The corporate world is a ruthless place. And that is precisely what makes it possible for them to hire and retain their top performers.

 

 

  -Imtiaz Mohammad,Ex-Microsoft, Cracking Coding and Design Interviews Trainer.

Entertainment

The best way to use the maximum potential of your supercomputer is to avoid passive Entertainment!

Look at the top minds of the world and look at how much TV they consume, how many hours they play Video games, watch YouTube videos or do anything similar. You will see that the best of the best spend far less time consuming anything passively.

 

If they entertain themselves at all then they do so for a reason whereas most of the world tries to entertain themselves just to get by.

We spend 50 minutes on Facebook and spend 4 hours in front of the TV every single day and then wonder why our minds aren’t sharp anymore.

 

Mindless consumption slows down our minds because we do not think. Just like a muscle that isn’t used we do not use our brain and do not train it, and, at the end of the day, we have not done anything to make our minds stronger or more effective.

When you go into a state of mindless consumption your mind slows down further than when you are sleeping and you train it to stay that way.

 

However, when you go into it with an intention then you are activating your mind and you can learn, improve and use the situation to your own advantage. But for that you have to be intentional.

This doesn’t mean that you need to stop consuming or entertaining yourself entirely, but just that you do not do it passively.

 

When you are watching TV, do so with the Intention to give your mind a break. Set a time-limit and then move to other things.

 

When you are on Facebook, be there with the intention of checking up on your friends and family and then leave the page.

 

And when you are consuming YouTube videos do so with a reason in mind as well else you will find yourself 6 hours down the line still watching random crap.

 

If you want to make your mind sharper, faster and more effective then you have to start using it!

Train it by being intentional with the things you do, by only doing things that improve your life and by actively constructing your day to give you the utmost value.

 

Give everything you do your fullest attention and “Work hard and play harder”!

-Lukas Schwekendiek, Life Coach, Speaker, Writer. Published on TIME, INC & Huffington Post

Physical Strength vs Being Doctor?

See the shortest smallest person in the photo?

That is Dr. Jen Arnold. She is a neonatologist.

The short answer is no, you don’t have to be physically strong to be a doctor.

-Jonathan Geach, MD

Education and Hard Work Can Really Change Your Life for Better

That Education and Hard Work really pay off. To explain this I’ll share some part of my life story here.

In school I was a decent student neither so bad nor so good, I would say that I was just an average and that was actually not because I didn’t have the caliber to study. I was just an average student because I chose to be. At that time I had no clue what I wanted to do in my life and thought education is not that important. Just look at Ambanis, Bill Gates and other people who are really rich but are not well educated.

So I always thought that education is of no use and my parents did not have that kind of money to put me through a medical or engineering degree so I didn’t study that hard but managed to get decent scores in my high school and Junior college.

Another thing that played role in my ignorance is that I was not guided properly and I did not have any clue how to become an engineer, doctor, lawyer, IAS, IPS or anything at all in life. I just thought you just need to keep studying whatever is taught you in the college and get whatever job you will get and spend the rest of your life like that.

Until I had to drop out from my undergraduate program and work in a call center for a good 10 or 12 months. After working for 11 months there I saved all of my salaries and again took admission in BSc. Comp Science and studied just to clear my exams not to compete or anything. After two years in my undergrad, I got a little bit interested in coding and started learning that all by myself.

I got so interested in coding that I used to code 12 hours a day, I started coding so much that my friends started to worry that I would fail the exams cause I was not studying as much as I should have, I used to eat, sleep rest, walk cause my body needed it not my mind. I was so interested in coding that I used to take showers and eat my lunch at 5 PM or 6 PM in the evening.

But as exams started coming closer I split the time in 50–50 and learned coding for 6hours and studies around 4 hours. That hard work started changing my life and the results started coming out. The first thing that happened to me was I topped the entire class and immediately professors and faculty members of college started recognizing me. I become an immediate threat to other student and they got afraid that I would surpass them which I did anyway. I got PPOs from three MNC’s but still as I was interested in coding and I wanted to become a coder, not some support guy or trainee or something.

While I was learning to code I built an android app put it on live and created my LinkedIn profile and applied for internships in few startups, still, I thought that I won’t be able to get a job cause my DS and Algorithms are not that strong so I chose to become an intern rather than becoming a full-time employee and I thought I would do masters after internship.

Soon after my application I got a call from one startup and they hired me as a Software Engineer despite not having an engineering degree and I worked there to the best of my ability and soon my BSc. results came out and again topped the class in my final year as well.

I was getting a pay raise every three months in my first company cause of my performance. Fast forward almost 4 years I am making a good amount of money to live a decent life and still considering higher education. I have bought Play station, I have two mac book pros, one iPhone one Note 10 I bought some expensive shoes which I dreamed of when I was in college. I have rented one apartment where I work as a freelance software engineer. Because of my job I have visited two countries already. Life has never been better than this to me.

ME IN BANGKOK

ME IN VIETNAM

So realizing that education and hard work won’t go unnoticed totally changed my life.

So if you are in high school or still in college and studying I would suggest you to explore all the horizons learn how to become an astronaut, IAS, engineer or CEO of google. Learn how to get scholarships, education loan and go for higher studies. Learn how to finance your education if your parents can not afford it. Get the highest degree in your field of study I guarantee you that your entire life would change.

DO NOT DROP OUT OF COLLEGE OR TAKE EDUCATION LIGHTLY CAUSE YOU HAVE NO FREAKING IDEA HOW POWERFUL EDUCATION IS UNTIL YOU REALISE KEEP WORKING HARD AND STUDYING.

Edit:-

I recently moved to Taiwan for a few years.

  

  -Reyansh Mishra, ReactJS Developer (2018–present)

There is One & Only One Single Formula for Success

There is one and only one single formula for success. Everything else you might have heard and read about it is a derivative and a variant of this formula.

The willingness to do what the other guy won’t.

So get off your lazy butt and start doing it. Dreams don’t make you successful, actions do.

Do you want to lose weight?Hit the damn gym for 60 days straight.

Do you want to do well in that upcoming test/exam?Delete all your social media, lock that phone away and study your butt off.

Do you want to grow in your career?Stop wasting time looking for excuses and spend every waking minute delivering value to your company.

Socially awkward and want to make friends?Stop hiding behind social media masks and discord servers and step out of your frigging room and go meet real humans.

The problem today is that most people expect success to come for free and are not willing to pay the cost it takes. Don’t be that person. Success only comes to those who relentlessly pursue it and are willing to do whatever it takes to get there.

“The only thing standing between you and your goal is the bullshit story you keep telling yourself as to why you can't achieve it.” - Jordan Belfort

Oh and don’t forget to keep smiling along the way… it makes the journey easier…

---

In case we haven’t met before, I’m Rohan Kamath.

There Were Many Challenges That This Person Faced During Preparation

Well , There are many troubles I faced during my preparation. I started my journey in June, 2016. I would give my answer in some points.

1. Residential / PG problem : when I went to Delhi , I had taken a PG in Ghitorni. This was a very bad decision I had taken. The behaviour of the owner of the PG was very pleasant. I decided to reside there. After some days, He started creating problems. He started to tell me the rules according to situations. Earlier he had allowed me some things ( Like kitchen availability, Friends meet-up in the room , water availability on my floor etc) and later he restricted all those things. Then I got to know that the owner only needs money. He had very rude behaviour. I decided to leave that PG. Them he asked rent of 1 more month . At that time I had paid the fee of coachings and rent+ security amount to that owner. Hence I had not any money to give him. Along with it, my classes were also getting disturbed. Somehow I had arranged the rent and left that PG.
2. Food Problem: In South Delhi, where the Campus is situated, it is very tough to get the good/healthy food. I was in Ghitorni. There were no good mess in Ghitorni. They were simply doing money making business. There was no Quality food available . After I left that PG, I had taken a 2 room apartment with my friend Rahul . Then we decided to establish a kitchen and we employed a maid for this. I had came Delhi with my friends Rahul and Suranjana . So we all shared the kitchen. The food problem was solved . But also there's a maid problem. They used to cook good for 1–2 months and after that they were just making the food . So we had to search for a maid in every 1–2 months.
3. Health Issue: The environment of Ghitorni was not so good. There are very bad roads and gutters . So there were also many diseases like Dengue, Chicken pox etc. We all 3 friends suffered from these diseases. I faced chicken pox. It took 15–20 days of my preparation. I missed many classes. So I got a lot of Home work to do. Rahul faced Jaundice. Suranjana faced Dengue. So they also had a very much loss of their studies.
4. Made easy: Now if I talk about coaching, so when the classes were over in the evening, the road got jammed . On that road you can only see students of Made easy. In a batch there were 400 students. So whenever I used to see them I used to think about the competition. There were only 100+ total seats and total students in coaching were 15000+ . And many of them were from IITs and NITs. I was from a Govt college. So I used to think if I have to get a seat then I have to defeat them all.
5. Classrooms: In a class there were 400 students. There were some students who were answering just after the teacher'd asked something. And I was doing calculation at that time. So I was thinking if I can not fight in a class only then how would I fight with those 15000+.
6. Time: I had joined the coaching very late. So I had only 6 months to prepare. Those who are preparing for ESE, know that 6 months are not enough if you start from the basics. I had also wasted my time on chicken pox and that PG owner. So I had not much time. At last , the coaching began to increase the class timings. In June it was 6 hrs/day, then increased to 8 hrs/day, then 10 hrs/day and finally they went to 13hrs/days. So imagine what would be the condition of one who is taking a 13 hrs class in a days. I was unable to do any self study, unable to solve problems.
7. Test series: Now if I talk about test series, I was not getting good marks on test series. My ranks used to be above 8–9000. So my self confidence got down at that time.
8. Water: The water quality is not so good in Ghitorni. We had to purchase water Cane . Now we were new at Delhi. The shopkeeper was selling the canes in ₹30/cane and if on doorstep then ₹40/cane. So we used to bring it by keeping canes in our shoulders just to save money.
9. Self Study: our syllabus was completed on 20 Dec and the exam was on 8 Jan . So we had 18 days for self preparation. Now we had to cover whole syllabus in 18 days. (Note: we were taking 12–13hrs classes daily so we hadn't study self at last.)

So what was the result???
 

Failed in every Technical exam.
 

Tried again in next year with full of experience and a better strategy.

Got success. Thanks to my family who supported me in everything, My friends Suranjana and Rahul and also Vikram who came next year.

-Shailendra Mishra,IES Officer