Update

 Hello there...

Still hanging on...

Just opened and did some activity, so that I dont loose access to my account...

Update

 Hello there... Its been a long long time... I was busy doing something else and I could not find time to write.

Anway here are the updates - on two things that I mostly talk about

Civil Service Preparations

I did not clear the civil services.

I attempted all the 6 times. Cleared prelims 5 times. Did not clear once

In the 5 Mains that I wrote, I did not clear even once. Although I came close to cutoff in 2015. I missed the OC cutoff by some 10-20 marks.

I did not clear the state groups exams

I gave both the Group I & Group II exams once each. I did not clear either of them.

Reasons why I did not clear: Well, only one reason. I did not prepare well.

I only blame myself and not on any situations - like Pub Adm paper was tough while Anthro was easy... or that I prepared well, but luck was not on my side. The reason I did not clear is simply I did not do enough for this exam. 

I only regret not giving my 100%. I do not regret trying for civils leaving a decent job in MNC back in 2012. Anyway, after trying few other things like

• writing answers to questions asked  by school children and get paid for the answers
• preparing prelims question papers for one of the IAS institutes 
• In the institute that I worked, for 1 prelims question with options, explanations of answer, sources - we get around 10 rupees. 
• I heard someone say that Vision IAS pays upto 100 rupees for a single prelims question and 3000 rupees per hour for teaching geography (or) pub adm to students.

• giving demo classes to future aspirants and to become Pub Adm faculty in some other IAS institute

Nothing worked out... So, I am back to a job in IT. Have to start from scratch again.

So, there's that. Pursuing a career in administration is over for me.

Football

Well, there's lot to talk.

Man, what a unbelievable season we had last year.

We won the CL against all odds, beating favourites like PSG, Chelsea, Manchester City & Liverpool. And memorable comebacks too.. We completed the double by winning La liga, although barca was weakened by Messi's departure.

Future looks promising, because we have talented players like Vini, Rodrygo, Valverde, Tchouameni, Cammavinga.

And this is world cup year. I would like Portugal to win it for Ronaldo... but I know its difficult.

Final Thoughts

While, career in administration is over me, I still like to read news, stay up to date on current affairs, follow whats happening around the world. So, I will try to write my perspectives on the things that are happening around the world.

And I will also write little bit about these last years - as to what happened in general & stuff.

Mains from Sep 28th

Hello there....


I think its my 1st or 2nd post this year...

Civils & later

I cleared prelims.... this is my 6th & final attempt in cracking civils... this time I joined test series prog... few friends highlighted the importance of answer writing... so, I joined some institute for Mains test series... lets see how it goes...

I havent really planned as to what I would do once this Mains is over... should I prepare for state groups, should I join some job (teaching side, IT side), I dont know... IT side pays well, but it would be difficult (especially after 7yrs of gap preparing for civils); Parents pressure mounting on me to secure a job and get married immediately... well, cant blame them really, they have supported me till now, and its only normal to see Indian parents wanting to get their son married at the right age (actually, I am little north of right age to get married) :P


Coming to football

World Cup
a) I wished Modric lifted the trophy... anyway, Congrats to Croatia for reaching final for the first time in their history... Modric rightly won player of the tournament...
b) Still no world cup for either Messi or Ronaldo... for Ronaldo, its almost over... well, at least he has Euro 2016... Messi - I aint sure if he continues with Argentina... they have Copa America next year in 2019... so he has another shot at national trophy... lets see how it goes...

What makes one happy

Hello all...

This is my second post in this year... last year 2016 I had just one entry... so I decided I will write at least one more post... hehehe... so, lets see, whats to talk about... you know, lately I've been thinking about something... What makes one happy.

a) Cristiano works so hard day in day out, he's achieved so much, but he is always booed at away stadiums; Messi too, genius footballer, arguably worlds greatest football player ever, but he is jeered by his own Argentine fans for not bringing international trophy... plus it kind of haunts Messi himself that his Argentine trophy cabinet is empty
b) Its not just footballers - filmstars, businessmen, politicians - every person in every other profession has some problem... well not exactly the same kind of problems that common people face like money needs, buying house, looking for job that pays well, daily commutaion to offices in buses, pollution... Many times we may not understand those problems, but believe me, even they face problems... All that glitter, fame, money will not give them happiness

I think the core of the problem is because we are doing stuff for others and not doing what we love... well, sometimes what we love doing may not pay us enough to lead a decent life, but you get what I am saying... Its always our desire, need, pressure to do well, perform better than others - that causes problems for us... we unknowingly fell into this rat race...

Update

Hello all

So, I've been really really busy... I cant find time to write anything... But I hope I can make some free time and write something

Anyway, things as usual...

Transfer dealings

a) Real signed Theo, Marcos Llorente (I dont remember us signing anyone in attacking half... but we sold Morata, James)

b) actually I was sad to see Morata leave, but with Zidane preferring Benzema in big matches and world cup coming next year, Morata needs assured game time and its understandable he left... too bad his return to Madrid didnt go as expected...

c) then, James departure was expected, there was a slight problem with his attitude... he publicly expressed his displeasure when substituted, his comments during Club WC (in Japan?) when team's celebrating havent gone well with hierarchy... plus, relationship between zidane and player broke off... anyway he left for Bayern at very low price compared to his value... It seems Bayern & Real enjoy good relations in transfer dealings... we got kroos cheaply, they got alonso... now james too at just 35M euros

d) Then, Pepe left (he asked for 2yr contract, even okay with reduced game time, but we only promised 1yr contract), we got back our academy player Jesus Vallejo... I've read that he is very good defender, but he is slightly injury prone... but Nacho is always reliable... with Ramos, Varane, Marcelo our defence is strong...


Super Copa Espana

a) What a resounding victory over our bitter rivals... I've been following football regularly since 2011.. here & there we may have dominated Barca in short spells across a match, but this is the first time I am seeing Real completely dominating Barcelona in both legs

Update

Hello there...

It's four months into the year and only now I found the time to write a post. As usual we will talk about football and my civil services preparation...

So, the mains result was out in February and I didn't clear this time too. I am eagerly waiting for my marks, which are expected in June, to see what went wrong. There is some pressure from my parents to take up some job because they want me to get married soon. But my desire to clear the exam is still intact and I haven't given up on civil services. I want to give another attempt as of now. Two things I plan to do differently this year are

1) I couldn't complete the entire syllabus of public administration even after three attempts and this time I wanted to be thorough with my optional. So, I am reading more hours per day compared to the previous years.
2) Most questions asked in the exam felt familiar and I that I had read those topics sometime, but in the exam I couldn't recollect, so i realised revision of topics is vital. Hence, I plan to revise every topic regularly. Plus I heard some ranker saying that revision is what separates toppers from others.

Let's see how my fourth attempt goes. Now coming to football. We are seven points behind Barcelona in the league with seven matches left to play, so it seems like the league is a lost cause. At least we won the clasico at camp nou and avoided the humiliation of double. We were eliminated from Copa after fielding an ineligible player. So the CL is the only trophy left to fight for this year. But our team put an awful performance against Wolfsburg, and now we need to win the return leg with at least 2 goals margin. Hope our boys realise what it means to be a Madrid player and win the tie and go on to win the competition. We can't have two back to back trophy less seasons while Barcelona continue to win trebles.

Benitez was sacked after poor results, but I won't blame him for that. As a manager he is talented, we know that as he won the league with Valencia and won CL with Liverpool. But apart from tactics and other stuff, a manager is also expected to keep his team motivated and listening to him. Now this is where I think he failed to handle the big egos in the dressing room. Succumbing to pressure from the board, media and others, he didn't select casemiro and opted for James in the first Clasico and our midfiled was exposed. We lost 0-4, utter humiliation. Plus, there was no clarity on our starting eleven. He wanted to rotate the players to keep them fit and to give chances to everyone, but that only turned players against him. Contrast this with zidane, after our Derby loss to atletico at home, he didn't start with James because it was known by then that we need a defensive midfileder and casemiro became a regular starter. He proved invaluable in 1-2 away victory over Barcelona. Benitez couldn't do this and he was sacked. I feel sorry for him, but he is a true Madridista. He was emotional when he was appointed as the manager; he is the first Madrid player to be appointed as manager in more than a decade; he said few bad things about the president and players after his dismissal, but it must be said that he was largely silent about the unfair treatment and the constant targeting by the press meted out to him. I believe he didn't have the freedom in team selection and some players underperformed during his time. Cristiano was unhappy with benitez, because of the latter's tactics which gave importance to Bale. Ramos was angry after Benitez criticised him, when he fouled an atletico player in the box and conceded a needles penalty. Now these are some things where benitez can improve in his man-management skills. You have to treat stars differently and not like other players.

Zidane is our manager now and the first one in nine years to win his debut El Clasico in 9 years. Plus our results at home have been promising, we are winning matches and playing good football. Everyone in the dressing room respects him. Away results are not all positive, but recently we won at Camp Nou, so we can improve. It would be nice if we win CL this season considering we have nothing to fight for. Plus, even if we don't win, the president should stick with zidane. He needs time to get the team to play according to his tactics, he needs time to sign the players he wants. Anyway, let's see what happens...

There is some problem with my laptop. Over these last four years, I have used it - for my preparation, for watching movies, for playing FIFA... some sort of attachment developed with my laptop, but now, it's not alright. There is some charging port issue and it takes around 20k to get it repaired. I am so sad...

Anyway Adios...

Update - Dec 2015

Hello there...

I am sorry, I couldn't write regularly. I couldn't find time to post anything.

The good news is that I've qualified Prelims; the result was out around 2 months back and one other friend of mine cleared prelims. This year, CSAT was made qualifying paper, that means, the marks in that paper wouldn't be counted. It obviously put us, engineering students who are good at Maths like me, at a disadvantage; but I managed to clear. According to key released by some coaching institute, I got 106 marks. Mains starts from 18th this month. I am optimistic that I'll clear Mains this time. Let's see how that goes.

As I told earlier, I got Auditor post in CAG in SSC-CGL 2014, but I will not take the job. I am willing to give civils one more year of preparation.

Now, in football, I haven't been watching the game regularly like earlier. But I am aware of what's happening. The most talking point in our la liga campaign this year was the humiliating home defeat to our fiercest rivals FC Barcelona. I was really disappointed with the way we played that match. Messi didn't even start the match, he was a substitute on the bench, but by the time he entered the field in 2nd half, the match was pretty much over. I don't know what Benitez is doing. Last year, Barca won the treble and we finished trophyless. Another trophy-less season is not acceptable at any cost. And the worst part is we were eliminated from Copa after we fielded an ineligible player. So, we must focus on La Liga & Champions League. Hope our team comes back form very soon and fight for the titles.

Well, I am busy preparing and I may not find time to be more frequent, but I will try to post every now and then. Till then, adios... Live Long and Prosper.