Let’s Crack It, a UPSC preparation book written by 2016-batch IAS officer Jitin Yadav that was launched on 27 February this year, reached the top 10 in list of UPSC Bestsellers and top 3 in Hot New Releases in just a weeks’ time! The book has been getting good response mainly because of the engagement the officer has with the audience he caters to on various social media platforms and otherwise.
Like every successful candidate who ends up guiding aspirants on social media platforms or in the places they are posted, Mr. Yadav also has an interest in guiding the aspirants onto the right path. This desire to provide guidance led him to turn his lessons into a book so that it could reach a wider audience and more people can be benefitted.
Indian Masterminds spoke to the officer to get more details about his book.
TEACHING ON TWITTER SPACES
Mr. Jitin Yadav said, “Like every other officer, it happened with me too. During my probation days I used to take classes every weekend where aspirants used to come in decent numbers.”
Having a huge following on social media and receiving messages from aspirants became a daily affair for the officer. However, after he got posted in Kolkata some eight to nine months back, he became aware of a live audio conversation feature on Twitter called Spaces. It was the perfect thing which he could use to fulfill the needs of aspirants.
He said, “I didn’t know about this earlier and when I used it, I found it very effective. So, I continued it for a few months and a good response was shown by the audience as I used to gather around 800 people after informing about the online class. Generally, around 300 people used to join uninformed. However, after some time, the questions coming from their end got very repetitive and was breaking the flow of the class.”
DISCUSSION WITH WIFE
But how long would this continue? The officer started having this feeling as he had a busy work schedule to deal with.
“I hence thought that, why not I convert these queries of the aspirants into the form of chapters in a book so that it can reach a wider audience and can be preserved. After having this discussion with my wife, and with my experience of facing similar doubts during preparation, we planned on writing the book.”
ABOUT THE BOOK
The book is a mix of motivational content, current affairs, time and stress management, strategy to clear GS 1, 2 3, ethic, optional papers, mock tests and many more. All this is being provided in a very simple language so that there is less burden on the aspirants and things can be understood easily.
“Towards the end of the book, there is a topic on health which most aspirants neglect. I consider it an important topic to focus on and, hence, I emphasised on it.”
ABOUT THE OFFICER
Mr. Yadav passed out from St. Stephens College in New Delhi and worked in the corporate sector for three years. He then joined various NGOs as he wanted to go abroad where social profile is given more preference. While visiting NGOs on the weekends, his motivation towards social service increased to that extent that he would wake up early and visit the NGOs even if he had slept late at night. Soon he left his job and started preparing for UPSC CSE and cleared the railway service in the first attempt. Finally, he became an IAS officer in the third attempt after getting AIR 382.
