As failure always comes with a lesson of what not to do, it is indeed an essential part of life’s journey. Decode UPSC: My Take on UPSC and Beyond, a book written by IPS officer Agam Jain, is the perfect read for all curious minds, striving hard to succeed not only in UPSC but in other aspects of life, too.
The book depicts the journey of an average boy who failed twice in IIT JEE. However, his Kota days taught him important lessons that helped him during his preparation for CSE, and today he is an inspiration to all aspirants. In an exclusive interview to Indian Masterminds, IPS officer Agam Jain, who is currently ADC to Governor of Madhya Pradesh, decodes the key to success.
DECODING UPSC
Mr. Jain is someone who can criticize and analyze himself, the book exemplifies it abundantly. It contains some interesting insights into his own life, like how he used to be as a student, where he used to spend most of his time, his crush, his personal life, his heartbreaking failure at JEE, how he bounced back from his failures, and a lot more. The way the author presents himself so honestly is truly applaudable.
Talking about the core subject of the book, he says, “This book is a compilation of all the queries of 5 years from 2016 to 2021, which I used to answer on Quora and various other platforms. One thing that I observed was the same type of questions frequently asked, that I had answered earlier. So, I decided to put all the solutions in one place, and it took me one year to shape this book.”
CHAPTER PLANNING
The author tries to answer all possible queries in the mind of an aspirant in the book. It contains a total of 8 chapters, starts with his Kota days and college life. The second chapter talks about the preparation for UPSC, how it should be and what should be avoided. In chapter 3, the author talks about his days in the academy during his training programme. The 4th chapter is for motivational purposes while 5th talks about the significance of UPSC and IPS. In the 6th chapter, he tries to give some friendly advice, in the 7th, he shares his experiences as an officer and the last chapter is about interesting incidents from the lives of officers. The book is available on Amazon. One may purchase it from the link: Decode UPSC by IPS Officer Agam Jain
BOUNCING BACK
Mr. Jain says, “Facing failures two times in JEE somehow made me feel inferior. It was during my engineering days when I realized the true worth of my life. I used to go to a nearby village with my friends to teach around 60-70 children there. A village with no minimum facilities like school, electricity, transportation, internet, mobile phones etc. At that time, I realised how privileged I am that at least I can access all these things that are not usually valued enough. I regained my confidence and decided to invest myself with full focus and energy to prepare for UPSC.”
He cracked CSE 2015 with AIR 133 and was selected for IPS.
MOTIVATIONAL QUOTES FROM THE AUTHOR
These are some precious messages for readers from the officer in the book. We present two examples.
“Take out a little time for spirituality, feel the life. It will help you realise that nothing is more important than your own happiness, not even rank 1 in UPSC. It will prepare you to handle every challenge peacefully, either related to UPSC or otherwise. like I used to follow Jain spiritualism fondly.”
“The best way to beat depression is to remain busy. Read if you get bored, watch a useful video. If bored, make notes. If bored, listen to encouraging music for a while. If bored, read again. Switch to productivity but don’t sit idle.”
