📝 Essay Crash Course Starts Monday – 9th June at 8:00 AM!
📲 Access via App + Website: civilscatalyst.akamai.net.in
🎁 1-Year Full Access | Includes World History
Course + Full Essay Test Series Assessed by Jawwad Kazi sir
📞 For queries, WhatsApp: 9689867863

🔥 Recommended by Toppers:
✅ Ria Kaur Sethi (AIR 89) – Improved by 30 marks to score 132
✅ Vivek Shukla (AIR 355) – Gained 44 marks to notch 138 , one of the highest amongst selected candidates,
And many more toppers

Led by Jawwad Kazi Sir, this 6-day LIVE intensive is your chance to master Essay writing with proven methods and personal guidance.

🚀 What You’ll Gain:
✍️ 8-Step Method to writing a winning UPSC Essay
📚 Hands-on practice in class with live writing & review
🧠 Decode GS & Philosophical topics with clarity
📝 Full Essay Test Series – 8 Tests (4 Full-Length + 4 Half-Length)
🌍 BONUS: World History Crash Course
🎥 1-Year Access to all recordings
👨‍🏫 One-to-One Mentorship by Jawwad Kazi Sir

🎯Enroll now and start transforming your preparation!

👉 Visit: civilscatalyst.akamai.net.in
📲 WhatsApp: 9689867863

UPSC Prelims Result is out

Do listen to this TED Talk on a remarkable study by Harvard University on What Makes a Good Life. It’s one of the longest-running studies on happiness and gives deep insights that can be very handy in essays related to themes/virtues like happiness, interpersonal relationships, compassion, empathy, and emotional well-being.

Last year, in the Essay Crash Course batches, I had shared this study with a hunch that a happiness-based topic might be asked—and it turned out right. The essay topic “There is no path to happiness, happiness is the path” was asked in the exam.

It’s a very insightful talk that brings home a simple truth: good relationships—not wealth or fame—keep us happier and healthier. The idea is not just to remember the content, but to understand the essence and mould it as per the essay topic’s demand. Because ultimately, it's not how much you know, but how well you connect what you know with what the topic is asking.

Do give it a watch—it’s relevant, relatable, and can be used in multiple essay contexts.

New Essay Crash Course coming up from Monday 16th of June. Do visit the App/Website of Civils Catalyst to know more.

– Jawwad Kazi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXM0aulfFec

This is a summary of the movie The Experiment, which is loosely based on the famous (and infamous) Stanford Prison Experiment that we had discussed during class. It’s a gripping portrayal of how ordinary people can lose their sense of self and morality when given unchecked power.The film raises powerful questions around how power alters behaviour, how peer pressure can silence morality and how systems can drive people to extremes.
Insightful and relevant for essays on power, morality, peer dynamics, leadership, and ethical courage. This experiment was shared in the class last year also with a prediction that power theme related essay could be asked.

📝 Essay Crash Course Starts Monday – 16th June at 8:00 AM!
📲 Access via App (Android and IoS)
🎁 1-Year Full Access | Includes World History
Course + Full Essay Test Series Assessed by Jawwad Kazi sir
📞 For queries, WhatsApp: 9689867863

🔥 Recommended by Toppers:
✅ Ria Kaur Sethi (AIR 89) – Improved by 30 marks to score 132
✅ Vivek Shukla (AIR 355) – Gained 44 marks to notch 138 , one of the highest amongst selected candidates,
And many more toppers

Led by Jawwad Kazi Sir, this 6-day LIVE intensive is your chance to master Essay writing with proven methods and personal guidance.

🚀 What You’ll Gain:
✍️ 8-Step Method to writing a winning UPSC Essay
📚 Hands-on practice in class with live writing & review
🧠 Decode GS & Philosophical topics with clarity
📝 Full Essay Test Series – 8 Tests (4 Full-Length + 4 Half-Length)
🌍 BONUS: World History Crash Course
🎥 1-Year Access to all recordings
👨‍🏫 One-to-One Mentorship by Jawwad Kazi Sir

🎯Enroll now and start transforming your preparation!

👉 Visit: civilscatalyst.akamai.net.in
📲 WhatsApp: 9689867863

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTPt70vA39k

A great case study that can be connected to multiple essay topics. Great watch otherwise too.

Essay Copy of UPSC Topper Ria Kaur Sethi (AIR 89). Essay score improvement from 102 to 132. I would urge you to see the rough page at the end. In the essay crash course we work on this template to have a very structured, meticulous and well planned rough work so that the actual writing of the essay becomes super easy.

I will be sharing some good copies of essays here in the days to come. These are written in real time constraints so these won't be perfect so to speak but will surely be helpful in understanding several nuances of essay writing. Happy reading.

📝 Essay Crash Course Starts Monday – 16th June at 8:00 AM!
📲 Access via App (Android and IoS)
🎁 1-Year Full Access | Includes World History
Course + Full Essay Test Series Assessed by Jawwad Kazi sir
📞 For queries, WhatsApp: 9689867863

🔥 Recommended by Toppers:
✅ Ria Kaur Sethi (AIR 89) – Improved by 30 marks to score 132
✅ Vivek Shukla (AIR 355) – Gained 44 marks to notch 138 , one of the highest amongst selected candidates,
And many more toppers

Led by Jawwad Kazi Sir, this 6-day LIVE intensive is your chance to master Essay writing with proven methods and personal guidance.

🚀 What You’ll Gain:
✍️ 8-Step Method to writing a winning UPSC Essay
📚 Hands-on practice in class with live writing & review
🧠 Decode GS & Philosophical topics with clarity
📝 Full Essay Test Series – 8 Tests (4 Full-Length + 4 Half-Length)
🌍 BONUS: World History Crash Course
🎥 1-Year Access to all recordings
👨‍🏫 One-to-One Mentorship by Jawwad Kazi Sir

🎯Enroll now and start transforming your preparation!

👉 Visit: civilscatalyst.akamai.net.in
📲 WhatsApp: 9689867863

Mega Scholarship Test of UPSC Guide. Refer to the attached pdf for details.

UG_PAMPHLET_MEGA SCHOLARSHIP TEST 2025.pdf

A lot of students while writing essay write the well known phrase as - Vasudeva Kutumbakam. Kindly note that it is Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam.

Vasudha means Earth or World. So the phrase means the World is one family.

Vasudeva on the other hand is a revered mythological figure.

In essays, contrasts are powerful tools. They help to articulate ideas very clearly. Sharing a few here for your reference, you can build on these -
A.Q. Khan vs Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam ( scientific genius for destructive power (nuclear proliferation) or for national development and inspiration.)
Dr. Josef Mengele vs Dr. Viktor Frankl ( intellect used for cruelty (Nazi medical experiments) or compassion and hope (logotherapy, "Man's Search for Meaning").
South Africa vs Zimbabwe (leadership choices - South Africa's reconciliation post-apartheid, Zimbabwe's economic collapse and ethnic strife.)
Vasily Arkhipov vs Adolf Eichmann (Moral courage vs blind obedience — Arkhipov prevented nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis, Eichmann became the face of the "banality of evil" through bureaucratic genocide.)
Nogales (USA) vs Nogales (Mexico) (Geography and social composition is the same, but governance, institutions, and rule of law create vastly different social and economic realities)

Jawwad Kazi
https://t.me/CivilsCatalyst

And yes in contrast examples always give the negative one and then contrast it with the positive example.

Two contrasting stories about A.I.
Useful for topics on AI, Tech, Choices etc.

Student Speaks Out After AI Chatbot Allegedly Told Him to ‘Please Die’
https://people.com/college-student-speaks-out-ai-chatbot-allegedly-told-him-please-die-8750125


ChatGPT saved a pregnant woman's life
https://www.hindustantimes.com/trending/woman-credits-chatgpt-for-saving-her-life-after-asking-a-question-just-for-fun-101744873502504.html?utm_source=ht_site_copyURL&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=ht_site

Some great quotes by Nelson Mandela. Sharing here since I share many anecdotes from his life in the class and a lot of students use them in essay. You can end that story or anecdote with a relevant quote -

💢“You will achieve more in this world through acts of mercy than you will through acts of retribution.”
💢“It never hurts to think too highly of a person; often they become ennobled and act better because of it.”
💢“Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies.”
💢“Forgiveness liberates the soul, it removes fear. That’s why it’s such a powerful weapon.”
💢“Reconciliation does not mean forgetting or trying to bury the pain of conflict, but that reconciliation means working together to correct the legacy of past injustice.” – From a 1995 speech
💢“For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.” – Written during 27-year imprisonment
💢“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. They must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.” – Long Walk to Freedom (1995)

Movie: The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler
Irena Sendler, a Polish nurse and social worker, orchestrated a secret network of women who rescued over 2,500 Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto during the Holocaust. Despite the constant threat of Nazi surveillance, she smuggled children to safety and preserved meticulous records to reunite them with their families after the war. In 1943, the Gestapo captured and tortured her, demanding information on her operations. She refused to betray anyone, and though sentenced to death, was miraculously saved by a bribed German guard via the Polish Resistance. While the children survived, the new Communist regime in Poland silenced many stories of resistance, and Irena's heroism remained largely unsung for decades.

While Oscar Schindler is widely known due to Schindler’s List, his example has become cliched in essay writing and ethics case studies. So you could use Irena Sendler’s example as it has many advantages - a gendered lens on resistance and humanitarianism, richer ethical complexity - civil resistance, moral silence under torture, and post-war injustice and it is not used by aspirants as yet. It can be useful in essays related to courage, empathy, resilience, perseverance etc.

https://t.me/CivilsCatalyst