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Radhakrishnan Pillai, the bestselling author of Corporate Chanakya, is a renowned management speaker, trainer, author, and consultant. He has contributed extensively to various publications and has earned numerous awards, along with the admiration of many readers. I had the pleasure of engaging in a conversation with him about the impacts of the lockdown. When asked how he applies Chanakya's philosophies to his own life, he shared that everyone needs a leader to achieve success, and for him, Chanakya is the guide he follows.

We also discussed the current shift to online education and the stress students face due to exam delays. He reflected: "In our 20s, we often get caught up in the competitive race and forget to pursue the things we truly want to do. Use this lockdown as an opportunity to take a break and focus on what you've always wanted to accomplish. While online education has its benefits, it can never fully replace the unique learning experience of a classroom. In virtual classes, it's mostly a one-way interaction between teacher and student." His words remind us that life is not just a race—we all need to pause and reflect

During our conversation, he inspired me to focus on self-improvement during the lockdown. I inquired about the prevalence of feelings like depression and anxiety among young people today, exacerbated by the pressures of staying at home. Reflecting on the negative impact it has had on those around me, I asked for advice on how to cope. He explained that the current situation is a result of nature's course and suggested embracing new activities, discovering hobbies, and indulging in enriching reads to make the most of this unique time. Drawing from his own experiences studying Sanskrit and exploring Chanakya's philosophy, he shared insights on living passionately. When I raised the issue of Sanskrit being an optional subject and the predominance of foreign history in our curriculum, he emphasized the importance of group language studies and mutual learning among friends. He expressed the need for society to reclaim and preserve our ancient Indian heritage, urging a return to our cultural roots.

It was a rewarding experience to interview him, as I have read most of his books and found him to be a truly inspiring personality. It was a pleasure to connect with such a kind and influential author. He is undoubtedly inspiring many readers, including myself.

#stayhomestaysafe

How many of us struggle today to secure admission into top colleges? How often do we rush to keep pace in a world that constantly pushes us to measure our worth? At times, it feels overwhelming, even tempting to give up.

I had the privilege of interviewing Mr. Prafull Billore, a sincere and determined individual who put immense effort into preparing for the CAT entrance exam but fell short of the mark. After a long and grueling journey with this exam, he decided to move to Ahmedabad, a city that soon felt like home. Starting with a job at McDonald's, he dreamed of opening a café. However, considering the costs, he decided to start with a tea stall instead.

His journey was anything but easy. Coming from a business-oriented family, it took immense courage to step into uncharted territory. Yet, the man who once couldn’t crack the CAT is now invited to some of the world’s best institutions, including IIMs and Harvard Business School, as a guest speaker to inspire others.

When I asked about the obstacles he faced while establishing his business, Mr. Prafull humbly shared that it wasn’t easy. Facing failure and uncertainty, the decision to open a tea stall seemed almost accidental, but it led to an incredible journey. He emphasized that success comes when you embrace challenges, work tirelessly, and find purpose even in simple ideas.

For him, selling tea was never just about tea—it was about creating an emotion, a feeling. Today, his café offers over 100 varieties of tea and sets itself apart with strict hygiene standards, making it a hub for professionals to connect and enjoy. When I asked how one could start a business from scratch, he spoke about the importance of dreaming big but starting small.

Interviewing such a visionary was truly inspiring. Mr. Prafull Billore’s journey is a testament to the fact that success isn’t dictated by degrees but by the paths we choose and the effort we put in. He rose above societal judgments, silenced doubts, and pursued his passion relentlessly. Today, he is celebrated as the Million Dollar Chai Wala, a title earned through sheer hard work and perseverance.

His story reminds us that it takes courage to follow your dreams, but when you do, everything eventually falls into place. Success is built brick by brick through unwavering determination, and Mr. Billore’s journey exemplifies just that.

Also listen my spotify interview with MBA CHAI WALA:
https://open.spotify.com/show/5MO5FNCpsPzKCUBMsrd9AW?si=duw0NlVRT-GFtEpogPsqdQ 

Social worker Sindhutai Sapkal, aka Mai, is well-known. She spent her entire life advocating for children and adopted more than a thousand of them. She presently has the Padma Shri Award after winning 750 accolades. Despite the various detours in her life tale, she never gave up. Her husband left her when she was 20 years old and pregnant. She continued to beg on various streets in search of a cowshed.She didn't even have food to eat, and if her body had allowed her, she would have eaten rocks off the side of the road, but today, after years of begging and daily hunger struggles, she was a mother to hundreds of children. Her art continues to inspire us all now. She demonstrates that everyone has the capacity to change and that it is everyone's duty to look out for society. She has raised her own orphanage's 207 sons-in-law, 36 daughters-in-law, and 1000 grandkids into a family. A large number of them are now trained doctors and lawyers. A woman is so unselfish that she never even considered living offered her life to numerous children in order to fulfil their goals.

Sindhutai was born into a poverty-stricken family. She got married at a very early age when she was just 12 years old. She even had to quit education after she passed fourth grade. She loved learning a lot but her husband restricted it. She gave birth to a baby girl cutting her umbical cord with a stone by hitting it 16 times. After she went back to her maternal village, her own mother closed the doors for her. She really didn't knew what to live for. She wanted to die, waiting for all nights to get over. She made many unsuccessful attempts to die before she knew what she had to live for. Her husband, at the age of 70, came back to her for an apology but she accepted him as child.

Her message to every Gen-Z today is to not give up, everyone might have bad times in life but its just a day to pass on. Have patience, don't destroy your life for just one day. Don't fear the problems, face them confidently. Be selfless and help everyone in this world. Reach the top highest level in this world, but also look back on what you have become, be very ground to the earth.

Watch my full interview with Sindhutai Sapkal on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-7yFDdeu2Q

Mr. Parikipandla Narahari has inspired many to be one like him. His journey to prepare Civil Service exam started when in his life he saw District Magistrate who took a very great initiative starting campaign called Akshara Ujwala – Adult literacy programme where each school have to adapt nearby village and teach elderly people to read and write. Mr. P Narahari being class leader used to take all his classmates to let adults gather and to teach and learn together, and this is one such first experience when he planned to step into civil service examination.

And today he proved to be one of very inspiring IAS officer who’s doing great work for our society. He is one such officer to be a to believe that the social media has true power to communicate and solve problems of many people. He is one among of those rare professional officers to be credited as Publicity Advisor to three successive governments of different parties. Apart from his service sector work, he is also very known lyricist and author of five book and one such book “The Making of Ladli Laxmi Yojna” was taken in action by Government of Madhya Pradesh Planned by Mr. P Narahari which later inspired many different schemes like Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Yojana. And the scheme Ladli Laxmi Yojna happened to be one of the most successful schemes of the government of Madhya Pradesh, this scheme in last 13 years have been able to ensure the birth of 37 lakh girl child in Madhya Pradesh itself. This scheme inspired 15 other states to copy the design and name differently such as Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Yojana. This Scheme has enabled the birth of girl child throughout the country. He also Received National Award for "Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities" by President Pranab Mukherjee for creation of barrier-free environment for the persons with disabilities in Gwalior district. Also Making Gwalior Disable Friendly by Mr. P Narahari was mentioned in the show Satyamev Jayate of Aamir Khan. With the experience of 20 years in his civil services life he also had opportunity to be Municipal Commissioner of Indore and later the Collector of Singrauli, Seoni, Gwalior & Indore. One of the advices he wants to give to every aspirant today is first look at what is inspiring you to join the service today. Civil service is all about consistent hardwork, being motivated for the citizen who look up to us. Today Mr. P Narahari has inspired many aspirants to do such great work in society and he continues to be very influential and inspiring IAS officer.

Listen to our whole conversation on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSLatUSIwmQ&t=2s

All you need is dedication and time  management, as Mr. Abhishek Jain have proved it twice achieving good rank in UPSC CSE. He secured AIR 111 in his first attempt and AIR 24 in his second attempt. While going through IRS training he also prepared for his second 


attempt and with all hard work and constancy he achieved AIR 24 and he is going to serve our nation as IAS Officer. With the help of online medium, he watched lot many topper videos for his guidance to get an insight of what to do and what not to do and same based on that he even prepared booklist and he also went through past year question paper. He started with NCERT to build up his foundation and then core book. According to Mr. Abhishek, he said that we need to learn in integrated manner in prelims and mains because the content and the syllabus in both are same and even sources are same, its just about application of knowledge, in prelims we need to focus on factual side of the things and in mains we need to focus on opinion side of the things.
Mr. Abhishek first while preparation went with Subject wise mock test, i.e.; if he have finished Ancient History part then he will attempt Ancient history mock papers. He made sure to solve one mock test every week. Before three months of examination, he made sure to do at least one mock text in two days with whole syllabus. With the constancy, he also tried to speed up by doing more writing practice. For newspaper, he read THE HINDU and also monthly magazine of Vision IAS. Mr. Abhishek's go to message for all other aspirant is, "Limit your booklist, do not run after many books for one subject and second revise as much as you can and practice mock test and fourthly, do not overstrain yourself, UPSC is very long journey you have to study sustainably, so take out sometime for yourself and focus on your extracurricular activities, this will keep you motivated"

Check our whole conversation live on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwJ0d67zMik 

Also Listen to our conversation anywhere, anytime on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/2dRHYqZ3P42UrU9AcShDQl?si=XYLjVT9US3-ZmH4jNKeaFw

Miss. Chandrajyoti Singh has secured All India Rank 28 in UPSC CSE 2019, at the age of 22. She's really inspiring person who is very creative and dedicated. She started preparing for IAS after her graduation, and she took history as optional. She started her preparation in June 2018, she started preparing by herself. Her first target was to finish the syllabus in first 6 months. She divided her day into two parts where in day she used to go through general studies subject and in evening she used to do optional subject, i.e., history. Once the 
syllabus was over, she focused more on revising. Miss. Chandrajyoti highlighted , "Revision is the key to clear this exam, you can read many books you want but if you don't revise what you read then you will forget it and you won't be able to recall it during the examination". She even joined mock test series in the beginning of October. According to Chandrajyoti Ma'am, her focus was first on Mains and prelims both, but before two-three months of prelims she focused only on prelims. Mostly, she used to take mock tests on Saturday and Sundays, in weekends she used to analyze her performance in mock test and see for further improvement. 
When I asked her about why she did choose history optional, she replied, "People fail at realizing that history is more than just a date, its actually about understanding about how polity,society,economy,and the institution have changed through out the course of human past, this is what I was interested more in history to take my graduation and optional as well". She also highlighted about the importance of maps, which constitute 50 marks in first paper. For maps, she used to take out 30 mins each day and she used to mark about 5-6 places on maps each and everyday. After done with syllabus, she began revising maps again, according to her its easy to do it by oneself than relying on any other book maps. Miss. Chandrajyoti is ready to take all challenges after she cleared this exam and is very excited to step ahead. She said that she would firstly focus on women empowerment and beside that she would focus on preserving historical sites. It was really learning knowing her. And all the focus and strategies she applied in an year helped her to come in the top list.
Listen to our whole conversation on Spotify, where we discussed all about strategies, planning, books and much more:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/5KtVFlAtZfTxuTihlaLwWD?si=FL3s9zRpTZeQMqeCulFYTA

Check our video interview now on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/KvNkiD7H4wU

Miss. Ira Singhal is very inspiring personality who have made everything possible. Her journey has inspired everyone and she is really doing great things for people today. Ira Singhal is an Indian Administrative Service officer. She was the highest scoring individual in the UPSC's Civil Services Examination for the year 2014. She is first differently abled woman to top civil service exam in general category. She is the Brand Ambassador for Department of Disability, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India. She is also 
one of the brand ambassadors for Ministry of Women and Child Development & NITI Aayog and is on the National Panel for Accessible Elections, Election Commission of India . She has also been a part of the Designing of Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) Examination Policy with regard to children with disabilities .Her innumerable awards include India Today’s Woman of the Year 2015, President's Gold Medal for Topping the IAS Training, First Ladies of India Award by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India. She is also recorded in the Limca Book of Records.
She has been a speaker on wide-ranging issues like education, disability, gender issues, skill development, career counseling, etc. at more than 500 international and national conferences, industry forums, universities, colleges and other top institutions of the country including IIMs and IITs. She has been working towards various social causes including empowerment of persons with disabilities, empowerment and promotion of Transgender community, women empowerment, prevention of child labor and child marriages, prevention of illegal conversion of green lands, promoting green energy, skill development, promotion of mental health and promotion of khadi and indigenous fabrics. She rescued around 340 child and bonded laborers and restored them to their families, within 1 year in her first posting as SDM (Sub-Divisional Magistrate), Alipur in North Delhi district. She is also the first person to give a job to a transgender person full-time employment in a government office in Delhi. She is really changing lives of many people today.
Miss. Ira is one of the field officer, so when I asked her about how she's helping people in this situation, she said " Covid-19 was much lot more work, we were working 14 hours a day. In Delhi the situation is lot better now, for us Covid-19 started in mid march but till August situation was in control. But I was in Municipal Corporation so for me our biggest task was sanitizing the city. Basically all my staff and us were working 14 hours a day and had no holidays in this whole period. We were picking up garbage, sanitizing everyone, ensuring lockdown, social distancing. When unlock was happening we had to make sure again it was happening in stages as well. I was the first person in country to do sanitization through drones, I even did it in slum areas through drones where vehicles couldn't go. All of us are working in innovative ways to protect people plus I was also Director of Education so primary thing was ensuring our children do not miss out on education during this time so we had to ensure that there are daily assignments given to children and we were also involved in distribution of food so that was massive exercise done in Delhi. No other state did as on larger scale as Delhi did in its initial stage itself. For us there was no break, for al the testing also staff was involved in that and there was rain so for that municipal cooperation do a lot off planning we have to distill lot of areas and remove lot of waste otherwise it clots the drains, so with routine work, Covid was extra work. Delhi also had elections before Covid-19 so no one had holidays and its almost going to be year now" Miss. Ira is successfully promoting Indian Startups #Vocalforlocal and is continuously working throughout day ensuring everyone is safe and no one is going hungry to bed. Miss. Ira shared her experience being an IAS Officer, she said that IAS offers you an opportunity to really make a difference on ground, there are lot of things which are not in your job but it directly comes to you but then still you can make a lot of difference in many areas you never thought you would. Just by going office everyday you make 300 to 400 lives better everyday. This job offers you immense opportunity to make difference.
Miss. Ira had multiple roles almost as IAS officer. She cleared UPSC four times and in previous three attempts she got in IRS. Despite having All India Rank 1 in fourth attempt , Miss. Ira didn't got posting due to disability and was rejected even after clearing it. So she had to go to court and had fight for three years. She is making change in society today and have been making name of our nation. 
Hope we see more leaders like her in our country to make a change.
Listen to our whole conversation now on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/1pd6CmryGTUIV2ghPaEiJV?si=uEZI9IwMRuOaFLNPiWm7zg 
 Watch Our Video Interview now on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/TWdqFTGELI0

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