Can you imagine this?

This is a story of the Queen Mother of Bijapur in the mid-17th century. She was called Badi Begum and her son was a powerful sultan of Deccan... and when she went to Macca for hajj, she had to undergo this...!!!

When I read this, I couldn't stop laughing....

(Source: a contemporary book named Storia do Mogor by Manucci, Volume 2, page 300-301)

Stray dogs don't discriminate on the basis of nationality or ethnicity. Constitution of stray dogs demands equality of treatment. Bhale hi wo stadium ke baahar ho ya andar.

What an interesting story...

Gandhiji and Savarkar direct debate took place in London and it was on the day of Dasara in 1909...!

Sharing that story as we recently celebrated Gandhi Jayanti and Dasara on the same day in 2025...!

https://youtu.be/H8ZXsN4LVd4

Today, LevelUp IAS completes 5 years of existence. It has been a very intense and rewarding journey.

In these 5 years, we may have grown older, but we’ve also grown stronger. Our student community has expanded, and we’ve had the privilege of being part of the journey of nearly 400 rankers and the lives of over 20,000 students. We’ve assembled an excellent team of teachers and made it a point to deliver our courses timely and professionally.

But numbers and milestones are only part of the story. What matters most is that we’ve remained true to our values — ethical, student-centric, and teacher-centric. This, I believe, is rare today. In many institutes, teachers are only the face while management and marketing drive everything. At LevelUp, we consciously chose a different path. We promise to keep teachers and students at the core of what we do.

🙏 Thank you for being part of this journey. Here’s to the next chapter together.

Nikhil

This trend is going to stay. AI actors, AI historical personalities, may be AI teachers...

Very soon you and I will have our own AI avatars. With our life, thoughts and emotions all captured online now, these avatars will know exactly what our memories are and how we think...

Our AI avatars don't age. They don't die. They will live long after we will be dead.

Through these avatars, our great great grand children will get to see us, talk to us, and may be with tactile features, feel us as well. For them, we will never depart, even when our physical bodies have long departed forever.

Is this synthetic immortality?

- Nikhil

Ek zamana tha when most of the leaders of our freedom struggle were NRIs. And the diaspora used to initiate a Ghadr movement.

And today, we are debating this.

Whatever we may study in our GS syllabus about New vs Old diaspora (Indian Diaspora, GS2), no one can deny that ab na wo prakhar deshbhakt rahe, na wo Angrez jaise zalim rulers rahe. Dono taraf weakness hai...:p

https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/not-proxies-of-govt-of-india-indian-american-leader-rebuttal-shashi-tharoor-claim-of-diaspora-apathy-101759779096695-amp.html

Yesterday, I talked about how AI Avatars can make us immortal.

Today, there is another thing. AI has become God. AI is answering questions on spirituality now.

https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/technology/digital-jesus-people-of-faith-divided-as-ai-enters-religion/article70137910.ece/amp/

I am sure this will be an excellent book.

The author has earlier written a book on India's first election. And it was a marvelous book.

This book also offers an interesting perspective. It shows that the Indian Constitution was not solely an elite exercise. We discovered that Indians from across the subcontinent were deeply engaged with Constitution-making and debated it.

Read a review here:
https://www.hindustantimes.com/opinion/imprint-of-the-people-in-shaping-the-constitution-101759595150953.html

FM Nirmala Sitharaman and UP CM Yogi Adityanath unveiled statues of 3 great music composers from South India - Purandara Dasa, Thyagaraja Swamigal and Arunachala Kavi - at Ayodhya. They played a key role in the founding/evolution of Carnatic music in 15th-18th c.

1. Tyagaraja Swamigal was a great composer, saint, and devotional poet of Carnatic music. Born in 1767, he composed hundreds of devotional songs in praise of Ram, including ‘Pancharatna Kritis'.

2. Purandara Dasa was a wealthy merchant from Karnataka but renounced all material possessions to become a Haridasa. He created the foundational texts for teaching Carnatic music by creating swaravali and alankara exercises. His compositions are mostly in Kannada, amd some are in Sanskrit.

3. Arunachala Kavi (1711-79) was a renowned Tamil poet and Carnatic musician who composed the famous Rama Natakam.

It is also announced that the four entry gates to Ayodhya are to be named after saints Shankracharya, Ramanujacharya, Madhvacharya and Ramanandacharya.

We are 5 years old now.

We don't say that time is an illusion or age is just a number. These are real things, not ephemeral.

The efforts are real. The satisfaction is real. And so is the dissatisfaction. You have live it to believe it.

Here is to the journey, past and future! Here is to brilliant success and equally brilliant efforts!

Here is to life. A toast of life.

https://youtu.be/cUZi9veZOBk

Funny story from the Constituent Assembly Debates:

Shibban Lal Saxena, during the debate on the wording of the Preamble, proposed the following amendment: “In the name of god the Almighty, under whose inspiration and guidance…”

Interestingly, adding “god” to the Preamble was opposed in the Assembly.

Thanu Pillai argued against the compulsion implicit in the amendment by saying that “a man has a right to believe in god or not”. He seemed to be equating the rights of atheists with those of believers.

Purnima Banerji said: “I appeal to Mr Kamath [who had originally proposed adding god] not to put us to the embarrassment of having to vote upon god.” In other words, do not bring god into this.

Rohini Kumar Chaudhuri wanted “In the name of god” to be changed to “In the name of goddess” because, as he said, he “belongs to Kamrup where Goddess Kamakhya is worshipped”.

All these proposals were rejected, and nobody got offended.

UPSC launches ‘My UPSC Interview’ portal to mark its centenary year.

The portal has been created to document and preserve the personal experiences of officers who appeared for the UPSC Personality Test.

Through this initiative, UPSC seeks to celebrate a century of nation-building by chronicling personal journeys that reflect perseverance, integrity, and dedication, qualities central to the ethos of India’s civil services.

https://share.google/nHztHfE26h6Cy7W0n

Its been 1 year since the passing away of Ratan Tata (1937-2024).
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All the major Indian leaders from 1850s to 1920 wanted Indian freedom along with rapid and massive industrialisation. Both moderate and extremists had similar economic vision India.

In the 1930s emerged a new leftist generation of Nehru and Bose which also wanted India's rapid industrialisation.

Beech me 20-25 saal Gandhian phase aayi thi. Which took us in a different direction of village cottage crafts.

But that phase was merely a brief interruption. It was never given policy-level importance. Nehru, Bose, Vishweswariya, Saha, Mahalnobis, Bhatnagar, Mathai etc brought us back to the original dream of industrialisation set by pre-Gandhian leaders.

Tatas have subserved that dream for over 6 generations now. Tatas have helped build the India that was dreamt originally by Dadabhai Naoroji.

Desh ka Namak
Desh ka Tata

- Nikhil

There is this term called as sinicization of religions in China.

Western media, out of its own politics, keeps harping the issue of Sinkiang Muslims in China. But its a much larger topic than that. See this short video.

https://youtu.be/u5bYVoYlRYE

In case of India, our idea is unity is diversity. We have not focussed on promoting Indian elements within Islam and Christianity more and deligitimizing/discouraging external connections.

I think more than preferences, such policies are shaped by the force of historical weight. The choice is not ours.

So far, our policy has worked with some strengths and some weaknesses. So far, the Chinese policy also has worked with some strengths and some weaknesses.

I don't see a clear winner here.

- Nikhil

Today we celebrated Mental Health Day.

Central government's model guidelines for coaching institutes make it mandatory for us to provide professional mental health services to the aspirants. These are totally ignored by most institutes.

LevelUp IAS is the first one who took it seriously. Back in early 2024, we started offering professional mental health services to all aspirants.

It has been more than 1.5 years of our journey now. And its extremely rewarding.

It is done through various topical workshops (sleep cycle, memory enhancement, concentration, screen time, anxiety etc.), one-to-one counselling sessions with mental health professionals, movie screening and mental health campaigns.

It is free, it is for all aspirants.

Here is the video summary. Do watch it...
https://youtu.be/XGPKKrEyA-A

Follow us here for regular updates. Do join us:
https://www.tg-me.com/rebtwithsonali

Nikhil

Important article written by UPSC chairperson Dr. Ajay Kumar.

This article is about governance and policies. He also discusses the role of private sector in various critical sectors.

Important for Essay, GS 2 governance, and Ethics.

Hahaha. This is so funny.

Pollution is not only air pollution but also sound pollution.

Real green firecracker should mean not only without hazardous pollution but also totally silent at the same time. Just colourful light in sky, without any noise whatsoever. Like what we see in many western countries. A beautiful colourful sky with various patterns...

But I don't think that is what is under consideration here. The focus of media, court and govt is only on air pollution. People still want to make loud noise. It will end up disturbing elderly people, infants, ill people, hospitals, students... as well as animals and birds.

Such an unempatheric and anti social discourse. That too in the name of religion and celebration. When will we be civilized?

- Nikhil

When Lord Ram returned to Ayodhya after twelve years of exile, having vanquished Ravana and rescued Sita, the entire city erupted in joy. It was a moment of boundless celebration — the first Diwali.

However, there were no firecrackers in ancient India, for gunpowder had not yet been invented. The people of Ayodhya celebrated by lighting diyas and sharing sweets, filling the city with warmth and light.

Firecrackers came much later, after the invention of gunpowder. It reached India only in the medieval period — not in the age of the Ramayana.

Had such noisy and polluting fireworks existed then, perhaps even the monkeys, eagles, bears, and squirrels who helped Lord Ram would have been terrified. Surely, Lord Ram himself would never have permitted anything that disturbed the peace of nature.

Wouldn't you agree?

- Nikhil

This is how they informed her about the Nobel Peace Prize 2025. What an incredible moment to witness.