Q4 · UPSC Civil Services Mains 2019 · Essay · 125 marks · 1 min read

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Courage to accept and dedication to improve are two keys to success.

Topic: Philosophical and ethical quotes. Syllabus: Philosophical and ethical quotes Same official PYQ from year-wise 2019 and Philosophical and ethical quotes.

Essay map

Opening scene

Anecdote

A collector’s inquiry names a missing ration. The file can be buried. It can also be read aloud, and a new godown opened. Courage is the reading. Dedication is the godown. The topic is both keys on one ring.

Keep this in every paragraph

One stand

  • Accept: see the crack. Improve: mortar. Write against the TV apology and against the silent patch that pretends nothing happened.

Use once, in a scene — do not dump names

Quotes to earn

  • Gandhi

    Error admitted in public — courage as cleanliness of means.

  • Tagore

    Where the mind is without fear — including fear of a true file.

Turn each heading into a full paragraph in the hall

Heading map

What the line is asking

  • Courage to accept: failure, a caste slight you gave, a policy that did not work.
  • Dedication to improve: hours, a redesign, a second attempt.
  • Success as a repaired thing, not a first-time miracle.

Self

  • A failed attempt, a lie caught. Accept; then change the hours.

Institution

  • A hospital infection audit. A university that admits a paper mill.
  • ISRO’s early failures: accept telemetry; then fly again.

Republic

  • A truth commission tone without the name: riots, a leaked exam, a collapsed bridge.
  • CAG, a PAC hearing: courage in public; improvement in the next budget.

The counter

  • Endless confession without a brick is a career. And ‘improve’ can mean whitewash. Also: the powerless are often forced to ‘accept’ a wrong they did not make. Courage belongs first to the one who holds the file.

Drop one peg where it fits — not a data dump

Value addition

  • CAG / PAC Accept in audit; improve in the next grant.
  • ISRO Failure as data — dedication as the next window.
  • Art. 19 The room in which a republic can accept a fault.

Last 8–10 lines in the exam

Last paragraph

  • Close: name the crack, then lay one brick. Expand — this is only the map.

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