Dear Aspirant,

In 2014, fresh out of Ramjas College, I entered the world of civil services preparation with a very personal dream: to wear the uniform and serve.

My fascination with the uniform was strong enough that I explored multiple paths: the National Defence Academy, Combined Defence Services, Central Armed Police Forces, and eventually the Civil Services Examination conducted by the Union Public Service Commission. At one point, I would have chosen the Police Service over the Administrative Service without a second thought.

What followed was a long journey.

Six attempts. Multiple Main Examinations. Two Personality Tests. Years of preparation, uncertainty, hope, disappointment, and starting again.

When that chapter finally ended, I had made peace with one decision: I would never return to the civil services preparation industry.

But life had other plans.

I was fortunate to be selected for a government fellowship that gave me the opportunity to study Public Policy and Management at the Indian Institute of Management Lucknow and work closely with the district administration in Muzaffarnagar. Over time, my work exposed me to governance at the district, state, and central levels. I also moved into public policy consulting, which allowed me to understand government not merely through books, but through its functioning on the ground.

And somewhere during that journey, civil services preparation quietly found its way back into my life.

I had some spare time during my fellowship, so I started guiding a few aspirants through Telegram. There was no business plan. There was no institution to build. There was just one former aspirant sharing what years of success, failure, interviews, and government exposure had taught him.

Then students from that very first group started getting selected.

That changed something within me.

Over the years, I worked with organisations such as Sarrthi IAS, where I contributed to structuring mentorship initiatives, and SRIRAM’s IAS, where I taught Current Affairs and Ethics. At the same time, I continued mentoring aspirants personally.

Selections kept coming.

Eventually, more than 370 aspirants succeeded under my mentorship and guidance.

But those years also helped me identify something that I believed was fundamentally missing in civil services preparation: truly independent mentorship.

A mentor attached to an institution may find it difficult to tell a student that a particular course, resource, teacher, or approach from that very institution is not working for them. But a student’s preparation should never be limited by institutional boundaries.

Sometimes the best resource is somewhere else. Sometimes a celebrated teacher simply does not work for a particular student. Sometimes an aspirant does not need another course at all.

A mentor should be able to say that honestly.

That belief became MentorAID.

The idea was simple: mentorship should work for the aspirant, not for the institution.

The trust we received was overwhelming. In MentorAID’s very first year itself, more than 60 of our mentees made it to the final list.

For me, those selections meant much more than numbers. They reinforced a belief that had been developing since that first Telegram group: when mentorship is personal, honest, and independent, it can genuinely change an aspirant’s journey.

And then another question started bothering me.

What about the aspirant who does not need a year-long programme?

What about someone who is doing reasonably well but is confused about one decision? Someone who needs an experienced person to look at their preparation and tell them where they are going wrong? Someone who needs perspective before making the next move?

Why should that aspirant have to purchase another course simply to access the right mentor?

Because sometimes, you do not need one hundred classes. You need one honest conversation.

That question became MentorAID Connect.

MentorAID Connect is our attempt to create a mentor marketplace where aspirants can discover and connect with experienced mentors on a per-session basis. Come for one conversation if that is all you need. Return when you need another. The objective is not to make an aspirant dependent on mentorship, but to make the right guidance accessible at the moment it matters.

For me, this is also deeply personal.

I may be an education entrepreneur today, but somewhere within me remains the aspirant who spent years navigating this examination and knows what it feels like to wonder:

“Am I doing the right thing?”

I see building MentorAID Connect as part of my responsibility towards the aspirant community that gave me a second professional identity when I thought my own civil services journey had ended.

From a small Telegram group to hundreds of selections, from MentorAID to now MentorAID Connect, your trust has built this journey far more than any business plan ever could.

As we begin this new chapter, I only hope that MentorAID Connect earns the same love and trust that you have given us so far.

Because after all these years, my belief remains simple:

Sometimes, the right mentor at the right moment can change the direction of an entire journey.

It started with something I heard in eighth class.

I still remember hearing my father say that he wanted someone in the family to join the civil services.

At that age, I didn’t even know that an examination called the UPSC CSE existed. I didn’t know what the preparation looked like or what the journey would demand.

But that one sentence stayed with me.

Slowly, I began shaping my choices around that aspiration. When the time came to choose my graduation, I chose Economics Honours instead of pursuing engineering, believing that a humanities-oriented education would help me eventually prepare for the civil services.

After college, I gave myself some time to explore different examinations and understand what I really wanted.

And from 2019 onwards, I began preparing seriously for the UPSC Civil Services Examination.

What followed was a journey of six attempts, three Mains examinations and two Personality Tests.

Years of preparation taught me much more than what books and classrooms could.

They taught me what it feels like to be uncertain about your preparation. To question your strategy. To start again after a setback. To wonder whether you are moving in the right direction, or simply spending another year preparing.

And perhaps the most important thing I learnt was the value of having someone to talk to.

I never wanted to keep my learning to myself.

Even while preparing, I found myself helping people around me.

I shared my notes, strategies and resources freely. I helped friends with Sociology, Prelims, CSAT, Ethics, GS Paper II, Society, Social Justice and several other aspects of preparation.

Over time, I also had the opportunity to work with organisations in the civil services education space, which gave me a broader understanding of how aspirants prepare and, more importantly, where they often struggle.

I realised that sometimes a student doesn’t need another lecture.

They need someone to look at their preparation and say:

“This is working.” “This isn’t working.” “You don’t need to do this.” “This is what you should focus on now.”

That kind of guidance can be incredibly valuable.

Then came my last attempt.

In 2026, I appeared for my sixth and final attempt at UPSC.

With that, my own journey as an aspirant came to an end.

But I did not want the experience of those years to end with me.

When Utkarsh, the founder of MentorAID, opened the doors for me to join as a Co-Founder, I saw it as much more than a designation.

I saw it as an opportunity to put everything I had learnt through successes, failures, Mains examinations, interviews, mistakes and years of preparation to work for the aspirant community.

Because I have seen first-hand how much FOMO, unnecessary comparison and glorification can surround this examination.

And I believe aspirants deserve something different:

clarity over noise, perspective over comparison, and guidance over guesswork.

That belief is also why MentorAID Connect matters to me.

There are students who don’t need a year-long programme.

Some need just one conversation.

Someone who has reached the interview stage and can help them understand whether they are moving in the right direction.

Someone who can look at their preparation and provide an outside perspective.

Someone they can speak to when they are confused, overwhelmed, or simply having a difficult day.

Because UPSC preparation is long, uncertain and exhausting.

And it should not have to be lived alone.

In my early attempts, I often felt the absence of someone I could turn to for genuine guidance.

I don’t want another aspirant to feel that way.

MentorAID Connect is our attempt to make the right mentor accessible at the moment an aspirant needs one, not because they need another course, but because sometimes they simply need the right conversation.

I may have exited the UPSC journey as an aspirant.

But I don’t see it as leaving the journey behind.

I see it as carrying everything that journey taught me forward.