UPSC: How Indians crack one of the world’s toughest exams

She stopped binging on takeaways, going to the cinema and stepped away from social media. Instead, at her family home in the northern Indian city of Chandigarh, she woke up at the crack of dawn, pored over text books and studied for up to 10 hours a day. She crammed, did mock tests, watched YouTube videos of achievers and read newspapers and self-help books. Her parents and brother became her only companions. “Loneliness will be your companion. This loneliness allows you to grow,” Ms Singla says.