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What are the things that an IAS aspirant must have in his room?

I assume that you are asking about things that pertain to my study.

I have just 5 things on my table.

  1. Laptop
  2. Tab
  3. A bundle of Plain A4 sheets
  4. A Scanner
  5. Pen

I don’t use hard copy books anymore. During my first year of preparation I relied heavily on physical books. Now I don’t anymore. The reason is very simple. Books tie you down to a single place. I have migrated all my notes to the digital realm over the past one year. I buy kindle version of text books that are available. If they are not available, I buy the physical book, read them (while also underlining them) and then scan the whole thing and get done with the physical copy.

I also avidly read from the internet.

The above two reasons explain item 1 and item 2.

The A4 sheets are to note down anything I want to keep for reference. The scanner is to digitise what I have written down. If not writing, I type (Both of which I can do fairly fast)

Pen. I use it for two things. To write. And then this.