There are many success stories of persons excelling in what they do best after overcoming hardships. But it is tough to find success stories of people who have led a life full of excellence and success going beyond their field of work. A full full of not only success but of motivation, leadership, love and humility is rare to find. One of story is of the Missile Man of India who went on to be also known as the People's President...

Early Life:

Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam better known as A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Listen was born on 15 October 1931 to a poor Tamil Muslim family in the pilgrimage centre of Rameswaram on Pamban island. His father Jainulabudeen was a boat owner and imam of a local mosque while his mother Ashiamma was a housewife. His father used to ferry Hindu pilgrims back and forth between Rameswaram and the island. Kalam was the youngest of four brothers and one sister in his family.

At an early age, Kalam had to sell newspapers in his childhood to support his family's income. At school, Kalam had average grades but was considered very hard working with a strong desire to learn. Mathematics was something he loved a lot. Kalam's good heart and curiosity was nurtured with care, love and support of his parents. Kalam graduated in physics in year 1954 from the Saint Joseph's College, Tiruchirappalli. He then moved to Madras in 1955 to study aerospace engineering in Madras Institute of Technology. His ever growing thirst to gain knowledge finally led him to get a degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Madras Institute of Technology in 1960. His dream was to become a fighter pilot in life but he missed this dream by a whisker when he was placed ninth in qualifiers where only eight positions were available in the IAF.

His Career:

After completing his studies but failing to join the IAF, Kalam joined the the Aeronautical Development Establishment of the DRDO as a scientist. He started his career by designing a small hovercraft, but remained unconvinced by his choice of a job at DRDO. In 1965 Kalam had first started work on an expandable rocket project independently at DRDO. In 1969, Kalam got his first major break when he was transferred to ISRO as the project director of India's first Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV-III).

In ISRO, Kalam got down to hard work on a mission mode. Between the 1970s and 1990s, Kalam made an effort to develop the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and SLV-III projects, both of which proved to be successful. Kalam tasted his first big success with the successfull deployement of the Rohini satellite in near-earth orbit in July 1980. He was also instrumental in developing projects seeking to develop ballistic missiles using the technology from the SLV programme. At a time when political atmosphere was not conducive for India to run missile programmes, Kalam convinced the PM Indira Gandhi to conceal the true nature of these classified aerospace projects and fund it secretly.

ISRO gained lot of laurels and prestige in the 1980s due to his research and educational leadership. This encouraged the government further to initiate an advanced missile programme under his directorship. Kalam played a major part in developing many missiles, including the famous Agni and Prithvi. Kalam served as the Chief Scientific Adviser to the PM and Secretary of the DRDO from 1992 to 1999. The Pokhran-II nuclear tests were conducted during this period in which he played an intensive political and technological role. Media coverage of Kalam during this period made him the country's best known nuclear scientist – the Missile Man of India.

In 2002, owing to his contribution to nation building and a popular image, Kalam was nomiated by the NDA goverment for presidency. Kalam become the 11th President of India and served as President from year 2002 to 2007. Kalam was the first scientist and the first bachelor to occupy Rashtrapati Bhawan. As the President, Kalam did not shy away from taking tough decisions. He brought a sense of purpose, direction and involvement and a clear and intelligent vision for the future of the country, rarely seen in any previous President. As President, perhaps his biggest achievement was his accessibility and openness. He transformed Rashtrapati Bhavan, throwing it open for the common man, especially children. His popularity and work ethics endeared to the people and soon he earned the sobriquet – the People’s president.

Personal Life:

Kalam's entire life revolved around his work and chose to remain a bachelor. He was very close to his elder siblings and their extended families throughout his life. Kalam loved teaching a lot and interacting with children. After his tenure as president, Kalam become a visiting professor to IIMs, an honorary fellow of IISc, Bangalore, chancellor of the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram and an adjunct at many other academic and research institutions across India. He also taught information technology and aurospace engineering at many prestigious institutions in India. In May 2012, Kalam launched a programme for the youth of India called the What Can I Give Movement, with a central theme of defeating corruption.

On July 27^th, 2015, Kalam travelled to Shillong to deliver a lecture on "Creating a Livable Planet Earth" at the IIM Shillong. Just 5 minutes into his lecture, he collapsed on stage. He was later confirmed dead of sudden cardiac arrest. On 30 July 2015, the former President was laid to rest in his hometown Rameswaram with full state honours where over 350,000 people attended the last rites. Tributes and reactions poured in from across the globe and from all world leaders and governments. In the words of Baan Ki-moon, UN Secretary General, “The outpouring of grief around the world is a testament of the respect and inspiration he has garnered during and after his presidency.”

Thoughts & Beliefs:

Kalam was noted for his integrity and his very simple lifestyle – an epitome of simplicity and humility. A proud and practising Muslim, daily namāz and fasting during Ramadan were integral to his life. His father had close friendship with the head priest of Ramanathaswamy Hindu temple and also with a Church priest and his impressed upon the young Kalam the value of interfaith respect and dialogue. In addition to his faith in Islam, Kalam was well-versed in Hindu traditions, he even learnt Sanskrit, the Bhagavad Gita and he was a strict vegetarian. Kalam was seen as a unifier of diverse traditions, a true and complete Indian, and as an embodiment of the idea of a diverse India of cultural and spiritual traditions. This was most strikingly evident in the fact that he considered Pramukh Swami, the Hindu guru of the BAPS Swaminarayan Sampradaya, as his ultimate spiritual teacher and guru.

After resigning from the post of scientic adviser in 1999, Kalam set a target of interacting with 100,000 students in two years. He felt comfortable in the company of young people, particularly high school students and always looked forward to share with them his experiences and helping them to ignite their imagination and preparing them to work for a developed India. Kalam also took an active interest in other developments in the field of science and technology, including a research programme for developing biomedical implants. He also supported open source technology over proprietary software, predicting that the use of free software on a large scale would bring the benefits of information technology to more people. In his best-selling book 'India 2020', Kalam strongly advocated an action plan to develop India into a "knowledge superpower" and a developed nation by the year 2020. He regarded his work on India's nuclear weapons programme as a way to assert India's place as a future superpower. He authored many research papers, articles and books including the popular ones of Ignited Minds and Wings of Fire. Many other books have been published on his life.

Kalam never accumulated any wealth, always choosing to help his older relatives and the different causes he supported. Not surprisingly, he never owned a television in his life and his wordly possessions hardly included anything other than his books, laptop, a veena, a CD player and few clothes. But the list of awards and recognitions he received is staggering. Kalam received 7 honorary doctorates from 40 universities. The Government of India honoured him with the Padma Bhushan in 1981, Padma Vibhushan in 1990 and the Bhrat Ratna in 1997 apart from numerous other awards & recognitions. Following his death, several educational and scientific institutions and other locations were renamed or named in his honour, including an island on which missile tests were done.

There are many small things which made Kalam stand out and fondly remembered. At one event, he refused to sit on a bigger chair on stage and asked for a similar chair like the rest. He used to share his email account details openly after his speeches and used to often say “you will get an reply within 24 hours of emailing me”. When possible, he always carried his laptop and gave powerpoint presentations where he went. On a visit to Zurich in 2005, 12 Nobel laureates came to hear him and the Swiss Government was so impressed by his credentials that it declared the day of his visit as the national science day. During his tenure as President, he personally paid for any relative who stayed with him. In many ways, he set the moral agenda for others to follow, while instilling dignity, grace and inspiration to leadership. Kalam's greatest legacy remains, however, the manner in which he inspired the young and became their ultimate role model. He lived his life with full energy and ideas till the age of 83, when he died on stage doing something he loved. Today Kalam continues to be an inspiration much beyond the highest positions or achievements he realised. He inspires us all to be a better human being, a spark to light lives of others....

Sources: Based on contents colleced from indiatoday.in, successstory.com, wikipedia.org and others.

The inspiring story of Srikanth Bolla

If the "world looks at me and says, 'You can do nothing,' I look back at the world and say I can do anything."

The luckiest person alive:
Srikanth Bolla is the CEO of Hyderabad-based Bollant Industries, a company that manufactures eco-friendly, disposable consumer packaging solutions. But he is not your usual entrepreneur or CEO. Srikanth was born in a village near Machilipatnam, a small city in Andhra Pradesh in a farming family. When he was born villagers suggested his parents to smother him. To smother means to kill someone by suffocating by covering nose & mouth. Reason being, Srikanth was born without eyes.

Srikanth's parents had a big dilemma in their hands. Would they let their child suffer all his life without eyes, as prophesied by many, or let him live his life? Everyone else called the little boy names like burden, useless. Fortunately, Srikanth's parents who were uneducated, poor and earning just about Rs.20,000 a year, did not listen to anyone. They decided to raise the child to the best of their abilities. This was indeed a brave decision for someone with his parent's background in rural India. Srikanth considers himself to be the luckiest person alive, not because today he is a millionaire, but for what his parents decided that day – to not kill him but to raise him with love and affection. "They are the richest people I know," says Srikanth.

Formative Years:
Being born in poverty is a huge challenge in a country and society like ours, but to be also born without eyes, makes things that much more difficult. In India, the isolation and discrimination of differently-baled people starts at birth. Little Srikanth too faced challenges right from day one. In school, he was made fun of, pushed to last benches. He was not acknowledged, allowed to play with others and had hardly any friends. There was no concept of inclusion and acceptability in the village & society were he lived.

Srikanth's school, the nearest one in his village, was five kilometers away and he had to make his way there mostly on foot. Srikanth's father, a farmer, would often take Srikanth with him to fields but little Srikanth couldn't offer any help and would sit quietly while his father toiled. His father then decided that education is the best thing that Srikanth could do well with. Having understood that there is little that Srikanth is learning at this local village school, his father took him to a special needs school in Hyderabad.

At this school, Srikanth received care, compassion that he missed earlier from others. In Hyderabad, Srikanth learned to play chess and cricket and also excelled in them. Srikanth had focus in his studies and often came at the top of his classes. Srikanth was finally finding his footing and he even took an opportunity to work late President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam in the Lead India project. But just then, life threw another challenge at him.

Srikanth scored over 90% in the Andhra Pradesh class X board exams, but was denied to take admission to the science stream in class XI. Arts subject was the only option given to him. Rather than Srikanth's blindness, it was the perception of the people of his blindness that was stopping Srikanth. Denied the opportunity to study his favourite subject, Srikanth decided to fight it. Srikanth sued the government and fought for six months before finally, the government relented saying that he could take up science at his own risks!

There was no holding back Srikanth and he wanted others who doubted him to be proved wrong. He began by first getting all his books converted into audio files and worked day and night to excel in studies. Finally, in class XII board exams, Srikanth secured ~98%.

Time to fly!
Life is not a journey to be defined in straights lines but a curvaceous one with many ups and downs. Even after doing exceedingly well in XII, the happiness did not last long. Life again threw a challenge. Srikanth had applied to top engineering colleges like IIT, BITS Pilani and so on. The colleges wrote to him reminding him again that he was blind and therefore could not take their courses. Srikanth said to himself, if IITs did not want him why should he want IITs? There is no point fighting them. It was time for him to choose his battles.

Srikanth went back home to researched to find the best engineering colleges in the world suitable to a person like himself. He decided to apply to them and got acceptance from four - MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, and Carnegie Mellon – the best schools in the world! Srikanth chose MIT and he even got scholarship. Srikanth was the first international blind student in the school's history.

Dream big:
After doing well in MIT with studies, Srikanth faced the big question – what's next? He had few options before him. He could have taken the 'golden' opportunity of a wonderful life in US or get back to India. Coming back to India had many questions. How could he live an independent life of dignity? How could he be productive and contribute to the Indian economy?

Srikanth decided to come back to India and be the change he always wanted in society. He set up Samanvai, a non-profit organisation, which is support service platform to rehabilitate, nurture and integrate differently-abled people in society. Additionally, he also provided tutorial services to such students by promoting Braille literacy and a printing press/library. The initiative helped about 3,000 students in acquiring education and vocational rehabilitation. But then Srikanth realised that education was not enough and the employment question also had to be answered.

In 2012, Srikanth started Bollant to provide livelihood and employment to different-abled persons. The company started in a small tin-roof tent in an industrial area near Hyderabad but they did well. Soon there were 8 employees and three machines in the shed. When an angel investor, expecting just a vision to make social impact, came by, Srikanth came across as a person with great business clarity, strong technical understanding and a burning desire to grow the company big, unseen in someone so young. The investor was so much impressed and not only decided to invest in the company but to also become a mentor to Srikanth.

Today, Srikanth's company has five production plants spread in different cities in southern India. Bollant Industries, provides employment to several hundred people with disabilities and is worth over Rs.50 Crores. Srikanth has also received funding many investors, including from Ratan Tata. For the future, Srikanth has a vision of building a sustainable company with a workforce comprising 70% people with disabilities and to have an IPO for the company. Srikanth's inspiring story has made him receive numerous accolades, awards and recognitions from across the world.

Shrikanth, only of 24 years, is the living example of the fact that talent, hard work and determination can get you past any difficulties. Nothing is impossible in life and one is only limited by his own goals in life.

Srikanth says his three most important life lessons are -

• Show compassion and make people rich
• Include people in your life and remove loneliness and lastly
• Do something good; it will come back to you

There are but only a few Indian sports persons who have dominated in a sport on a global arena. There are success stories but one stands out unlike any other. For, it is not just a story about hard-work, faith and dream but also about sacrifice, motherhood and a comeback unlike any other. This is the story of a five time World Amateur Boxing Champion, one of the best ever women boxers world has ever produced – Mary Kom.

Early life:
Mary Kom was born in Kangathei, Manipur to parents Mangte Tonpa Kom and Mangte Akham Kom who were poor farm laborers. Belonging to a Sino-Tibetian speaking tribe of 'kom', she was named Mangte Chungneijang, which means 'prosperous' in her local dialect. Mary is a name that she chose after she entered professional sports as it was easier to pronounce. She was the eldest of four siblings and had to work hard from a young age to fend for her family. Being the eldest was not easy as she had to take care of her younger siblings and also work in fields apart from attending school.

As a school girl, she used to actively play multiple sports like hockey, football and athletics but not boxing. It was only when Dingko Singh, a Manipuri boxer, won a gold in Asian Games in 1998, was she inspired to try her hands at boxing. At that time boxing was considered 'masculine' and a sports for men only and it was not easy for a tribal girl to take to it. Even her parents did not want her to play this masculine sport. Mary used to hide her boxing gloves at home due to this. But Mary was not discouraged and ignored what others said and pursued her growing interest in boxing. Her love for sports from very young age was very evident but she had no flair for studies. Mary Kom studied only till standard and quit studies before completing her school. What's good to know that Mary did later finished her schooling through alternative ways and even completed her graduation.

The Boxing Journey:
Mary was in love with the game of boxing and wanted to learn the art and skill. Mary was keen to follow her dreams and it took her to Imphal looking for a proper coach. Mr. Narjit Singh at the Manipur State Boxing took saw her love for the game and took her under his training. It was during this time when her passion, quick learning ability and hard work impressed everyone, including the coach. She trained and practiced more than anyone else and would often practice till late in night long after everyone left.

Her first career win was the Best Boxer Award at the First State Level Invitation at the women's boxing championship in Manipur in year 2000. This was followed by a gold in the Seventh East India Women's Boxing Championship held in West Bengal. Mary was a rising star and she went on to win many more competitions during this period. As a prolific sportswoman who demonstrated a relentless passion for the game, she won a total of five National Championships from 2000 to 2005. She also dominated at the world stage coming second at AIBA world boxing championship in 2001 and then going on to win the championship in year 2002, 2005 and 2006.

Mary's love for boxing stood firm in face of all opposition in her initial years at boxing, including opposition from her father who was worried that it might spoil her face and bring difficulties during marriage. It was only after she appeared in newspapers in year 2000 when she won state championships that her father came to know of it. It took him another three years before he began to support Mary after getting convinced of her love for the game.

The Second Half:
Mary met Karung Onler Kom in 2001 when she was at New Delhi on her way to National Games in Punjab. Karung was studying law in Delhi University at that time and was the president of the North East students body and helped Kom. Thus they became friends and thereafter started dating each other. The young man was highly impressed by Mary's grit and ambitions and they fell in love. The couple dated for four years before tying the knot in 2005 with the condition that Mary may pursue boxing after marriage. Together, they went ahead to have twins. It was then everyone thought that her career was finished and Kom would never return to the sport.

With a complete family and her domestic responsibilities, Mary tried to make the best of it and she took a break from boxing. She even tried to get a decent government job, but was unsuccessful and left humiliated. It was then that Mary decided to make a comeback to sports against all apprehensions. Her husband was by her side and gave his full support to Mary during these times. Mary started training again to rebuilt her body, stamina and strength. It was never easy to get back to her earlier fitness levels as she had to also take care of her young children and do domestic chores. Mary worked almost round the clock to make sure she was doing the best for her family and for training. 2006 was a a very tough year for the the family for one another reason – it was a year when her father-in-law, a very strong supporter of her, was kidnapped and killed by extremists. It was a time when Mary had almost given up on boxing but only for her husband who supported her and asked her to keep on fighting.

With her grit and determination, she battled it and made her way back into boxing in domestic circles in short time. After emerging as the top domestic boxer, she went on to win the silver medal in Asian Women's Boxing Championship in India in 2008. There was no stopping her now. Mary went on to dominated the sports globally during this period unlike any other sports person in boxing. She won many championships and medals during these years including an astonishing fifth consecutive AIBA Women's World Boxing Championship apart from Asian Championships. In 2012, women's boxing featured as an Olympic sport in the Summer Olympics in London for the first time. Mary did succeed in securing a place at the event, the only Indian women in boxing, and won a bronze medal in a higher weight category of 51 kgs as her usual weight category of 46 /48 kgs was not included in the games. She again won Asian games Gold medal in 2014 in 51 kg category, the first Indian women to do so. In between all this, Mary also gave birth to her third son and child in year 2013.

For Mary is was the toughest when she had to leave behind young children to pursue her training and for participating in competitions. Perhaps her toughest time was when her young son was diagnosed to have a hole in the heart and was hospitalised for surgery when she was away in a training camp. Her biggest worry was to remain present during the surgery and she did make it in time and thankfully all went well. For this strong couple, marriage is about having good times, eating out, traveling but is all about caring for each other, being open, cooperating and supporting other's dreams.

Today, even after missing on 2016 Rio Olympics, Mary still continues to train and pursue the sport and is dreams of competing and winning in 2020 Olympics – 20th years later after she won first medal in the sports!

Recognition and Awards:
Nicknamed "Magnificent Mary", Mary Kom is a five-time World Amateur Boxing champion, and the only woman boxer to have won a medal in each one of the six world championships. In 2008, the International Boxing Association (AIBA) conferred the title 'Magnificent Mary' to her after she won her forth title.

Apart from her sports career, Mary is also active on the social front. She is an animal rights activist and a supporter of PETA India. Mary also runs a boxing foundation, without any governmental support, for training young girls in the sports in Manipur and she wants to make more champions for India. The foundation offers free food, accommodation and training, all sponsored from Mary's awards & incentives.

The story of Mary is that of grit, determination and hard work of a mother and an extra-ordinary sportswomen. She is an inspiration for many. She co-authored her autobiography 'Unbreakable', with Dina Serto and was published in 2013 by Harper Collins. In 2014, Sanjay Leela Bhansali released a biopic of Mary Kom's life with Priyanka Chopra playing her character in the movie which was also named after her.

Some other memorable awards:
2016 Nominated by the President of India as a member of the Rajya Sabha.
2013 Padma Bhushan Award
2009 Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award
2009 AIBA's Ambassador for Women's Boxing
2008 Title 'Magnificent Mary' by AIBA
2008 MTV Youth Icon
2007 People of the Year- Limca Book of Records
2006 Padma Shree Award
2003 Arjuna Award

Introduction:

Mr. Anand is best known for the Super 30 programme, which he started in Patna, Bihar in 2002, to provide coaching to economically backward students for IIT-JEE entrance examinations. During this program students are provided absolutely free coaching, lodging and food. Super 30 targets students from extremely poor families. Some estimates indicate that till 2016, 366 out of the 420 students of this programme had made it to IITs giving an astounding success ratio of over 87% for admissions into IITs alone which is said to be among the toughest exams in the world with acceptance ratio of less than 1%. Mr. Anand has been invited by the prestigious MIT and Harvard University to speak on his globally acclaimed effort to mentor students from the underprivileged sections. Mr. Anand has received numerous awards and recognitions around the world. Super 30 does it accept any donation or aid from any individual, government and corporate.

The story of hard work, passion and service...

Adapted from the speech delivered during NJ PBC event in 2014 in Mumbai.

I wish to thank you all for giving me the opportunity to speak here. When I got the invitation for this speech, I wondered what a simple teacher could speak to an audience of investment advisors. I have come here to share my life story and my experiences with you. I will not share any fundas, formulas with you but how one can overcome challenges and difficulties in life and still progress against them through my life examples.

Success story: Santosh

This story is about Mr. Santosh. He is from the village Beeta, about 40-50 kms off Patna. Santosh's parents are agricultural labourers and their lifetime wish was to see Santosh study and become a successful man. Santosh went to a government school, the facilities and quality of education of which, we can very well imagine. Many a times, Santosh even did not even have the books to study from, so he used to borrow books from others in his village. He also sold vegetables on roadsides in the evenings. With lots of struggle and hard work, he passed his 10th exam. People around him, suggested him to pursue engineering. Santosh came to Patna and wandered around looking for coaching centers, but no one supported him or agreed to teach him. In the end, he came to us and we could see great determination and passion to learn, in him, so we enrolled him in our programme. For two years, Santosh worked exceptionally hard, and the fruits of his hard work were paid when he was finallly selected for IIT Kharagpur. In IIT too, Santosh worked very hard and shined academically. He created records and even wrote papers from IIT. His fame spread and eventually came to notice of an American magazine – Business Week which showcased his life story. Today Santosh, once an agricultural labourer, a vegetable vendor, is a Professor in Europe. His story show us that if we have the will, determination and are ready to work hard, then challenging situations do not matter. You will succeed one day.

Success story: Anupam

The second story is that of Anupam. Anupam's father was a rickshaw driver and he lived in a hut in slums alongside a road. Anupam's mother wanted her son to study. Anupam went to government schools and cleared his boards. Thereafter, Anupam's mother brought him to us to enroll him in our programme. I took a simple test to check Anupam's skills and suggested that he needs few more years of preparation and then he could come back. Anupam's mother cried a lot and requested us to accept him. Eventually my mother requested me to accept him hoping that even if he does not get into IIT, at least he will learn something and will be able to get into some decent college and then get a decent job. One fine day, Anupam's father was beaten up for not paying bribes to policemen and he got ill. Anupam then had to leave the programme in between for about 25 days to support his family. He used to drive rickshaw throughout the day and then study in the night and only returned to the programme after his father got well. Anupam continued to work hard and sometimes even got depressed. We motivated him to continue to work hard as only education could lift him and his family from poverty. Anupam did great hard work and a day came when Anupam not only did his IIT but also completed his IIM. Today, Anupam is employed with a very attractive package.

Success story: Anup

There is another story of Anup. He belonged to an extremely poor family. On one rainy day there was nothing to eat at home. Anup was a small kid and he asked his mother for some food. His mother requested Anup's father to at least get some rice from somewhere. His father said that he will try to get some rice and asked his mother to boil water till he returns. Time passed by and a day was over and his father was nowhere to be seen. Anup's mother went to register a complaint with the police but even the police shooed them away and refused to register any complaint. His father never came back but Anup's mother did not give up. She worked as a labourer on road construction in Sasaram during the day and taught Anup after work. Anup used to walk 7 kms daily to government school to study and used to work hard. Hoping for a better future for her son, she came to Patna and used to sleep on railway platforms at night. When she and Anup came to our home she was not even wearing slippers. That was their situation. We accepted Anup. He worked very hard and because of his hard work he secured an impressive rank in IIT. After completing his course from IIT Bombay, he completed his training in Burj Khalifa, Dubai and is presently well employed in Mumbai.

Success story: Shashi

Another story is of Shashi. He too belonged to a very poor family. They did not have money even to buy medicines. Their poverty saw the death of the younger brother of Shashi. Shashi used to feel very frustrated and could not study properly due to poverty. When Shashi and his father came to us, they cried a lot and requested our help. Shashi did great hard work, got into IIT. Shashi did tremendous hard work in IIT Kharagpur too and established many records there. The same Shashi is now a very well known research scholar in France and is about to become a lecturer.

About my background.

There are so many more stories. There are about 360 students whom we have kept in our programmes and we have created 360 stories. But why have we done this? There is also a story behind this.

My father was a postal employee in railways. We lived besides railway tracks in a small home. It was a joint family and my father used to care for our extended joint family with limited means. It was my father's dream that I study. I studied from government schools and did well in studies. Others would travel to distant places like Delhi, Mumbai for higher studies but I chose to stay in Patna only. I was good at maths and I wanted to be a scientist and even my father motivated me by bringing books and things to experiment. I even wrote 4 papers during my undergraduate studies and professors at Patna University began to take notice and I received invitations for talks on mathematics in colleges. Someone suggested me to apply to Cambridge University and I applied and got admission there. Everyone was happy but our financial condition was such that we could never even buy travel tickets. There was a story carried by Times of India too about my situation, requesting for funds. But no help or sponsorship came forth. I was supposed to go to Cambridge on 1st October 1994. Due to lack of funds my father was under great stress and suddenly on 23rd August 1994, he collapsed and died at home. After that, the entire family's responsibility fell onto my shoulders.

Super 30 Programme

I had to do something and my younger brother suggested that since I loved learning and teaching, I should try to do something related to that. I then started the Ramanujan School of Mathematics. We started with meager means and there was no fixed fee charged. People could contribute whatever they wished. Slowly, we started getting more students as coaching classes trend caught up. Then came a time when we were thinking about the next step. During that time, a student named OBC Abhishek came to us for admission. He requested us to pay in installments since he did not have money. Since he had no money, on inquiring we came to know that for staying in Patna, he used to work as a house help for entire day and studied at night. When we went to that place, we saw Abhishek covered in sweat and living in abysmal conditions. This made us think a lot and my younger brother suggested that time has come that we think of something for society.

Super 30 was born from that idea. Everyone agreed and supported my idea. Even my wife who was an IIT passout working in Bangalore liked the idea and supported me. At Super 30 we don't charge any fee but we administer a test to select the most deserving 30 students who cannot afford proper coaching classes irrespective of any caste or religion. At Super 30, the students are like a family and we all stay together. My entire family, including my wife and mother are engaged in caring for these students. With some volunteers, we all teach these students to excel in IIT exams. Since the students in the programme are often from marginalised, underprivileged society, we had to adopt new techniques of teaching while giving confidence and self respect to them. Thankfully Super 30 is doing very well and we are now widely recognised. At Super 30 we still do not charge any fee but thankfully we are able to provide for the basic necessities for all our students. Today there are many students like Abhishek who secured rank 428 in IIT in general category, who have studied with us and became successful. As my mother puts it across, she gets great happiness to see students getting into IITs especially after her son was not able to get into Cambridge due to lack of funds. We all selflessly work for this happiness.

Success Mantra for All:

I would now share the success mantra which I teach to my students and which is important for everyone.

1. Tremendous thirst:
There has to be a great passion and desire to achieve a particular goal. It should be so strong that we cannot live without it, be it studies, investment targets or anything. If you can create such thirst then you will eventually succeed.

2. Positive thinking:
We may face difficulties, have less resources, come from unfavourable backgrounds, then too we must think positively. Think that many others have done it so why can't I?

3. Continuous hard work:
Hard work is very obvious. Today the true success of Super 30 is because of the hard work of the students who study for 14-16 hours a day with complete focus and dedication. With continuous hard work anything is possible.

In the end I would just like to say that...

Bujhi hui sama phir se jal sakti hai,
Bhayankar se bhayankar tofano se kashti nikal sakti hai,
Kabhi niraash na ho, mayoos na ho, mehnat karen,
Dekhen ki usse aapki and pure desh ki jaroor takhdeer badal sakti hai...

Jai Bharat. Jai Hind.

Thank you.