Quite recently, I was through some well-known success stories across the world, verifying what kind of people could easily make it. On the way I came across a New York Times survey report on the millionaires of the land. Their study on them regrets to say that these people cannot be millionaires, because they don't look like millionaires, they don't dress like millionaires, they don't eat like millionaires and above all they also don't act like millionaires. If being a millionaire means living the experience of an ordinary gentleman but with loads of tension and stress, who would choose to be a millionaire? That was the first question which crossed my mind. Suddenly, as if provoked by an inner flash, I turned to myself and asked, ‘Is it not true with everything we generally choose?’ We become this and that but do not at all look like what we have achieved. I know bright youngsters who say that the career they chose was not exactly what they envisioned. Are we living in a culture of instability and uncertainty? My answer is, ‘Yes’. I also am sure that this is what develops into stress, the most painful killer disease of the times.
Everybody begin with Himalayan expectations and Herculean preparations and we find them being caught up in confusion regarding ‘what next’. The moment these enthusiasts touch the clouds they are taken back into a culture of instability. Being aware of this danger and learning the art of managing situations should necessarily be included in personality development curriculum. However, I do not like to generalize my assumption into a theory, because I know at least one Indian guy, who still continues to be successful beyond confusions. I am talking about Shri Anand Kumar from Patna, Bihar (India). He has exceptional mathematical skills; many of his papers appeared in Mathematical Spectrum and The Mathematical Gazette. His ambition was to continue in Cambridge. He got an admission but did not join there, because his father could not afford to raise the necessary money. All their efforts to find a sponsor also failed. He had to give up his Cambridge dream for ever and live selling papads in the streets.
However, Anand was not in confusion of any sort. He also tutored students in maths and earned extra money. As a year passed by, it was not his papad sale that grew but the number of students that came to him. It continued growing fast and when three years were completed there were almost 500 students enrolled. It was in 2003 that Kumar started the Super 30 program, for which he is now well-known. He now takes thirty intelligent students every year from economically backward sections which included even beggars and hawkers. He provides them study materials and lodging for a year. His Ramanujam Institute does it all. Anand Kumar is not financed by any external agencies. What he could contribute turned out to be quite surprising. Out of the 270 students he tutored from 2002-2011, 236 students secured an admission to IIT. In 2010, all the students of Super 30 cleared IIT JEE entrance, making it a three in a row for the institution. Hearing about him through Time Magazine, even US President Obama is said to have come forward offering a pretty good support. It was not what Anand was looking for; he was not at all confused.
I admire his stability, consistency, integrity, and self-respect. He lives in the present, unscarred by the fancies of chances. He shows us how exploiting chances and utilizing opportunities are different. He seems to have realized the purpose he is made for. That is what makes him very special on earth.
Joseph Mattappally
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