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He fought poverty. He was teased for his funny ‘Mallu’ accent and eating habits. He suffered from ‘racism’. He sacrificed his football career for his family.

Today, Varun Chandran, from a small Kerala village, is the CEO of his own IT company and a dollar millionaire. Remarkably, he has set up a part of his operations near the same small village he was born in.

Varun was born in Paadam, a small village near Kollam. Most of the 800 families were poor landless labourers working in the nearby forest. He still remembers studying under the light of a kerosene lamp as the village wasn’t connected to the grid until he was 10 years old.
His mother ran a grocery shop out of their home. A strong-willed, ambitious woman, she insisted that her children attend the English medium primary school in the next town.

Money was hard to come by. The grocery store was not doing well. Their indebtedness rose to the point that everything in their house was taken away, and they had to sleep on the floor.

“The school fee was Rs 25 a month but my parents couldn’t pay the fees for six or seven months. I was thrown out of the class many times. I had to go through this humiliating experience many, many times in school.” he remembers.

Later, he was sent to a boarding school and life changed dramatically for Varun.

Source: Rediff.com

Sangli: Jat taluka in Sangli district of Maharashtra state is known as a severe drought prone area. Pandurang Sopan Narale is a sugarcane farm labor living in Sanmadi village here. In spite of a very adverse condition, his son successfully cleared the PSI examination.

Pandurang Narale is working as a sugarcane cutting labor in Rajarambapu Factory at Sakharale since last 25 years. For education, he sent his son Kashinath to Kidebisari at Sangola taluka.

While studying in 10th grade, Kashinath worked on sugarcane harvesting under the ‘employment guarantee scheme’. He got good marks in 12th science and acquired an admission for D. Ed. in Gobbi college at Jat. However he had to leave the education midway due to family’s adverse financial condition.

He got joined State Reserved Police Force in 2008. After working at Gadchiroli for 8 years, he relocated to Latur. In 2016, in his first attempt, he passed the PSI examination conducted by Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), securing 501st ranking with 256 out of 400 marks.

Source: Sakal 17 May 2017

Inspiring story of a woman with determination – education achieves transformation in Rajendranagar slum area.

Kolhapur: Kaushlya Dattatray Kamble, whose education was just second standard and who was collecting garbage, has now become a ‘madame’. While collecting garbage, she completed ‘Anganwadi Teacher’ course.

She lived with her husband who was alcoholic and was a labourer on a bullock-cart. She started a job as a helper in Anganwadi. After seeing her determination, her husband Dattatray stopped drinking. He replaced bullock-cart with a tempo. As Kaushalya completed her education, Dattatray started calling her ‘madame’ – and now the same Kaushalyabai has become ‘Anganwadi’ supervisor – promoting her to a true ‘madame’.

Slums in Nagala Park area shifted to Rajendranagar. Along with that Kaushalya’s family also shifted. Husband was a labourer and was an alcohol addict. Still she showed the determination to support the family. She started going on garbage collection duty after requesting neighbours to look after her 3 children. Once Koushalya’s brother, who is a teacher, came to her house and felt bad after seeing the condition. He convinced Kaushlya and moved 2 of her children to his home town for education.

One day, Kaushalya came to know about a new batch of ‘Anganwadi teacher’ course commencing in Dnyandeep Vidyamandir institute organised by Kalpana Tawde in her area. She got herself admitted to the course. In spite of several challenges, she completed the course in first grade. She took up a job at the same Vidyamandir and started working for playgroup class. Then she got a job in government’s Anganwadi as an assistant. She also completed BA degree at Yashavantrao Chavan Open University.

Kaushalya truly transformed herself from a garbage collector to an Anganwadi supervisor.

Source: Sakal 31 July 2017

Pune: Densely populated and busy Matoshri Ramabai Ambedkar habitat on Tadivala Road)… common to see illegal businesses and crimes happening here… but a person living in the ‘Railway Diesel Colony’ of same area overcomes adversity and passes the coveted Indian Administrative Service (IAS) Exam. Not just passes but secures 7th rank in the state and 160th rank in the country … he is the son of a railway staffer – Dinesh Ramesh Gurav!

Ramesh Gurav has been working in the Railways’s Diesel Loco-shed in Ghorpadi for 35 years. They are living in the Diesel Colony in the Ramabai Ambedkar residence since Dinesh’ birth. In the two small rooms, this family of 4-5 members is living for many years. The atmosphere around is not conducive for education. Irrespective of the company Dinesh got during the childhood, the parents raised him up with a goal to make him intelligent and capable.

Dinesh was aware that he was the only earning member in the house. So he never asked his parents for any items like mobile, vehicles or any other revelry. Rather he bought a laptop and vehicle using his own scholarship money, lauds his father Ramesh. He is very proud to show the cupboard full of awards and toffees won by Dinesh. While studying at Ramanbagh New English school, Dinesh continued to be a topper in Class X and XII. After the study in Ferguson College, he acquired admission into the College of Engineering (COEP) for the B.Tech course. After participating in the’Progressive India’ camp by COEP and visiting ‘Chanakya’ at Melghat, the realities encouraged him to appear for UPSC exam and become an IAS office. According to that, he achieved success in his second attempt.

Dinesh gets up at 6 am in the morning and includes yoga, running, meditation in his routine on priority. As per him, this routine enabled him to control pressures and stress in life. During his UPSC examination preparations, in addition to the COEP’s study centre, he gave importance to self study as well. Dinesh says, “We tried to get friends from the neighbourhood as well to get better education. After passing the ‘IAS’ examination, I am going to villages and are spreading awareness about about this examination. There is nothing impossible in life, you have to try hard and honestly.”

Source: Sakal Pune 31 Jul 2017