I am a success as you see it because of one word and only one word – commitment. Ever since I went to the special school in Hyderabad, I have realised that my whole life is going to be one big challenge, but because of my commitment I have always found a way to turn difficulty into an opportunity.
For example, it was a challenge for me to read books in a normal way, so they had either been converted to braille or into an audiobook. I had good people in my life who helped me with it, but not everybody has or dares to ask for support. Since I understood the problems first-hand and God gave me the strength to open the Samanvai Center, educate blind students, and also open a braille library in Hyderabad.
Over the years I have learned that a perfect day is one that starts with gratitude. Every day, I remind myself of two things. First is how lucky I am that my parents instead of listening to the villagers, they listened to their hearts and raised me to become who I am. I am thankful for the life I have. Secondly, I am grateful to my teachers and mentors for sharpening my vision in life.
Each morning comes with one thing that I would like to highlight here – I can never accept defeat, it is not in my DNA anymore. Every decision I make throughout the day as a CEO comes with the same attitude.
Sometimes I remember that child who shifted from a small village to Hyderabad for special education. He was not ready to get the tantrums of the world for a blind child. Talking about him was taboo in earlier school and for 2 years he had no friends, and nobody wanted to pay any attention to him. From those days, I try to remember where I come from and what my mission in life is.
Finally, for the learning purpose, I wanted to have more and more in me. The steps I was climbing up for success and growth in my life, was an escalator with which I had to maintain the pace of the world and also know the right step to put forward my foot on without seeing anything.
I have felt this same escalator pushing me to put forward my foot in school, college, and sometimes even today when I have to keep up with the technologies and advancements in the world. Earlier, the resistance was strong that I wanted to leave everything and go back to the comfort of my village, where perhaps my life progress would come to a halt, but what keeps me from falling into this trap is my vision for the world, for bollant and for the young leaders following my footsteps.
Back in the day, one such day at my school for the blind in Hyderabad, I had planned to escape the hostel but was caught and the warden beat me and kept me locked in a room. I felt so disheartened and humiliated that with rage I decided to study. Probably that was the day when I realised I have to face any situation irrespective of what is going on in my mind.
I never looked back. I stepped on the escalator and kept moving.
Studying braille was an alien activity for a few days. With time I became the fastest writer and reader. This was a result of strong willpower and satisfaction of achieving high. I became the topper of my class for each grade till class 10th, not missing out any year.
During my tenure in Lead India, I took part with vigour inside to prove something to the world. I may have been mindful but I was not afraid that I cannot see, I was a person with a vision. That was my philosophy and the roadmap for the LEAD India program. They saw my passion and asked me to become the young leader of the program. I started by giving pieces of training to young minds, and to this day I have imparted knowledge to 800,000 students. With all the initiatives that I drive today, people are fond of me for the passion I have cultivated over the years.
I like being the star performer, whether in life or in my class and compete more fiercely if by any chance someone scores or performs better than me. I gained this confidence with the guidance of my mentor, who helped me learn everything. She used to help me with notes. My English grammar was not that great, but she made sure to correct it and I improved day by day.
She helped me when I was at the most critical stage in my life. This was the time after my 10th. I wanted to pursue science in my secondary education, but I was not allowed to do so as a restriction from the state board for school. I lost a lot of academic time and I had to recover from my course quickly. She helped me there as well and she gave me recordings of all my textbooks.
Her lessons are still with me. They made me good enough to have a chance at MIT without language barriers and today when I speak at big stages, I am never hesitant.
When I scored a decent 98% in my 11th and 97% in my 12th with science, just like everyone, I developed a sense of interest in the IITs. I tried to pursue my dream but the great knowledge centres of India had no regard to train someone like me.
I took this to my heart and aimed at the best in the world, The Ivy League Colleges. I was successfully admitted to MIT and it felt great. Small accomplishments in life start making a bigger difference. My admission gave me hope and courage.
An alternate reality is that, just like I felt a sense of achievement here, I have always been after praising in any form, be it rank, medals, or anything else. This made me a very isolated person for my entire life. Although I have achieved amazing things in life, I missed so much too. The gregarious animal inside me has not collaborated with anybody over the span. I had no friends, the only thing I knew was to study, work hard and achieve.
I am still the same, I work for more than 15 hours a day. I like to spend time with myself involved in the work I am doing, but this has made my life like a bird with wings who does not want to fly with the other birds. But with God’s grace, I have always attracted the right people, partners, and mentors in my life.
The passion inside me to mark a change in the world is recognized by amazing personalities. I, except for a few times, have never felt that I cannot see the world out there. I see the hope others have for me. I want to learn, I want to grow, and want to make this a better place for people like me.
Struggles don’t make you weak, they make you smart enough to avoid facing the same in the future. There have been times when I was alone and had so many transitions in my life. I was not ready sometimes, the path kept me moving. The end goal was enough strong to keep me on the escalator.
Everyone’s life has many challenges and I worked hard to get over them one by one.
Life gives you a question, you find the answer and the process keeps moving in a loop. But never stop until you find the answer as that is the fuel to keep your life moving. Follow your passion and the world is full of opportunities for you. Enlarge your horizon and keep moving.
Just like Steve Jobs said – “You cannot connect the dots moving forward, but you will certainly connect them backward”
Keep doing what you believe in and someday you’ll reach a stage where you’re proud of the hardships you went through to learn and execute your vision. It will all make sense, just like it does to me.
