Inspiration- the tale of Sarathbabu

By: Avnish Katoch

Every media organization is talking about Sarathbabu and so I am also putting the link to his story. Its an inspiration and would help in achieving goals for many!

He is one of the people who inspire our daily life.

He was inspired by his mother who once sold idlis on the pavements of Chennai, to educate him and his siblings. It was a dream come true, when Infosys co-founder N R Narayana Murthy lit the traditional lamp and inaugurated Sarathbabu’s enterprise.

The fees alone were around Rs 28,000, and I had to get around Rs 42,000. It was huge, huge money for us. And there was no one to help us. Just my mother and sisters. One of my sisters — they were all married by then — pawned her jewellery and that’s how I paid for the first semester.

My mother then found out about an Indian government scholarship scheme. She sent me the application forms, I applied for the scholarship, and I was successful. So, after the first semester, it was the scholarship that helped me through.

It also helped me to pay my debt (to the sister who had pawned her jewellery). I then borrowed money from my other sister and repaid her when the next scholarship came.

The scholarship, however, covered only the tuition fees. What about the hostel fees and food? Even small things like a washing soap or a toothbrush or a tube of toothpaste was a burden. So, I borrowed more at high rates of interest. The debt grew to a substantial amount by the time I reached the fourth year.

On our discussion group we talk/criticize a lot about having various issues, give many excuses, we are offering a platform to voice concerns as a blog and given a large stand of group discussion forum to voice concerns and then a non profit to prove our worth, but our youngsters keep raising excuses not to come forward.