All my life, I have had tremendous respect for people who have struggled and yet somehow achieved success in their life. I know my story could never match their struggle but I am proud of where I am today.
Being always considered as a "Bright Kid", I never really cared for studies and still scored easily. Unfortunately, good things never last and I hit a rough patch from 10th Standard. A prospective topper, I caught typhoid in my 10th boards and was barely managed to write all the exams. Somehow scoring a CGPA of 8.0, my parents asked me to pursue Physics, Chemistry and Maths. I sat in a the Commerce classes for a month and absolutely loved it! but in order to keep my parents happy, I still took PCM as they suggested. Boy oh Boy, the "ideal" concepts of PCM never resonated with me and I struggled to pass. To add sale to the wound, my family faced a vehement financial crisis that left my dad struggling for basic finances. Scoring only 64% in 12th Board, I fought my parents to stop pursuing Science and go for Management. Somehow, half convinced, they let me do Bachelors of Business Administration specilizing in marketing (B.B.A. Marketing).
Once, I completed my 12th Boards, I was convinced that its high time that I support my family in anyway I can. So, I start my coaching with my cousin sister. We start putting up boards and spreading the word and in 2 weeks, I get my first student. While I didn't score well, I understood the concept well and was able to teach the same in creative ways. I had a very interesting teaching style where I didn't teach at all. I simply pushed student to try and understand everything on their own and then take teach or clear doubts in the last 30 mins. Saturday and Sundays were personality development sessions where I used to teach everything from the way they walk, to the way they read. Debates and Speeches were constantly organized to reduce stage fear of the students. The style was loved by the 10th Class students and parents alike and in no time I had 18 students and more asking to join. Given my time constraints and my own college, I never took more than 18 in that year. 2 of my student score 10.0 CGPA that year and the mean was about 8.8. I was static with my students success considering I had 7 people who scored below 7.0 CGPA in 9th Class and were now flying high.
My coaching became absolute hit, the address to my coaching was put on Google Maps, just dial called me for the confirmation of details and everything but the most important part was that I was able to support myself and not be a financial burden on my parents. My college had picked pace by this time and I was constantly participating in various competitions and winning a lot of them. My professors trusted me with a lot of work and I was asked to organize various events as well. At the same time, due to lack of physical activity and a lot of sitting hours (Due to college, teaching, internship and coaching for entrance exam) I decided to join gym.
To provide you an image, my daily time table in the 3rd Semester of BBA looked something like this:
1) Wake up at 8:00 am, go to College.
2) College till 2:00 pm, then my CAT preparation coaching till 4:30 pm.
3) Come home at 5:00 pm to my students and take classes till 9:00 pm.
4) Go to gym at 9:30 pm and workout till 11:00 pm.
5) Come home at 11:15 pm, freshen up, eat something and start working on Coaching and College's assignments and even create tests for my students till 4:00 am-5:00 am.
Sleep and wake up again at 8:00 am and let the cycle continue.
Amidst all this, my grandfather passed away. In my lifetime this was the first death that took place in my family. I was pretty shook and yet I had no time to stop. I mourned for 3 whole days and I was back doing everything from the 4th day even when my family was still in mourning because I had a responsibility towards my students and my colleagues.
Working hard for 2 years, even doing an internship between this time I was able to secure 90.01 Percentile in CAT and reach TAPMI. Funnily, my CAT exam was a day before the toughest paper and I somehow scored the highest in that paper too.
Now, in TAPMI as well, its was a constant struggle to adapt to changes, leaving the home for the first time, dealing with people much elder than myself and finally an Internship. All of these was simply possible because of everyone's constant support and love towards me. I feel very proud to say that I have developed beyond what I imagined and am ready to struggle even more now.
Goraj Joshi
TAPMI