Imagine an 8-year-old boy whose father’s business went bankrupt unexpectedly and he had to take debts to pay the school fees of his son. The same boy for whom owning a fancy geometry box was once a distant dream, now championing all odds walks into the esteemed Indian Institute of Management Rohtak, that’s Sukesh Kumar Thogaru for you.
Sukesh hails from the city of Warangal. When he was in the 3rd grade his father suffered huge financial losses in the business. Life hit their family hard with this reversal of fortune. To manage the expenses of the family his father purchased an auto and started plying goods. There was now a dilemma whether Sukesh will be continuing his education in the same private school or not. His father realised the importance of good education and was determined not to let any financial constraints hamper Sukesh or his brother’s education. Both of them continued in the same school. The increased expenses led their family into a pool of debt.
Sukesh shares, “Even though I saw my mother sleeping on an empty stomach many times, I received my lunch box the other day without fail”. While speaking about school, he added that he just had just one school uniform and one other dress in the wardrobe. Owning a Video game or a Bicycle were the unfulfilled wishes. It is said, “The true measure of a person is how he or she ultimately deals with the adversity in life”. These life-altering challenges made Sukesh more resolute and pushed him to study hard. He realised that only with hundred percent dedication in his studies, he could sail through and help his family out of this storm of adversity. He scored over 80 percent in class 12th. He had no money to fill the form of AIEEE or JEE, so he appeared for EAMCET. With his zeal and continued hard work, he managed to bag a seat in an Engineering college of Warangal. The fee reimbursement scheme of Andhra Pradesh government helped him with his engineering college fees and for his personal expenses, he started taking home tuitions.
During his engineering, Sukesh found his passion for the field of electronics. His love for electronics grew when he started selling and repairing gadgets. Even though he was interested in the field of electronics, economic conditions forced Sukesh to take up a job as a gaming-testing engineer. He worked there for a meagre salary of 9000 per month. But, soon his life took a turning point when he received a job offer from Cognizant Technology Solutions. His continued efforts finally started paying off and he was offered a position of Business Enabler within three months of joining CTS. One of his suggested innovative ideas was nominated for “Innovation of the Year 2015” at CTS. He was awarded “QE&A Pride Award for Q2 2015” for exhibiting delivery excellence. This was one of the milestones that Sukesh reached, but he knew he still had miles to go.
Working at CTS as Business Enabler, Thogaru realised that marketing and operations interested him and to understand the dynamics of business he needed to do an MBA. He started studying for CAT after office hours, daily. He followed free YouTube channels available for cracking CAT. And, this is how he managed to bell the CAT solely through self-preparation and secured a 90.74 percentile.
With his excellent soft skills, Sukesh has now become a part of Placement Committee at IIM Rohtak and is expecting to land up with a marketing or operations job in an electronics company.
Sukesh’s journey to IIM Rohtak isn’t due to luck; it has been blood, sweat and tears all the way.