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Journalism of Courage
Not going to an IIT is not the end of the world is a sentence that many say to future engineers, however, some have proved this with their work experiences. Every year, lakhs of aspirants flock to Kota with the aim to bag a seat in an IIT or a prestigious medical college by cracking JEE or NEET. What they forget is that only a few thousand are able to clear these tough entrance examinations.
The failure to get through achieve this dream leads to a heartbreak that some are able to battle, but a few fail to live with it. Rajendra Singh Choudhary, a 30-year-old front-end architect with the online shopping website Meesho, was also one of these students who wanted to get into an IIT to “make his life”.
Coming from a Balapura in the Bhilwara district of Rajasthan, Choudhary was not aware of Joint Entrance Examination. He simply followed a friend’s footsteps and took admission to a coaching centre in Kota. Like many others, he also went to Kota in July 2008 (after clearing his Class 11 exams).
“I attended a government school in my village till Class 5. Unfortunately, our village only had a primary school, therefore, I had to travel to the nearby village Shambhugarh, with a government school offering education up to Class 10. I maintained a decent academic record till then. In Class 11, I chose science with math and continued my studies in a place called Ranawas. During this time, I began to explore the engineering field,” he said.
It was then he decided to shift to Kota and join the coaching centre culture. However, he was unable to get admission to IIT and ended up doing a BTech in Computer Science from Jaypee Institute of Information Technology, Noida.
After working at a startup for a few months, he met Sanjeev Barnwal, the founder and CTO of Meesho for a quick interview and impressed him with his skills. “Sanjeev and I connected at a portal called Angel.co. We had initial discussions, which led to a subsequent interview. At first, I was given a task related to the web and completed it in 30 minutes. Then Sanjeev called me in person and assigned me a task, which I completed in 30 minutes. This was followed by an offer letter and I joined Meesho.”
It’s been seven years and Rajendra has been promoted four times in the last seven years. It’s not just in his job where Rajendra has emerged as a star, he has also been seen as a ray of hope in his village. “I was the first student in my high school to opt for science with mathematics, and I am the first engineer from my village which has a population of around 1000 residents,” he said.
Like Rajendra, there are many others who have been able to achieve appraisals, appreciation and have a good professional life after surviving Kota’s academic pressure. Shubham Mishra, a 26-year-old software engineer at the Bank of America, did his time in Kota, only to later pursue Computer Science Engineering from the Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT).
Shubham Mishra first appeared for the JEE Main 2015 without taking the help of any coaching tutor but didn’t score enough to bag a seat in a good college. Seeing this, his parents decided to send him to Kota for the second attempt. “My parents expected a lot from me, but I knew my capabilities. I didn’t take any pressure but I thought there was no harm in trying. But the routine in Kota is very difficult — classes begin at 8 am and go on till 5-6 pm, we used to get daily assignments and weekly tests. It was continuous studying, something I cannot do,” he remembered.
Shubham also missed the nutritious home-cooked food. “PG food is awful and nobody can eat it daily. We complained about the bad quality to the owner but they didn’t care about it. For them, it is simply a business. Due to that, I started eating out and that gave me typhoid. Looking at my worsening health, my parents decided to bring me back to Bhilai,” he said while explaining how bad food and water make it worse for JEE and NEET aspirants battling the pressure of studies.
After going back to Bhilai, Shubham tried a few other coaching centres, but in vain. “In Kota, at least I used to attend classes regularly, but that was lacking when I started self-study. I appeared for JEE without any expectations and didn’t crack it. So, I appeared for the VIT entrance exam and scored enough to get admission there.” While his father was initially disappointed about Shubham leaving Kota and not clearing JEE, he came to terms with his son’s choices when he got placed in the Bank of America through his college placements.
When asked if he thinks that he missed out on anything by not going to an IIT, Shubham was quick to dismiss this thought. “I don’t think IITs or Kota would have given me something else. Surely the companies that come for IIT placements are of top level and so is the pay scale, but in terms of skill set, I think I made the right decision,” he said.
Shubham also added that many students who are in Kota go there just to meet the expectations of their parents.
Agreeing with Abhishek Rajak, a 30-year-old employee of CitiBank, also added that societal pressure plays a huge part in students ending up in Kota.
“I took coaching from Jabalpur first but I didn’t get admission anywhere. Then following some people’s suggestions, my parents sent me to Kota. Within 10 days, I knew this was not the place for me but my parents thought I could conquer it, so I stayed there for nearly 8 months,” he said.
Abhishek completed his BTech in electrical engineering from Jabalpur Engineering College and MTech from ISI Kolkata (Applied Statistics). Through Jabalpur college, he got placed in TCS, IBM and Wipro, but since he didn’t want to start a career with this, Rajak prepared for GATE and landed in IIT Roorkee. However, as he was aiming for PSUs and therefore, the Jabalpur boy decided to appear for ISI Kolkata where he also secured a scholarship.
“Anyone who has gone to Kota and has not been selected for any prestigious college should not think that it is the end of the world,” he quickly added.
When asked what didn’t work out for him in Kota, he explained that the coaching centres in the city “don’t teach you anything except simply solving questions”.
He also remembered that while he was in ‘S 12’ series of sections, there were sections from A to F too, and all these sections had nearly 500 students. “When you join a coaching in Kota, your performance in the first 10 days decides how you will be placed (or treated) in the next couple of years,” he explained.
While this was bothering Abhishek, he could not talk to his parents about this due to societal pressure and also “because they had invested a lot”. He also added that the majority of parents do not ask their children to get into an IIT, but they ask them to “try to get into an IIT”.
Through his experience in Kota and being in the rat race, Abhishek also concluded that not getting into an IIT would not be the end of the world. “I worked first at Credit Suisse as a Data Analyst and then shifted to ICICI Bank after six months. When I was working at ICICI Bank, my flatmates were IIT Kanpur graduates but I still earn more than them, and this has been possible simply because of my good communication skills. So, no I don’t think that not getting into an IIT has worked negatively for me; I have done good for myself even without it,” he said with the hope that more children get to live their lives rather than getting buried under societal pressure.
