Engineering student fulfils father’s dream of studying in an IIT | Life in an IIT

Koli is now a fourth-year student pursuing a BSc in Chemistry at IIT Bombay. He is the founder of Eshway and co-founder of Caffae. Eshway is a digital agency specialising in website development, mobile application development, SEO, and other digital marketing services.

Childhood, school life

Although Koli was a topper in his childhood till Class 6, he developed an interest in football which later proved to hinder his academics. The topper in Koli was missing out on his studies due to football and he started having self-doubt, which then affected his mental health.

‘Is this the same Eshu?’

One day in Class 9, a science teacher was asking questions in class. The teacher knew Koli was a bright student and anticipated that he would answer the question. However, Koli failed to answer it. The teacher then asked: “Is this the same Eshu?”

This made Koli wonder why the teacher asked the question. This line, Koli said, numbed his mind. For the next few days, he kept thinking about what the teacher said and what it meant. Koli said he realised that the teacher was referring to who he was before, and who he had become.

A drop in grades in Class 11

After this realisation, Koli started focusing on his studies. Although his Class 10 marks were brilliant, he did not set any targets for Class 11 and 12. He also joined Class 11 two months later.

It was around this time that Koli developed an interest in gaming. Days and nights were spent playing games. After returning home from school, Koli used to play games for about eight to nine hours and then go to school the next day without studying. This routine became a part of Koli’s daily life.

Koli realised that his grades were going down again, however, he did not care enough to focus on his studies. Moreover, he had no goals. He just thought that after completing his Class 12, he would get into a good college.

Challenges and sacrifices in Class 12

After his father told him to dream big and prepare accordingly, Koli started looking into the JEE syllabus. He realised that he had wasted a lot of time in Class 11 and therefore was finding it difficult to start in Class 12. Cracking IIT was quite a challenge but he started preparing and put his best foot forward.

“For this, I used to wake up at 6 am and sleep late at night,” he said.

Failure in mock tests

One day, Koli appeared for a JEE Main mock test in which he scored very poorly. Undeterred, Koli started paying attention to all those areas due to which his score was low. He also changed his routine. He started waking up at 4 in the morning and sleeping at 11 at night. The same routine continued until the day of the exam. He cleared JEE Main 2020 on the first attempt.

A birthday gift for his father

Then came the JEE Advanced exam. When Koli was going to take the exam, he learnt that his father wanted to take up engineering and join an IIT but he could not due to financial problems. The JEE Advanced 2020 result was declared on October 5, his father’s birthday. He turned his father’s dream of studying in an IIT a reality, saying he “gave the gift of an IIT Bombay admission” to his father.

Courtesy: http://www.joshtalks.com