From Rags to a Software Developer at Samsung — A Real Story
If you hesitate before helping people, this is for you. Your simple helping hand can change someone’s life for the better.
I never thought I would be writing about someone whom I have not been in touch for over 2 years now. But seeing his LinkedIn profile, I couldn’t keep it to myself. A boy who grew up in a penurious household, his father driving “rickshaws” in India and merely earning $150 in a month, is now a software developer at Samsung India — and I am proud to be a part of his journey.
A dream does not become reality through magic;
It takes sweat, determination, and hardwork. ~ Colin Powell
I was just casually scrolling through my LinkedIn feed, when I saw this on his profile — “Incoming Software Development Engineer at Samsung”. I am still unsure how it came up, since we were not even a connection on LinkedIn. And very frankly, I was both shocked and excited to know that this was the boy whom I had coached a few years ago. So I had to tell this story.
The best part of my undergraduate life was joining a program called “Aarohan”, where we coached meritorious underprivileged students in our locality to crack some of the toughest exams in India to get into the top engineering colleges. He was also a student in that batch. If I remember correctly, he was in the 2015 batch, and was also one of the most calm students of the batch. Back then, I was just a volunteer with the program and taught physics to the kids. It was really a stress buster for me. I could teach my favorite high school topic to these brilliant kids who just needed some help and guidance.
This boy lived more than an hour away from my campus (we used to take these free classes in our university campus), but diligently used to come to these classes regularly without bawling about his difficulties. While other students complained about getting tired after school, getting stuck in a pollution filled traffic or of family problems in their house, this boy used to be the first one to come, switch on the lights of the room and study, while volunteers came late or cancelled classes. There were days when the institute used to mess up room bookings or not accept our special requests of giving us a space. However, he was never demotivated — you could find him studying on the corridor, the university lawn and sometimes, I sneaked him into my hostel common room, just so that he could sit properly and study. I am one of those, who is very proud of studying at one of the top notch colleges in India, but aggrieved about how poorly it supported us in helping young these young talented kids coming from an underprivileged household.
The failure
Unfortunately, that year, he could not perform as I had expected. Our team was unsure of the next step. Should we just take admission to a lower tier college or drop a year so that he can put more efforts and try again ? What if it goes bad for him again ? This was true for most of the batch. We doubted ourselves, whether we were doing a good job in teaching them. There were several loopholes in the way we worked. Since most students were doing it voluntarily in the free time they got from busy their academic schedules — maintaining sincerity and regularity was a tedious task.
To top that, the home environment of these children were not very “study” friendly. Most lived in very poor households (or slums) where there were hardly any facilities to study in a focused manner. Even after all these difficulties, he was determined to to do better, to get into the college he wanted. He wanted to TRY again !
Rise after the fall
This led to the birth of what we called, “The dropper’s batch”. I am not sure, but probably that was the first time in the history of Aarohan, that a dropper’s batch was started. It just had 5 students, but students who dreamt big. Students who wanted to put in more work, more energy in getting the best education and getting out of their poverty. We made several reforms. Each student was allotted a mentor who kept track of their daily progress. Backup volunteers were arranged so that no classes were missed wasting time of these students.
Most, if not all of the students of this batch lost hope mid-way. Either it became too tedious for them, or they just didn’t like the rigorous system that was put in action. I will admit, the disorganization on our part also had a role to play. However, this boy never complained a word. He gave all the tests, completed assignments, called his mentors for solving doubts, and even used to ask us to arrange extra doubt classes on weekends.
If it is important to you, you will find a WAY,
If not, you will find an EXCUSE.
The result
Again, it was the result day for these students, the last chance these students had to perform well. And I was probably disheartened again. Of course they performed better than the last time, but still, I expected much more. My dream of getting atleast one of them into one of the premier institutes of India, the IITs was grounded. This was the last chance, and I had failed them. Fortunately, most of them got into colleges in New Delhi, the capital of India. This boy, however, managed to get into the Electronics and Communication Engineering department of one of a national level college in Delhi. I was extremely delighted— but that didn’t last long.
He told it was difficult for this father to arrange the whole fees needed to get admission. It is weird in India — if you are rich and from a special caste, your fee is relaxed. But if you are talented, but financially weak, and from a general category, no one really bothers.
The struggle
You may not believe me at this point, but this was the first time I made a Twitter account just to reach out to the educational (HRD) ministry for help. Yes, I was an amateur at that time, but the social media hype of these ministries responding to genuine help requests was so much in my mind, that I ended up giving it a shot. But to my frustration, it didn’t help. I tried many other sources of help, but all were futile. As time was passing by, it was becoming a tense and frustrating situation. Finally, I reached out to my alumni network, to get help. I asked them for any kind of donation they would do to help this boy, and it was propitious. Most responded positively and that simply made my day. One of the seniors I contacted, got me in touch with a professor at the college where we were seeking admission. The kind professor promised me to get him admitted at any cost — it was a relief. After 2 days of struggle, failed attempts and calling several people, I had more in hand that I needed. That seemed like a very happy ending. He joined the college that year, and we stayed in touch for about a year or so over Facebook and WhatsApp. But soon enough, we lost contact with each other.
The real joy
A lot happened in my life over the next few years. I graduated with a bachelors, moved to the US and started with my PhD — I got busy. After almost 4 years of no contact, I saw LinkedIn suggesting me his profile as a new connection. Immediately I went to his profile, to check how he has been doing. And I was filled with joy — this boy was going to be a Software Development Engineer at one of the top tech companies, Samsung. He was now going to live a life and do a job which many people dream of.
Hardwork, perseverance, sincerity and a little bit of helping hand completely changed the life of a whole family.
I learnt one important life lesson from this — never stop helping others, especially those who want to live their dreams irrespective of what their current situation dictates them to do. Even if it does not show fruits immediately, you never know in the log run, it may completely change the life of that person. No doubt that talent was in the boy, his dedication brought him fruits — but I do believe a simple helping hand made those fruits sweeter for him.
When you help other people, you help yourself.
It’s impossible to not feel great when you do good for others.
Funnily enough, this boy is completely off social media — I think he has been too busy working hard to fulfil his dreams. And that’s the reason, I still haven’t been able to touch base with him over any possible social media platforms. But when I do, this time probably I would be the one taking guidance from him on how to be a great coder !
I hope you liked this article, and would not stay back from helping people in need. This was a great first hand experience for me, and I hope the reading made you even more thoughtful about being compassionate. If you would like to say anything, feel free to use the responses section, email me at jishnudeep.kar@gmail.com or DM me on Instagram.
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