My Journey To IIM Bangalore - S Chiranth's Inspiring Story

Someone asked my parents to put me in a Corporation school because they did not have the money. Now how is this for a profile?

Never underestimate the determination of parents when it comes to their kids.

They might not have been able to give me a luxurious life, we might have had to live with two meals a day, we might have been rendered homeless in Bangalore, we might have had to face the wrath of local money lenders, I might have had to study under streetlights, I might have had to work as a door-to-door salesman or as a product promoter in malls and supermarkets to support them, I might have had to wear borrowed clothes and uniforms but you gotta salute Mr. Shivappa S A and Mrs. Vanitha Shivappa for having brought up the best kid in the family!

I know I am being pompous but I will not take those words back. Ten years ago I wasn’t even sure of completing my education and today I am standing at the doors of IIMs and other premier B-Schools.

They say keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Probably the only reason you guys are on my friend list. Innondh maathadi ivaga nam appa amman bagge nodthini! (Talk another word about my parents now I’ll see!)

Thanks to Mrs. Saroja Shetty (Owner aunty as we fondly call her) from Chandra Layout who funded most of my education from Class V to XII. She is like a Godmother to me.

Thanks to Canara Bank for sanctioning the education loan without any collateral during engineering and also thanks to Vasu Dodappa (uncle) for helping me with it.

Thanks to my friends for all the support! They have been a great motivation throughout.

A special mention of a friend from school here – Alok Rao. I still remember those days in school when he used to come to my aid even though I didn’t ask for it. There was this phase when I used to always get caught in the school’s morning assembly for not wearing a blazer. He came up to me, gave me 1000 bucks and asked me to buy one. With a family income of 1500 bucks my parents were in no state to afford a blazer back then. There have been many such instances.

“Relatives are relatives. Friends are family”

Thanks to Amol Ashish KS Ashish Shenoy Basu Divakar Manoj Nakul Pindimane Pratheek Puneeth

Roshan Shanmugha Shaunak SreedharSudhamshu Susheel Tej Varun and Vb Yathish (friends) for helping me with the initial investment at IIMs. (Don’t worry, in the Game of Loans Chiranth always pays his debts)

Thanks to all those who gave us shelter when we had nowhere to go. Rakshitha Krishnamurthy (family friend) your parents deserve a mention here. Also Kalki aunty (neighbour) from NGEF layout (one of the localities we stayed in).

Thanks to everyone who has helped us in some way or the other- be it giving us Rs10 or two cups of rice or a pail of water. We are what we are because of all that. I really hope the society gets more people like you guys.

Thanks to my teachers from VPS, NCJ and BMSCE for every bit of knowledge they have imparted.
Special thanks to Arks Srinivas sir (CEO of VistaMind) who has been a great inspiration throughout my CAT journey.

Thanks to Krunal and Vibu from Delphi (Team Lead and Manager) and Dr. Ravishankar Deekshit and Dr. P Meena (Professors from BMSCE)for the letters of recommendation.

PS - I know there are a lot more people who have gone through a lot more and achieved a lot more (in fact you can find a lot of them in my friend list itself!) and I also know I still have a long way to go but this post is not meant for show off (well a little may be :P), it’s just a token of gratitude to the ones who have supported us (and of course a token of attitude to the ones who tried to pull us down).

I rarely shared the grey side of my life with anybody because I was always scared of the sympathy factor that might have come into picture. Amol Tambe and Sagar (friends) are the only ones who have seen me going through stuff and that is because they were my neighbours and I couldn’t hide it from them.

I usually put up short and funny (sometimes lame) posts, sorry to be boring you with this long and serious one! :)

 

 

(This story was originally published by the author on his Facebook account)

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