Gaurav Keshri, Chemical Engineering , 2017-2021
We have often heard people saying- “We should not give up and we should not allow the problem to defeat us” . Despite this we often get bogged down by situation that are not favorable to us. But the above phrase was completely followed by Gaurav Keshri, a boy who defied all odds to become educated and informed youth of the nation.
Hailing from middle-class family of small district in Jharkhand, Gaurav Keshri is always passionate about his studies. He has zealous and supportive family. His mother is home-maker and a strong-willed woman who manages the family after his father left for his heavenly abode in 2018 due to heart-attack. He has two elder sisters of which one is married and settled while other helps his mother in household chores. He has one elder brother as well who works as an assistant system engineer at TCS.
Gaurav is bright student from his younger days. In spite of changing school over and over again because school got shut permanently due to a smaller number of students, he managed to excel in his studies. He did his matriculation from Blue Bells School and secured 9.2 CGPA in AISSE. After this he did his intermediate from Deoghar College (JAC board affiliated) and got 80%. In the same year he cleared JCECE with 795 rank and got admission into BIT Sindri, one of the esteemed government colleges in India.
When asked about his college experience till date, Gaurav had huge smile on his face while describing the experience. Getting so much exposure to different activities, he keeps learning new things every day from his professors, seniors and friends. He finds everyone here in college supportive and caring. His love for studies is becoming more prominent with time. However soon he started facing challenges. Being student at engineering college and in this digital world, laptop is something which has acquired a crucial place.
From preparing for GATE, taking online test series, reading free e-books, to learning different programming languages, he felt left out from the race. Accidently one day Gaurav met one of the recipients of laptop from Anant Prayas who described everything about Anant Prayas to him. He applied through the online portal of Anant Prayas but unfortunately didn’t get selected. But without being affected by rejection, he kept trying and finally got call in his third attempt.
It was in the evening of 7th of July 2020 when he was sitting with his family members, he received mail from Anant Prayas about he being selected for 8th round of laptop distribution. He could not control his happiness and informed his family about the mail. Gaurav describes this whole incident as blessing in disguise for him and his family.
He is now turning every challenge into opportunity. He has started learning different programming languages and has also started serious preparation for GATE. He also managed to get internship in content writing, through which he is making small contribution to his family income during this Covid-19 pandemic. Meanwhile he is also educating himself by learning new skills which he can use in his professional career.
Speaking about his experience after receiving the laptop from Anant Prayas, Gaurav feels extremely fortunate and happy and owe this happiness to Anant Prayas and people supporting this great cause and wish that this chain which started in the year 2016 never breaks and that he would be delighted to contribute to this noble initiative whenever he becomes capable of donating.
Nitish Kumar, Electrical Engineering, 2018-2022
Born into family of small grocery shop owner, Nitish is eldest of his siblings. His mother is a homemaker. He did his early schooling from Daltonganj, small village in Jharkhand and secured 9.8 CGPA in his matriculation. He then went to DAV Public School, Hehal for his intermediate and scored 81.6%. Though Nitish’s family could not afford to buy expensive books for him, he did not let this affect his studies in any way. He worked hard and was fortunate enough to get into BIT Sindri.
Being at college, he always tries to learn as much as he can. Not being introduced to much opportunities back in his school days, he was a shy boy. But now at college he is opening up and making new friends. Apart from academics in which he is doing exceedingly good amongst his batchmates, he is also taking part in various extracurricular activities.
Owing a laptop was far beyond his reach until one of his seniors told him about Anant Prayas. He followed what his senior guided him. After rounds of interview he was selected for the distribution round. Learning new programming languages and developing new skills have become part of his daily routine.
Nitish received something which he never thought of having but was in need of it. He is happy and feels advantaged but he says there are many students like him whose dreams are high but are deprived of many basic resources. Not everyone who are highly advantaged think of those who lack what others can easily afford, and people associated with Anant Prayas are real gems who are thinking about them. He thanks everyone from bottom of his heart and requests to keep supporting this great work.
