Introduction

This story is about me who lacked good schooling and education in my early life, which influenced my behaviour and choices in life and formed my habits in a way that I could never excel in academics later on. I struggled in those shoddy schools, lost interest in my studies and did things which made me happy rather than focusing on my studies. Even 15 years later after my schooling, I am still the same. I prefer to do things which I enjoy, and I guess, when I do something, I do it with all sincerity. This story covers my journey from those unmentionable schools to some of the most well-known organizations to one of the best management schools in India. This is the story about a dream of a person who took an unconventional path but was confident and at times overconfident about his capabilities and fulfilled his dream to attend one of the most prestigious institutions of the country. I agree, that I was late in everything I did, be it my engineering or my master’s, but I don’t regret this delay as I enjoy every bit of my life.

Early Years

I was born in a family where no one had ever gone to high school, however, my maternal grandfather who used to be an astrologer, predicted that I would become an engineer. I had heard this story multiple times from my family members but no one in my family seemed to believe this prediction, but it turns out that, the prediction was true and I would eventually attend an engineering school and will work as an engineer for almost seven years.

My primary education started when I joined the Children’s Wonderland School (CWS) in Asansol W.B.. I remember my first day there, my mother came to drop me and I hugged her tight and cried when she was leaving. She wiped my tears with her pallu of saree, distracted me and then ran away. I would only stop crying once I met the kids of my family during recess.

CWS was one of the great schools in the city and I used to do very well there, I was amongst the top 5 scorers till I was there, and I vividly remember that all the kids in my home used to attend the same school and were not as good students as I and hence after the results, I would be praised by my grandfather and others were scolded, as a young kid I thoroughly enjoyed it and demanded gifts from my uncles for my good grades and they used to graciously give me those. One of the gift those days was that I wanted to watch “Raja Hindustani” a movie starring Aamir Khan and Karishma Kapoor if I got an ‘A’ grade, a feat I achieved easily and the wish was granted.

Soon things changed and my father had to change the city, we moved to a place called Dumka, where I along with my sister was admitted to Bal Bharti School, which was a decent Hindi medium school but was nowhere close to the one I was attending before. This school had a considerably lower fee of ₹60 a month and I guess that’s the reason my parents chose this school. I started losing interest in studies and my performance was very mediocre, in hindsight when I look back, I think the drop in performance was more due to the lack of interest as I never liked my new school and wasn’t putting enough effort, or it might be just that now I wasn’t declared a hero amongst my cousins as they were in different city.

I am not sure the reason behind my poor scores, but this was the place which took me away from academics. I studied at Bal Bharti for three years and then moved to Zila School, Dumka, which was a government school. As in a typical government school, teachers wouldn’t come to teach and as a student, I was free to do whatever I pleased. I hated this school, but I knew my parents wouldn’t be able to afford a private school and hence, though I occasionally cried in front of my mother in my initial days, but got adjusted to the school and the carefree life it offered. I started focusing on other things like small projects and learned a fair deal of electronics during this period. I learnt so much over the years that I could repair consumer electronics products like TVs, Audio players, Radios etc. and it’s here where I started dreaming of becoming an engineer.

I appeared for my 10th exams from this school in 2004 and secured a dismal 61.4% in my 10th board (see the marks sheet below). The all, I wanted to do was to take admission to a local ITI but the ₹400 per month fee was prohibitive and I dropped the idea.

Higher Secondary

As predicted, I wanted to become an engineer, and the only well-educated person in my family was my mother’s elder brother Late Mr. Sharwan Tungaria. He was a graduate in law and due to financial constraints and personal commitments, he could never pursue a career in law. He was unmarried and treated me like his son. He also understood my pain and moved me to stay with him.

He tried to get me into DAV, but with the kind of academic performance and me being from a Hindi medium school that couldn’t happen. Eventually, I took admission in a school which had just started, and I was in the first batch of that school.

My English was bad, and I used to read a lot of newspapers and magazines to improve on the same, however, it didn’t help much. I remember a funny incident, once I wanted to take a pee and didn’t know how to take permission in English, so I waited for way too long, one of my friends realized that something was wrong and asked me and I told the issue, then he asked the teacher on my behalf, and teacher told why can’t he ask himself, doesn’t he know to speak? and he answered sir, he can’t speak English, that day I felt ashamed of myself.

I failed in class 11, more due to a lack of writing skills in English than anything else, and since I was in the first batch the school promoted me to class 12 to avoid any bad name.

Now came 2006, I appeared for the 12th exam and did poorly in some of the initial exams and told my uncle that I was not doing good, the next day my uncle locked me in a room and didn’t allow to appear me for the exam. I felt he was cruel towards me and all my friends would pass the exams while I’d have to reappear next year. In hindsight, I think he did the right thing, as I was declared failed and was allowed to reappear the next year, had I appeared for all the exams then there was a good chance that I would have passed with a 40-45% aggregate and would have lost the eligibility to appear in any engineering entrance exams.

I appeared once again for my class 12th in 2007, and I failed in Physics. I was pretty sure to get around 70 marks and told my uncle about it. Looking at my confidence he reached out to some of his friends from his law school and by this time one of them was a renowned lawyer in Ranchi high court, who helped us to file an RTI to recheck my copy. Finally, after all the summons and other legality, I was declared pass and was eligible for engineering entrance exams.

Engineering

I joined a private engineering college in Bangalore, my uncle helped me financially for the first year as I wasn’t able to secure an educational loan. The college was good, and I scored 86% in my second semester and saw scores in upwards of 80 for the first time. My highest-ever score also came in the second semester when I scored 95. This makes me believe that I wasn’t that weak in studies, but it had more to do with the quality of teaching and personal efforts.

I turned to the same old habits, once I reached in 3rd Semester. I had secured an educational loan in my second year. I started neglecting my studies and spent most of my time in the college lab which interested me more than the classes. The result of this was dipping grades and I was warned by my uncle and faculties to ensure a decent grade, but I ignored it.

I was involved in everything but studies, in my 3rd year, I was heading multiple groups like, the IEEE chapter of my college, Studsat-2 India’s second student satellite project under the guidance of ISRO, I was also the founding chairman of the embedded club of my college etc.

My personal life during my engineering was quite painful, I always struggled with finances and could never go to various student trips or activities. I used to get ₹3000 a month for my expenses and sometimes that wasn’t enough. It was not that I couldn’t have asked to increase it, but somewhere I was too ashamed of the fact that my parents can’t afford it and it’s my uncle who’ll bear it. There were other issues too, for example, there were times when I’d walk for 12 KMs to save bus fare so that I could have a sugarcane juice which I loved a lot in those days.

I used to work a lot on my projects and my roommates had declared me mad and sometimes used to tell me that despite all the efforts you’ll finally end up in Infosys. Somewhere down the line, I believed them, but then I used to tell them that at least let me live like an electronics engineer during college and we’ll see later what the future has in store for me.

By the time I reached 4th year and placements started my aggregate was so low that I wasn’t even eligible for Infosys, I remember that the placement officer personally made a recommendation to the hiring manager of Infosys, but the manager declined. I cried a lot that day, I thought, I am finished and how will I pay my loan?

Cypress Semiconductors (acquired by Infineon Technologies, my current employer) came to my campus in January 2012, this was the first time a core company was visiting the campus and I was told by the placement office that I had a chance and he would make a personal recommendation to ensure my poor academics record doesn’t become an obstacle. I got lucky as the hiring manager of Cypress had a similar background like me, he had a poor academic record which helped him to understand my pain and offer me a job.

The one regret I have is that my uncle died before I cleared Cypress and I regret that he wasn’t there when the flower he watered was ready to bloom.

Professional Life

I joined Cypress Semiconductors on the 25th of June, 2012. This was the place that changed me around. I was obviously quite happy, but I also met some of the smartest people of my age here, some of them are still my friends.

Most of these people had come from renowned colleges of India and I always felt that they had an advantage of good education and the opportunities I lacked. Many of my colleagues started going for their masters and it was then that I also started dreaming about MS. I was not sure if it was the herd mentality which was forcing me to apply for MS or if it was something I really wanted. I applied continuously for three years from 2014 to 2016, but never got a single admit and gave up on higher education.

During the same time, two of my friends, Ravi and Neha went to IIM-L and IIM-B respectively in 2015. Neha invited me to her hostel on her birthday, this was the first time I visited a hostel of an elite institution and I was quite mesmerized and felt so happy for her. I was always curious about what goes on in such institutions and I remember bothering Neha and Ravi with my questions and I guess they were fed up with answering my questions.

Meanwhile, I moved to Texas Instruments (TI) and left my pursuit of higher education. But over time, I kept meeting Neha and she graciously invited me to her convocation at IIMB on the 20th of March 2017. I was once again mesmerized and felt special to attend the convocation. I guess this was a turning point, it made me feel unsatisfied with the fact that I would never be able to wear that regalia.

At TI, I was handling their key customers and this role allowed me to travel a lot, at one point in time I was going abroad every month. This exposure and dealing with customers and their project issues helped me to learn a lot about their challenges and worries, which enabled me to see the problem from their perspective and provide them with better solutions. I was doing good at TI but at the same time, I was getting bored of what I was doing and also was looking to figure out what’s next.

In 2018, amidst all this personal turmoil, one of my friends Rohan Yajurvedi from my engineering days, did a 1 year MBA from IIM-I and he suggested I apply as well, after initial discussion with him, Neha, and Ravi, I applied to IIMA and IIMB.

Surprisingly, I got an interview call from IIMA, I reached out to Ravi and Neha for inputs only to realize that Ravi’s father is hospitalized and Neha is having some personal issues, hence I didn’t bother them much for inputs on the interview and selection process.

I looked at the internet for some time and realized that my past academics were very poor for selection at IIM-A. Therefore, I didn’t prepare much, I just met a couple of people whom I knew barely, and they helped me a bit. An alumnus of IIM-B gave me some inputs about what they expect and that was all the preparation I had. I clearly remember that I attended that interview with zero confidence of selection and hence, I was fearless and didn’t answer diplomatically. I clearly told in the interview about what I was looking for and somehow, I guess I was able to sell my poor academics with my above-average professional experience.

Conclusion

The only thing, I think, worked for me was that I was sincere. I wasn’t trying to prove anything to the world, rather I did everything for myself. I worked hard because I liked it not because that was the prerequisite to get somewhere.

I don’t say that my way was right, you can have your own way and can succeed. The only thing I have learned so far is that be persistent and not let that fire die down. Keep working and follow your passion and if you work hard then there’s someone up there who’ll reward you.

For me I don’t think I deserved everything that I have today, I think I got lucky at many points. My uncle invested his time and resources in me, I focused on projects rather than academics which gave me an edge. The hiring manager of Cypress understood my problem and gave me an opportunity recognizing the edge I had. Then I got laid off from my team at Cypress in the first year itself and went to another team which opened my doors for TI. TI gave me a role that allowed me to travel a lot and deal with customers whose experience helped me in the IIMA interview. Today, I can connect all the dots while looking backward it was very difficult to connect these dots looking forward.

Looking back the only thing I regret is that, I couldn’t do anything for my uncle who made me what I am. Who invested in a kid, who looked like a definite failure. I wouldn’t be writing this document if it was not for him. I wish he was around to see me doing well and I had an opportunity to do something for him. But then life is not always fair.