Success is the result of perfection, hard work, learning from failure, loyalty, and persistence.
Our association with Mustifund Aryaans Higher Secondary School (MAHSS) has given us many opportunities to meet prodigious individuals and on the 3rd of July we were able to meet the alumini of MAHSS Mr.Deepak Gopalan ,Mr.Aditya Patki and Mr.Ravindra Kudchadkar, all of whom are IITians. They shared their experiences with us giving us an insight in to life at the IITs . We also had the opportunity to meet Sir Shambhu Prabhudesai who has been a guiding light to our Director Mr. Vyankatesh Prabhudesai during his formative years inspiring him to reach for the stars and to maintain a high standard of ethics and discipline, which is a hallmark of Aryaans.
We started off the session with our Director introducing the guests and familiarising us with their current endeavours . Mr.Deepak Gopalan has completed his 3rd year and has received a fellowship from Stanford University, USA for the Ph.D program. Mr. Aditya Patki has also completed his 3rd year and is now currently looking to get into the industry to get some experience.Mr Patki would then like to take up some research. Mr. Ravindra Kudchadkar is doing his 3rd year at IIT Delhi. Sir Shambhu Prabhudesai has now retired after having imparted knowledge for more than 40 years to the young minds in the village of Loliem.
We then started the interaction with Mr. Deepak telling us about his life at IIT. He commenced by saying that he was ambiguous about what he wanted to do initially and said that IIT gave him the unique opportunity to explore a myriad of choices. He had begun by choosing the dual degree program in Mechanical engineering and then ended up switching to the Electrical department at IIT. At IIT he got the opportunity to take up an internship program every summer by virtue of which he was able to visit the NUS at Singapore and the Boston University, USA giving him a wide range of exposure. He finally said that the two years he spent at Aryaans really helped him to achieve what he wanted.
Mr. Aditya told us about the projects that he was involved with at IIT. These projects were mostly industry based, giving him an exposure to technicalities involved in industrial employment. Mr. Aditya is a great enthusiast of renewable energy and has worked on a project involving storing solar energy in the form of heat. He has even worked on a project for a big company like Google that involved improving the performance of the immense data processing machines at lower powers. He was also associated with ISRO on a miniature satellite project which was quite challenging. He said that even though he had some difficulties during his projects he had the benefit of being able to interact with some of the best minds in the world with lots of exposure in such fields. Sir VPD observed that this would only be possible at an institute of the calibre of the IITs.
Mr. Ravindra told us about his experience at IIT Delhi. He had started of with the ‘Textile branch’ but then shifted to Chemical Engineering during his second year by cracking a high CGPA in the first year. He was also a part of a project involving the designing of a portable medical diagnosis unit. He did most of the part of designing the electrical sensors, even though he was a student of the department of chemical engineering, which is remarkable. Such a thing is a testament to the versatility of IITs. Mr Kudchadkar emphasized that the professors at IIT were always ready to assist students and were very accessible generally.
Then we were able to listen to Sir Shambhu Prabhudesai who is considered as his ‘Godfather’ by our Director who inspired him to set foot in to the IITs by dint of sheer hard work and a will of steel. He started off by saying that even though he was a teacher in a remote village like Loliem, he had the opportunity to teach brilliant students like sir VPD and many of his schoolmates who are currently doing very well. He said that such students brought out the best of his abilities and kept driving him to give his best while teaching. When asked about the quality of students in the recent years he mentioned that the students earlier had really good moral values and ethics and were not contaminated by the ill effects of social media but then with the advent of social media and the good students of the village migrating to cities, the quality of students had decreased. But even then the teachers continued to try their best to teach the students and to make their lives successful. This gave us an important message, to stay away from social media which have become an obstacle in the process of learning and only serve to distract students.
The three young IITians continued to give us valuable insights in to the hostel life at IIT, which is an educational experience by itself. They mentioned that the hostels were a site of cultural and social intercourse which became an unforgettable part of their lives. We were told that for the amount of activities available, 24 hours were not enough. At the hostel you are among the crème de la crème of student intelligentsia and this gives you an impetus to push your envelopes. In such an environment, excellence is no longer an occasional visitor. It is, in fact, a habit.
Listening to the speakers about their life at IIT and the valuable information given to us by Sir. Shambhu Prabhudsai really motivated me to try my best and work hard to be able to reach an institution of such high stature. I would like to thank our Director , for all his efforts to keep us motivated by allowing us to meet such distinguished personalities. This always keeps us going and helps us stay focused on our targets.
“I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.”
Written by: Aditya Parsekar ( Class 11) and Dr. Ketan Sardesai, faculty MAHSS