Youthopia April-May 2011

Youthopiafuture beckons...

Vacation!!! How to make the most of it...

OMG Facts...

Puzzle Corner

Career in Hotel Management

General Awareness Quiz

You don’t have to be a topper to make it

big!!!

April - May, 2011Issue -- 2

contentsYouthopia

future beckons!!!

follow Ordell on

Cover Story Hotel ManagementDetailed discussion on Career Opportuni-ties in the field of Hotel Management

Career and Development

Make the most of your vacation...How to learn new things, have loads of fun and many more during these vacations...

Student CornerOMG FactsAmazing facts that will dazzle you

Fun ZonePuzzle World

General Awareness QuizQuiz to test your knowledge about ongoing in the world

Story of Naga Naresh KaruturaAn Inspiration for all...

www.ordelledu.com

http://blog.ordelledu.com/

Common Myths about CareersYou don’t have to be a topper to make it big

http://www.ordelledu.com/

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ordell-Educational-Services/125089607518227

http://twitter.com/Ordelledu

To share your opinions, insights and brickbats, shoot an e-mail at [email protected]

“To get through the hardest journey we need to take only one step at a time, but we must keep on stepping” – Chinese Proverb

The journey on which Ordell has embarked is full of challenges and pitfalls. We have entered uncharted waters. Youthopia’s inaugural issue got a great response and here we are with the next issue. We know the destination, but the path keeps revealing itself; there are multiple ways and we keep striving to find the best way forward.

We have been questioned behind our reason to venture into career planning. While almost everyone is appreciative of the intent but there is still a long way before young students and their parents internalize the importance of it. Often, by the time one realizes the importance of probing oneself to find one’s calling, it is too late to do anything about it.

The purpose behind the inception of ‘Ordell’ is primarily to sensitize the society about the relevance of judicious career decisions. We look at ourselves as ‘game-changers’ who strive to revolutionize the way career planning is perceived and bring in a more focused and planned approach towards it.

Perceptions are hard to influence and take time to change. We are looking to influence few young minds to ignite their dreams and embark on their dream career.

Continuing our journey, Team Ordell is excited about our latest venture – ‘EduVille’. It is an event where students and parents will get an opportunity to learn about various careers and get requisite information. It will bring in all perspectives from professionals, Students and Academicians to provide a complete picture. After Hyderabad, we intend to move to other cities with a similar offering.

As the year begins, we look forward to a new beginning and take the dream of ‘Ordell forward’.

Amen to a new start!!!

Team Ordell

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Youthopiafuture beckons!!!

Hotel Management“Hotels can be mesmerizing, spotlessly clean with service on demand. A good ho-tel makes you feel as the King of the world, where things appear as soon as you ask and you are treated like royalty. Behind all that magical experience and grandeur there is a great deal of hard work and de-tailing which goes into it , where the Hotel managers have to expertly marshall their resources for the guest to have an unforget-table experience. “

Hotel Management is among the most glamorous professions in the present sce-nario. Aided by a steady increase in glo-balization and the resulting boom in the Tourism industry, the hotel industry has witnessed immense growth in the past decade. Continued rise in the number of hotel chains being established in the country has led to a plethora of career op-portunities not only in India but abroad as well. Demand for trained manpower in this industry is immense as these Star hotels require trained staff for various departments such as Food and Beverage (F&B), Housekeeping, Accounting, Mar-keting, Recreation, Computer Applica-tions, Financial Management, Engineer-ing, Maintenance, Security, Fire Fighting and Public Relations.

These internationally operating hotels promise a bright future for those who wish to take up a career in this sector. Since the work environment requires one to mingle with people from varied backgrounds, it is essential that the candidates have an af-finity towards socializing and understand-ing the needs of the people.

Sounds Exciting, what makes me eli-gible to enter this field??

Students who have successfully passed their 12th standard examination can pur-


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sue certificate, diploma or bachelors in hotel management. The duration of a cer-tificate course can vary from six months to one year. Duration of the bachelor and diploma courses generally range between one and half to three years. Those with graduation can go for post graduate di-ploma courses, the duration of which is one year. Admission is based on one’s per-formance in the written admission test, personal interview and group discussion. These hotel management courses make one aware of the operating-sections of the hotel industry like front office, general op-erations, sales and marketing, food and beverage, service keeping and catering.

Selection to most government recognized institutes is based on a common entrance test. The entrance test will have questions that assess a student’s proficiency in Eng-lish, logical reasoning, mathematics, gen-eral science and general knowledge. The entrance test is of two hours in duration. It is usually held around April. Candi-dates who succeed in the written test are then asked to appear for an interview and group discussion session. Private insti-tutes also conduct tests of their own, the pattern of which is almost the same.

Eligibility is easy, Am I cut-out for the world of Hotels:

A job in the hotel industry is all about mak-ing people happy and comfortable. This requires the candidate be equipped with

excellent communication and interper-sonal skills, strong commitment and self-discipline. It’s not ideal to be an extrovert and one has to be co-operative, polite and respectful to the guests, have patience to deal guest criticism even when you know you are right, willing to work hard even at odd hours and yet be cheerful.

Great, so how are my Job Prospects?

Lots of lucrative and interesting openings are there for hotel management graduates in various fields like Hotel & Restaurant management, Airline Catering and Cabin Services, Club management, Cruise Ship Hotel Management, Hotel and Tourism Associations, Forest Lodges, Guest Hous-es, Institutional Management (supervis-ing canteens in college, schools, factories, company guest houses etc.), Catering de-partments of railways, banks, armed forc-es, shipping companies etc. Self-employ-ment is another lucrative option although it involves considerable investment.

So, where will I start from?

A hotel consists of main departments such as Operations, Front office, House keep-ing, Food and Beverages, Accounting, En-gineering/ Maintenance, Sales and Secu-rity. Each department has a number of positions that one can opt for.

1. General Operations: General Manager, who is the man in charge, is the coor-dinator and administrator, responsible


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Prominent Institutes for Hotel Management

Name of the Institute Address Phone and E-mail

Oberoi Centre for Learning and Development

7, Sham Nath Marg, Delhi-110 054, India.

Ph +91-11-2389 0505 Email: [email protected]

IHM, Mumbai Veer Sawarkar Marg, Dadar (WR), Mumbai- 400 028

Ph: 022-4457241/42, Fax: 022-4449779

Welcomgroup Graduate School of Hotel Administration

Valley View, Manipal 576119

Ph: 08252-571101, Fax: 08252-571327 Email: [email protected]

IHM, Delhi National Council for Hotel Management & Catering Technology, Pusa New Delhi

Ph: 5751756, 5782799, 5781060, 5717411

IHM, Aurangabad Dr Rafiq Zakaria Campus, Rauza Bagh, Aurangabad 431 001, Maharashtra, India

Tel: 0240-238 1113, 0240-2381127 Fax: 0240-2381104, Email: [email protected]

IHM, Bangalore S.J. Polytechnic Campus, Seshadri Road, Bangalore 560 001,India

Ph: 91-80-2226 2960, 91-80-2238 6763 Fax: 91-080-22268562, E-mail: [email protected]

IHM, Chennai CIT Campus, TTTI - Taramani P.O., Chennai - 600 113,

Phone: 044-22542029, Fax: 044-22541615 EMail: [email protected]

IHM, Calcutta P-16, Taratola Road, Calcutta - 700 088

Ph: 033-4784218, Fax: 033-4784281

IHM, Ahmedabad Govt. Polytechnic Compound, Ahmedabad - 380 015

Ph: 079- 401339, Fax: 079-6568017

Christ College, Bangalore

Hosur Road, Bangalore - 560029

Ph: 080-25526169/164, Email:[email protected]

for staff management, financial con-trol, and provision of services, quality control and customer care. Depending on the size of the hotel, general man-agers could have assistant managers to supplement their work.

2. Front Office: It is the centre of all activ-ities. Important functions such as re-ceiving the guests, making room reser-vations, handling correspondence and preparing bills and keeping accounts of the guest services are handled at the front office. The de-partment is headed by Front office man-ager or Executive House-keeper who supervises and co-ordinates the work. Then there are As-sistant Manager, Lobby executive, front office supervi-sor, information as-sistant, reception-ist, bell captain, bell boy, and door man etc. to perform their assigned roles.

3. House Keeping: The work of keeping the hotel, the rooms, the bars, the restaurants etc. clean and making it presentable to the guests and

ensuring facilities and comfort to them is handled by this department. Those handling this department are Chief ex-ecutive House keeper, floor supervisor, room attendants, linen supervisors, Maids etc.

4. Food and Beverages Department: This department is the hub of the hotel in-dustry and is responsible for all the food that is prepared and served in the hotel. The main functions performed

by the depart-ment are- presen-tation, prepara-tion and service of food and bev-erages involving kitchen, bar and baker. Overall in charge of kitchen is known as Chef de Cuisine, the in charge of sec-tion is called Chef de Partis and the one who super-vises and coordi-nates the work of Chef de partis is known as Sous-Chef. One who

cooks food is known as Cook, the person in overall charge of dining hall is called Maitre de hotel, Captain in charge of part of dining hall is known as Chef


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de Range, one who serves food is Demi Chef de Range or Steward. Then there is the restaurant hostess who makes the guests comfortable and deal with any complaints by the guests. Those serving drinks are bartenders.

5. Accounting Department: This depart-ment deals with both cash and credit transactions, i.e all the financial trans-actions like purchase of materials, of-fering of services to the guests etc. This department also compiles information required for budgeting, pricing of food and services and so on. Professionals like cash, cost and works accountants are given higher positions in the de-partment. Chief cashier, cash clerk/bill clerk are the positions handled in this department.

6. Sales & Marketing: This department keeps in touch with travel agents and tour operators as well as other poten-tial corporate clients in order to sell hotel facilities. Advertising and Public Relations is also normally handled by this department.

7. Engineering / Maintenance Depart-ment: Qualified engineers are appoint-ed for the maintenance of the building and various machines involved in the premises. They are assisted by neces-sary staff in the electrical and mechan-ical departments. Mechanical Engi-neers, Electrical Engineer, Plumbers,

carpenters etc are employed by this de-partment.

8. Then there is the Security department which provides security to the guest and their belongings and employs se-curity Officers/ guards for this purpose. Retires Army personnel are preferred by this department.

Hotel Management is an exciting & glam-orous field, it may not pay high initially but boarding and lodging is always pro-vided for. Once you establish yourself, the pay becomes handsome.

If Hospitality excites you, and luxury liv-ing a passion, then Hotel Management is an ideal career choice to enjoy life while working.


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You don’t have to be a topper to make it big!!!

Why cannot you be like that topper in your class, God! What will happen to your fu-ture…?

A common plea of parents to their children in a desperate effort to motivate them, not realizing that saying such things have an opposite effect and that one need not nec-essarily be a topper in exams to excel in life.

A topper in class does not definitely make you a topper in life. The Indian scenario is

such that when there are exams in school there is pressure at home. Parents always feel that if their child tops in class only then he will become rich and successful in future. But that is not the true picture. Ex-ams and academic performance is taken bit too seriously by the parents and hence in this process they end up pressurizing the kids a bit too much.

The pressure of exams has a terrible im-pact in the development of kids. Some amount of pressure is definitely impor-tant in everyone’s life. However, adding too much of pressure may put off the Child from studies making her or him a rebel or put them under distress, hampering their very academic progress for which the pres-sure is.

Academic success does not always guar-antee success in life. One does not neces-sarily need to be bright to top in a class, human versions of a Xerox machine can be the toppers too. One no longer feels the thirst for knowledge. The only drive that makes everyone strive is for good grades and the consequent pay package.

Cramming and blindly following instructions may make the child a topper in the class. However, the child needs to develop an aptitude and a healthy sense of curiosity to develop the mental strength necessary to propel her/him on the path of success.

This reminds of a scene from the movie


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of Lakshya, when Hrithik Roshan is told “Duniya main kaam koi bhi karo acchi tarah karna jaroori hai... Tum Scientist bano aur accha scientist nahin bano tho kya fayda... ghaas kaatne wala bano par accha ghaas kato toh koi matlab hai..”

The essential thing to remember is that unless you are good at your work, there

will be no recognition of our efforts and no professional growth. Success beckons achievers and to achieve one has to excel in their profession.

Strive to be the best, and success will fol-low, you may become the topper as well, savor that as ‘success ke side effects’ but never as your primary objective.


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If Jamshedpur born R Madhavan had followed his parents’ wishes he would have ended up becoming an engineer. But just like his character in 3 Idiots he fol-lowed his heart and today he is a well-known actor in the Hindi, Telugu and Tamil film industries. “Under parental pressure, I did my B Sc Electronics hoping to do one more year and getting my BTech degree. But by then I had realised that engineering was not my passion. Luckily for me though things changed in my third year.” He was not only nominated as India’s cultural ambassador to Canada but also was sent to England for field training as he was adjudged as the best NCC ca-det in Maharashtra. “This exposure widened my horizons and gave me the confidence to do my own thing. So after my electronics degree, much against my parent’s wishes, I did my Masters in advertising and public relations.”

“Today”, he says, “The sky is the limit. I am getting good work.” Maddy requests all parents to let their children follow their dreams!

“Marks don’t mean everything, tell me were people like Bill Gates or Albert Einstein class toppers? Even I failed in class VIII because my Hindi was bad. Today it’s the same command over the national language which allows me to be accepted in Bollywood.”

Source: www.hindustantimes.com

Oh dear vacation, I wait for you…

Just few more days and I will be free …. That is a thought which keeps us all mov-ing at times, be it exams or regular stud-ies, it is often the wait for a vacation which keeps one motivated to continue working hard.

Vacations- the joyous time that is all yours, no routine classes, no waking up early every day, no deadlines; a no-pres-sure period full of bliss.

Each one of us dreams of vacation times makes elaborate plans and lists down things to do. The time we wait for with ab-solute glee …VACATIONS

Time flies when you are enjoying, that applies especially to vacation time. How many times have you caught yourself wondering at the end of your vacations about things you wanted to do but did not? You console your mind stating that there wasn’t sufficient time but the truth is that you were happily procrastinating the en-tire time and the vacations rushed by.

Not that you should have a time-table, but a better sense of planning and allocating time slots for the activities you want to do will ensure you make most of vacation time while enjoying.

There is no shortage of options, one can pick any activity or even do many things during vacations apart from the usual laz-ing around, watching TV, play-station, WII, etc.

Travel On the adventure trail

Travel opportunities give you a chance to do something daring and dif-ferent. Visiting native village can be a very good choice during this free time. You can enjoy the scenic beauty of the village, can mix with the villag-ers, can learn about how they live.

Alternatively, travel to some exotic place with scenic beauty and undertake activi-ties like river-rafting, bungee-jumping, horse-riding, rock-climbing and paraglid-ing.

If your family cannot make it to such trips, then there are tour groups that go on such journeys every vacation. This travelling will not only give you a new view of life making you fearless and find self-confi-dence


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Making the most of your vacation...

Read, Write, watch and Relax

The summer heat is a perfect excuse to hole up at home and spend some qual-ity time with books. It is the best time to catch up with all those titles that caught your attention. Those you like holding a pen can pen away stories, poems, articles and blog to their heart’s content. You can also catch up on movies that you missed during the year. Basically, a perfect time to revitalize your mind.

Leisure pursuits- pick up hobbies

Learning a new skill is always pleasur-able. Vacations are a good platform for students to accomplish their dreams along with gaining satisfaction and enjoyment. Learn to play that musical instrument you dreamt of, polish your singing voice; learn photography, a computer course, a foreign language, cookery, etc. There is no dearth of options to explore that may help upgrading your skills, make new friends and prepare yourself to face the world.

Mission internship – Learning by do-ing

There are some things that bookish knowl-edge alone cannot provide. For learning beyond the classroom, look for internships to hone your skills. Get a reality check, learn how to tackle different people, im-prove your interpersonal skills, the ben-efits are several. Have entrepreneurial

dreams then work at a business of your choice to get first-hand knowledge and ex-perience. Care for the community and join some local NGO.

Be outdoor- Play

You can learn varieties of sports or exer-cise during vacations. Not only are they good for health, but they are full of enjoy-ment also. It will improve your physical fitness and be a valuable ‘investment’ for your health.

Connect with your spiritual side

Meditation has been popular in recent years. There are some institutions that teach meditation. You can go to one of such institutions like Art of Living .Learn-ing meditation will help you succeed in studies and reach goals in life.

Summer Camps

There are day and resident camps for vir-tually every interest imaginable and for every age group. Whether you want to go to a traditional summer camp or one that specializes in music, art, drama, math, or sports they are available. Time to love in-dependently and have fun.

So, what are you waiting for, make the most of this special time called VACATIONS


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This column provides you the best facts that will really drive you crazy. So go on and share with friends and family !!!

Oysters can change genders back and forth.

By some estimates, there as many neurons in the human brain as there are stars in the

Milky Way

On average, people fear spiders more than they do death.

You can’t hum while holding your nose closed.

A Man sold Oranges to set up a school in his village: Hajabba is

a 47-year-old illiterate fruit seller but he has set up a school in his village in

Mangalore, Karnataka.

Women speak about 7000 words a day. The man averages just over 2000.

Lillian Lowe aged 103 is the world’s oldest facebook user.

A skyscraper in Japan that has a highway passing through it. Gate Tower Building is a 16-story of-fice building in Osaka, Japan. It is notable because a highway passes through the building.

Grapes EXPLODE when you put them in the microwave!

A town that’s been on fire since 1962: Centralia is a town in

Columbia County, Pennsylvania, United States. Its population has dwindled from over 1,000 resi-dents in 1981 to 7 in 2010 as a re-sult of a mine fire burning beneath

the town since 1962.


1. A snail is at the bottom of a 20 meter deep pit. Every day the snail climbs 5 meters upwards, but at night it slides 4 meters back downwards. How many days does it take before the snail reaches the top of the pit? ________________

2. The poor have it, the rich want it, but if you eat it you will die. What is it??

3. In the Tour de France, what is the position of a rider, after he passes the second placed rider?

4. Raju is taller than Es-hwar, Jay is shorter than Raju. Which of the following statements is correct?

• Eshwar is taller than Jay

• Jay is taller than Eshwar

• It cannot be determined if Jay or Es-hwar is tallest.

5. A cable, 18 meters in length, hangs be-tween two pillars that are both 12 meters high. The ends of the cable are attached to the tops of the pillars. At its lowest point, the cable hangs 3 meters above the ground. How far are the two pillars apart?

6. The adjacent figure depicts a fish swimming to the left. By moving 3 sticks, the picture can be modi-fied to a fish swimming to


Puzzle Corner

the right. What are the numbers of those sticks?

7. You are standing next to a well, and you have two jugs. One jug has a content of 3 liters and the other one has a content of 5 lit-ers. How can you get just 4 lit-ers of water using only these two jugs?

8. A man decides to buy a nice horse. He pays $60 for it, and he is very content with the strong animal. After a year, the value of the horse has increased to $70 and he de-cides to sell the horse. But already a few days later he regrets his decision to sell the beautiful horse, and he buys it again. Unfortunately he has to pay $80 to get it back, so he loses $10. After another year of owning the horse, he finally decides to sell the horse for $90. What is the overall profit?

9. Which word, if pronounced right, is wrong, but if pronounced wrong is right?

10. You are lost in a forest. The forest is be-tween two villages. In village A live only liars, they always lie. In village B people always tell the truth. You want to go to village B. Then you see a man from village A or B. You can ask him only one question.

Which question will you ask him to know for sure where village B is?

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1. Who is the current Railway Minister in the Union Cabinet? a. Manmohan Singhb. Mamta Banerjeec. Pranab Mukherjeed. Sonia Gandhi

2. Which team did Michael Shumacher repre-sent when he won 7 Formula One champion-ships?

a. Ferrari

b. McLaren

c. Force India

d. Renault

3. Which city is called the “Manchester of In-dia”? a. Ahemedabad c. Chennaib. Hyderabad d. Mumbai

4. Which of the following represents a field-ing position on the Off-side of a batsman in cricket?a. Deep Mid-wicket c. Long b. Square Leg d. Gully

5. How many Academy awards did the 1997 movie “Titanic” win? a. 8 b. 9 c. 11 d. 10

6. Who has been nicknamed the “Nightingale of India”? a. Shreya Goshal c. Sarojini Naidub. Lata Mangeshkar d. Indira Gandhi

7. What is the name of the Former Telecom Minister who was arrested for his role in the 2G spectrum scam? a. Sharad Pawar c. LK Advani

b. Arun Jaitley d. A.Raja

8. Which of these is responsible for the Green color in plants? a. Chlorophyll

b. Haemoglobin

c. Starch

d. Nectar

9. Which actress made her Bollywood debut in the movie “Dabaang”? a. Katrina Kaif c. Deepika Padukone

b. Sonakshi Sinha d. Sonam Kapoor

10. What is the shape of Earth?

a. Round

b. Sphere

c. Cube

d. Oblate Spheroid


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Naga Naresh Karutura has just passed out of IIT Ma-dras in Computer Science and has joined Google in Bangalore. You may ask, what is so special about this 21-year-old when there are hundreds of students passing from various IITs and joining big companies like Google?

Naresh is special. His par-ents are illiterate. He has no legs and moves around in his powered wheel chair.

Ever smiling, optimistic and full of spirit, that is Naresh. He says, “God has always been planning things for me. That is why I feel I am lucky.” Read why Naresh feels he is lucky.

Childhood in a village

I spent the first seven years of my life in Teeparru, a small village in Andhra Pradesh, on the banks of the river Goda-vari. My father Prasad was a lorry driver and my mother Kumari, a homemaker. Though they were illiterate, my parents instilled the importance of studying in my elder sister and me.

Looking back, one thing that surprises me now is the way my father taught me when I was in the first and second standards. My father would ask me questions from the textbook, and I would answer them. At that time, I did not know he could not read or write but to make me happy, he helped me in my studies!

I used to be very naughty, running around and playing all the time with my friends. I used to get a lot of scolding for disturbing the elders who slept in the afternoon. The moment they started scolding, I would run away to the fields! I also remember finish-ing my schoolwork fast in class and sleep-


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Naga Naresh Karutura, an inspiration for all!!!!

ing on the teacher’s lap!

January 11, 1993, the fateful day

On the January 11, 1993 when we had the Sankranti holi-days, my mother took my sister and me to a nearby village for a family function. From there we were to go with our grandmother to our native place. However, my grand-mother did not come there. As there were no buses that day, my mother took a lift in my father’s friend’s lorry. As there were many people in the lorry, he made me sit next to him, close to the door.

It was my fault; I fiddled with the door latch and it opened wide throwing me out. As I fell, the iron rods protruding from the lorry cut my legs. Nothing happened to me except scratches on my legs.

The accident had happened just in front of a big private hospital but they refused to treat me saying it was an accident case. Then a police constable who was passing

by took us to a govern-ment hospital.

First, I underwent an operation as my small intestine was twist-ed. The doctors also bandaged my legs. I was there for a week. When the doctors found that gangrene had developed and it had reached up to my knees, they asked my father to take me to a district hospital. There, the doctors scolded my parents a lot for neglecting the wounds and allowing the gangrene to de-velop. However, what could my ignorant par-ents do?

In no time, both my legs were amputated up to the hips. I remember waking up and asking my mother, where are my legs? I also remember that my mother cried when I asked the question. I was in the hospital for three months.

Life without legs

I do not think my life changed dramati-cally after I lost both my legs. Because all at home were doting on me, I was enjoying all the attention rather than pitying my-


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self. I was happy that I got a lot of fruits and biscuits.

‘I never wallowed in self-pity’

The day I reached my village, my house was flooded with curious people; all of them wanted to know how a boy without legs looked. But I was not bothered; I was happy to see so many of them coming to see me, especially my friends!

All my friends saw to it that I was part of all the games they played; they carried me everywhere.

God’s hand. I believe in God. I believe in destiny. I feel he plans everything for you. If not for the accident, we would not have moved from the village to Tanuku, a town. There I joined a missionary school, and my father built a house next to the school. Until the tenth standard, I studied in that school.

If I had continued in Teeparu, I may not have studied after the 10th. I may have started working as a farmer or someone like that after my studies. I am sure God had other plans for me.

My sister, my friend

When the school was about to reopen, my parents moved from Teeparu to Tanuku, a town, and admitted both of us in a Mis-sionary school. They decided to put my sister also in the same class though she is two years older. They thought she could

take care of me if both of us were in the same class. My sister never complained.

She would be there for everything. Many of my friends used to tell me, you are so lucky to have such a loving sister. There are many who do not care for their sib-lings.

She carried me in the school for a few years and after a while, my friends took over the task. When I got the tricycle, my sister used to push me around in the school.

My life, I would say, was normal, as everyone treated me like a normal kid. I never wallowed in self-pity. I was a happy boy and com-peted with others to be on top and the others looked at me as a competitor.

Inspiration

I was inspired by two people when in school; my Maths teacher Pramod Lal who encouraged me to participate in vari-ous local talent tests, and a brilliant boy


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called Chowdhary, who was my senior. When I came to know that he had joined Gowtham Junior College to prepare for IIT-JEE, it became my dream too. I was school first in 10th scoring 542/600.

Because I topped in the state exams, Gowtham Junior College waived the fee for me. Pramod Sir’s recommendation also helped. The fee was around Rs 50,000 per year, which my parents could never afford.

Moving to a residential school

Living in a residential school was a big change for me because until then my life centred around home and school and I had my parents and sister to take care of all my needs. It was the first time that I was interacting with society. It took one year for me to adjust to the new life.

There, my inspiration was a boy called K K S Bhaskar who was in the top 10 in IIT-JEE exams. He used to come to our school to encourage us. Though my parents did not know anything about Gowtham Junior School or IIT, they always saw to it that I was encouraged in whatever I wanted to do. If the results were good, they would praise me to the skies and if bad, they would try to see something good in that. They did not want me to feel bad. They are such wonderful supportive parents.

Life at IIT- Madras

Though my overall rank in the IIT-JEE

was not that great (992), I was 4th in the physically handicapped category. There-fore, I joined IIT, Madras to study Com-puter Science.

Here, my role model was Karthik who was also my senior in school. I looked up to him during my years at IIT- Madras. He had asked for attached bathrooms for those with special needs before I came here itself. Therefore, when I came here, the room had attached bath. He used to help me and guide me a lot when I was here.

I evolved as a person in these four years, both academically and personally. It has been a great experience studying here. The people I was interacting with were so brilliant that I felt privileged to sit along with them in the class. Just by speaking to my lab mates, I gained a lot.

‘There are more good people in society than bad ones’

July 28, 2008

Words are inadequate to express my grat-itude to Prof Pandurangan and all my lab mates; all were simply great. Prof Pan-durangan sent me to Boston along with four others for our internship. It was a great experience.

Joining Google R&D

I did not want to pursue PhD, as I want-ed my parents to take rest now. Morgan


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Stanley selected me first but I preferred Google because I wanted to work in pure computer science, algorithms and game theory.

I am lucky. Do you know why I say I am lucky?

I get help from total strangers without me asking for it. Once after my second year at IIT, I with some of my friends was travel-ling in a train for a conference. We met a kind person called Sundar in the train, and he has been taking care of my hostel fees from then on.

I have to mention about Jaipur foot. I had Jaipur foot when I was in third standard. After two years, I stopped using them. As I had almost no stems on my legs, it was very tough to tie them to the body. I found walking with Jaipur foot very, very slow. Sitting also was a problem. I found my tricycle faster because I am one guy who wants to do things faster.

One great thing about the hospital is that they do not think their role ends by just fixing the Jaipur foot; they arrange for livelihood for all. They asked me what help I needed from them. I told them at that time, if I got into an IIT, I needed fi-nancial help from them. Therefore, from the day I joined IIT, Madras, my fees were taken care of by them. Hence, my educa-tion at the IIT was never a burden on my parents and they could take care of my

sister’s Nursing studies.

Surprise awaited me at IIT

After my first year, when I went home, two things happened here at the Institute without my knowledge. I got a letter from my department that they had arranged a lift and ramps at the department for me. It also said that if I came a bit early and checked whether it met with my require-ments, it would be good.

Second surprise was, the Dean, Prof Idi-chandy and the Students General Secre-tary, Prasad had located a place that sold powered wheel chairs. The cost was Rs 55,000. What they did was that they did not buy the wheel chair; they gave me the money so that the wheel chair belonged to me and not the institute.

My life changed after that. I felt free and independent. That is why I say I am lucky. God has planned things for me and takes care of me at every step.

The world is full of good people.

I also feel if you are motivated and show some initiative, people around you will al-ways help you. I also feel there are more good people in society than bad ones. I want all those who read this to feel that if Naresh can achieve something in life, you can too

(Taken from Facebook, we wish our gratitude towards the unknown author)


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Ask the expertGyaangaaru Q&A C olumn

Gyaangaaru, the Careers Expert, will consider your toughest questions and offer his professional career perspec-tive in the Youthopia magazine Careers Expert Q&A Column.

Please send your questions to [email protected] for a posted response in the column. While we will respond to each and every question through e-mail, we will select sample some of the samples that represent the interests of our reading audience to give them a posted response through the magazine.

Team Youthopia

Ankur MitalMithun Kalaga

Aravind Thodupunoori

Examples of questions may include topics related to career management, career dilemmas, interpersonal skills, decision making and work-life balance. Our goal is to deliver concise and prac-tical advice that is immediately appli-cable.

**All images and illustrations used in Youthopia are open source and do not violate any copyrights. However, any

oversight, if any is non-intentional.


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Youthopia April-May 2011

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Transcript of Youthopia April-May 2011