“He can’t meet the expectations of our school.” These are the words an admission counselor told my parents when I was trying to take admission in a reputed school of my city in my childhood. The counselor did not intend them as malicious, but instead was arming my parents with the knowledge that our curriculum is not designed for those who have rural background. I was not the first from rural background to have this judgment placed upon me and will definitely not be the last. However, as a Research Scholar and Associate Professor in one of the best institution of the same city, I can say that I did not let those words decide my future; and I hope that many others can do the same.

This small story always inspired me a lot and a strong believe system was generated in my mind that I can do it, everything is easy to do with a strong will power. These believe system works throughout in my career whenever I had faced any kind of challenge anywhere. Now when he heard the counselor about me he smiled and denied the admission in that school and promised me that one day you will compete and do better than the students of this school. It was at this point that many people assumed I would give up, rather than try to overcome the barriers that became greater with each passing year. However, everyone faces challenges, so I did my best to acquire the resources needed to maintain academic and extracurricular success. It turned out that in many cases, the solutions were often simple. When it became difficult to speak in English, I had someone talk with me at my home like my sister and father both were trying to speak a bit with me. Simple solutions like this allowed me to grow and think positively.