A journey from Gillidanda to CTO

Everyone is chasing success in life. While it is subjective, for many who are brought up in metropolitan areas or cities, the formula for success is to gain admission to a good university, pursue a professional course, secure a well-paid job, advance professionally, and build reasonable wealth over time. What are the most crucial factors behind your success – talent, hard work, and focus? Let me share a story, and I hope you will see a different perspective.

It’s the story of a boy who grew up in rural areas of Madhya Pradesh – a large state in central India. He found his way to join the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, one of the most coveted institutes, worked with renowned MNC firms, and eventually went on to co-found the fintech startup Upwardly. He eventually got the opportunity to be come the Chief Technology Officer of HDFC Credila, a leading education finance company. Unlike many Bollywood movies, I have no intention of keeping it a suspense till the end. I am that boy, the protagonist of this story.

Growing up, I had the privilege of being born to well-educated parents. My father, an engineer, dedicated his career to the Water Resources department (Govt of MP), and due to the nature of his job, I spent my childhood in remote townships built in village surroundings to support dam construction. During my formative years, I resided in Deolond, a remote village in Shahdol district, which was also the site location of the Bansagar Dam, a multipurpose river valley project on Sone river.

I have had many unique experiences during my childhood that my friends from cities find amusing. For example, I learned to swim in a river and played local sports like Gilli Danda (गिल्ली डंडा), which I have used symbolically in the title to provide context about the rural environment where I grew up. I also remember that in my Government school in Chappara, a small town in the Seoni district, there were no chairs or tables in my ninth-grade classroom, and we used to sit on the floor mats.

What would have happened if my father hadn’t been transferred to Bhopal during my penultimate years of school is beyond my imagination. I had never even heard of IIT until December 1992, when I was in 11th grade. I am forever grateful to my friend who asked me one fine day, “Are you preparing for IIT? Have you subscribed to Brilliant Tutorials?” My response was sheer ignorance: What is IIT all about? ये किस चिड़िया का नाम है?

It was undoubtedly a challenge to adapt to the competitive environment, especially for someone like me, who had never experienced competition until arriving in Bhopal. Preparing for the IIT entrance was no easy feat for a student who had completed all their schooling in Hindi (हिंदी) medium in government schools. I still cherish the memories of Trigonometry (त्रिकोणमिति), Physics (भौतिक विज्ञान), and Chemistry (रसायन शास्त्र), while grappling with study materials in English. It may sound unbelievable, but I vividly remember relying on the Oxford dictionary while using resources like Brilliant Tutorials and my favourite book on physics by IE Irodov. I am immensely grateful to my teachers and friends for their unwavering guidance and support, without which I wouldn’t have been able to crack the JEE.

I worked incredibly hard, probably harder than most friends, with an unwavering passion to join IIT at any cost. I also remember that one of my friends told me that JNU is not too far from IIT Delhi and that we could meet pretty girls if we were admitted to IIT Delhi. Those adolescent days, I’m not sure how much of this thought fuelled the passion. On a serious note, when I look back now, I have no second thought that the single event that changed my life was my father’s transfer to Bhopal in 1992, more than anything. I just got lucky and got the required exposure at the right time; of course, talent and hard work were also vital.

I consider myself fortunate to have earned a place at IIT and I have never looked back since then. I deliberated extensively about sharing my story, as I did not want it to come across as self-glorification. However, my story is not just about success; it is about the journey, hardship, courage, self-belief, and, most importantly, luck. I hope that my experiences can serve as an inspiration for many youngsters from rural areas and small towns. If I can achieve success through the right mentoring, they can too.

I am planning to write more articles on personal and professional development for my blog “उद्गम2सागर | A Journey”. उद्गम2सागर symbolises the journey of a river from its origin to the sea, and my journey has been similar so far, with a lot of turbulence in the initial phase. I have changed course multiple times, been influenced by the competitive landscape, and have absolutely no idea about what lies ahead. These articles will be based on my experiences, including technical blogs about building scalable platforms.

I sincerely desire to help young students from underserved communities in India who are not fortunate and fail to unlock their potential due to a lack of exposure and mentoring. Please write to shashank.agrawal@udgamsagar.com if you have any ideas on how we can achieve this. I will be more than happy to connect with you to discuss further.