The success stories of individuals coming from small towns of India are breaking these stereotypes that unless you are from some big city or have studied in elite colleges, your chances to create your own niche are bleak
Vivek Shukla
Do you know what is common between recently appointed Tata sons boss N Chandrsekaran and Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, apart from the fact that they lead their
companies from the front? Well, neither Chandrasekaran nor Nadella is the alumni of an IIT, Delhi’s venerable St Stephen’s College or even Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), all three venerable temples of learning. Not long ago, the alumni of St Stephen’s College and IITs used to grab top honours in almost all the fields. And somehow JNU was also getting same status as IIT or St Stephen’s College despite only producing large number of civil servants and arm chair politicians like Sitaram Yechury and Prakash Karath.
Arguably the success of both Chandrasekhar and Satya has proved beyond any debate that aspirational India that lives outside big metro cities are on the move. Same way, students from not very known educational institutions too can give run for money to those with
formidable reputation.
After his schooling from a Tamil medium school, Chandra did his engineering from not very glamorous Regional Engineering College (REC), Trichy in his home state Tamil Nadu. The career script of media shy Satya Nadella is also very similar to his Tata group’s counterpart. Nadella was born into a Telugu-speaking family and attended a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from hardly a very prestigious Manipal Institute of Technology in 1988.
If you delve deep to study this huge paradigm shift, you would observe that an India is making rapid strides far away from the hustle-bustle of metro cities. There youngsters have one point agenda in life to create a niche for themselves. And some of the colleges there are challengeing the rock like hegemony of IIT and St Stephens College.
And well, Chandrasekaran and Satya are not the only guys who are creating buzz. Infosys Technologies CEO Vishal Sikka, Prasoon Joshi, the noted advertising world honcho and many more too don’t belong to known colleges. Sikka was born in Shajapur Madhya Pradesh to Punjabi parents. He graduated from Rosary High School. Vishal Sikka joined the Bachelors in Computer Engineering course at Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. And after studying in sarkari (government) schools of Uttar Pradesh, Prasoon Joshi did MBA from not a very well-known college in Ghaziabad.
These are some of the examples to prove a point that individuals coming from small towns of India have arrived in a big way. It is giving run for money to big and metro cities in terms of supplying talented youngsters. The awesome
success stories that are coming from small towns of India are breaking those stereotypes that unless you are from some big city or have studied in elite
colleges, your chances to create your own niche are not possible. So, the hegemony of well-known temple of learning in big cities is in danger.
Ahead in Civil service
As that was not enough, the final result of Civil Services Examination of both 2014 and 2015 also showcases the
pan-India distribution of successful candidates of this examination. In 2014, the top 25 candidates were
claiming domicile from as many as 11 States/UTs; Bihar, Delhi, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. That reinforces the point that success is not sole property of guys from big cities. Some of the successful candidates have very humble background.
Amongst the top 25 candidates, 24 took the examination in English and one in Kannada medium. That is a very
important point. This figure shows that English still rules the roost so far as Civil Services examination is concerned. In any case, English has also become part of our life. Some even say that English is best spoken in India. Can you deny that?
Changing Scenario
And you can not ignore the phenomenal success of the likes of M S Dhoni (Ranchi), Olympic bronze medallist Sakshi Malik (Rohtak), Prasoon Joshi (Almora), Irfaan Khan (Tonk), Nawazuddin Siddqui (Muzzarnagar). The list is endless indeed. They are the role models for one and all due to their amazing achievements. Have you heard the name of place called Shahbad Markanda. This small town close to Ambala in Haryana is supplying almost 75 per cent of Indian women hockey players. Rani Rampal hails from Shahbad Markanda and if Indian women Hockey team took part in Rio Olympic games, the outstanding performance of Rani Rampal in the qualifying matches cannot be ignored.
Shift in Cricket world
And if you talk about Dhoni and Cricket, you have to accept the fact that now Indian cricket is not getting players from Mumbai, Delhi and Karnataka only. Now the likes of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Kedar Jadhav, Rishabh Pant are breaking into Indian side from smaller towns with no history of Cricket at all. Sensational Rishabh Pant hails from Roorkee in Uttrakhand.The other thing which is common between Dhoni, Yusuf Pathan, Suresh Raina, Harbhajan Singh and Munaf Patel is that they all came from modest backgrounds and from smaller towns of the country.
Till 1970s Indian cricket team had comprised mostly cricketers from the glittering metros but the situation changed with the advent of these talented players. And yes, credit must be given to their parents for helping them achieve their goals.
Focussed youngsters
As recently as couple of years ago, we find our heroes of all the areas from big cities with prestigious alma-mater to flaunt of. The shift clearly proves the point that hunger to make big in life is not the domain of youngsters of metro and big cities. On the rise of small
town-youngsters in the national scene, the feeling is that unlike young guys from big cities, youngsters of small towns are very focussed and that thirst to make big is
really remarkable there. For big city young lads, life is rather cool. Their parents provide them everything. And they have virtually nothing to conquer more often than not.
And post economic reforms, money is also penetrating to small towns. Those who hail from such places and later making big, they send back money to their homes. That money moves in the local economy. Naturally, that very money is making small town markets more and more glittering and roads crowded accompained by the aspirations and success of people with modest background.
So, it is time to celebrate the big success of the likes of N Chandrasekhar to Sakshi Malik and small towns of India.
(The writer is a journalist and former Media Researcher, UAE Embassy)
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