Every successful person has an interesting backstory which we are unheard of. They say success comes to those who are destined to achieve against all the odds and Shashank’s story is one that needs to be told to inspire other youths of the nation. This story is for the ones who think there is no life after financial problems. Shashank who, at the age of 25, was running a dhaba and also repaying the debt of Rs 50,000, completing an engineering degree at the same time.
In an interaction with the Indian Express, Shashank says that his ‘father passed away when he was an infant’ and his grandfather’s pension came in handy. Shashank completed his schooling with the help of the pension and when his grandfather drew his last breath, Shashank realised how expensive a college education was.
He started to realise that the full responsibility of ‘supporting his family was now upon him’, and he was only a 2nd-year college student. But he was not someone who immediately give up on his studies for time being given the financial circumstances. Instead, he thought about techniques that could earn money. He decided to start a dhaba. He knew exactly about what his classmates were looking for when it came to good food quality, large quantity, but at the low cost.
“We offered unlimited food at Rs 50. This idea worked well as we received positive feedback, and within some time, I was earning a profit of Rs 30,000 a month,” he told The Indian Expres. “Bhawar Kuan Square in Indore is a hotspot, as many competitive exam coaching centres operate from here. I rented a small joint and hired five people, including a cook.”
The young man sweated it out day in day out so as to keep the dhaba running. He realised that his passion was management but not engineering.
Nonetheless, he decided not to skip his studies mid-way as he acquired a bachelor’s degree in engineering and soon got a secured job in a Hyderabad-based start-up. After gaining experience in the necessary job skills, he made up his mind to ‘shift jobs’ and returned to Indore to be with his family.
He then started working at an education technology institute where he was supposed to develop content for several competitive exams. One of these exams was the Common Entrance Test (CAT) which suit perfectly with his passion for management. Very soon, he started studying for CAT while managing his job at the same time.
He starting reading novels to prepare for the ‘Verbal and Reading Comprehension’ (VARC) parts of the test while his engineering domain came in useful while studying for the ‘Data Interpretation’ and ‘Logical Reasoning sections’.
Working constantly late at night and also balancing his job at the same time, Shashank managed to essay a staggering 98.01 percentile in his CAT exams, which he appeared for in 2017. Now, Shashank is a proud student at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Rohtak.
