I hadn’t dreamt of the life I am living today: Gourav Purohit

I didn’t go to school at an age when other children used to go to Nursery and kindergarten. Instead of going to school I completed my initial education at home. My grandfather was a teacher who used to teach me, and that became the foundation of my career and my life. Once a teacher, always a teacher!

I got the best start in life one can ever hope for. I was raised in my hometown in a joint family for 21 years of my life. These years at home strengthened me in each and every aspect of my life. That’s why I am fan of the ancient joint family structure.

Schooling: I was a Hindi medium student and completed my Secondary and Higher Secondary Education from local government school. Yes... for me ‘Nuclear fission’ means ‘Parmanu Sanlayan’ and ‘Nuclear fusion’ means ‘Parmanu Vikhan’. I was always an average student except in Mathematics and Science. These two subjects always attracted me and helped me develop an exceptional thought process. From a very young age, numbers, formulas, machines, scientific methods and measurement units were a part of my living style. I used to make little missiles from empty pen refills and Phosphorus collected from matchsticks. I liked to ask information padded with their respective scientific units, if not I insisted to do so. One more thing here - I used to read Mathematics book like a story book, laying in my bed and still used to score good marks in exams. From primary classes, I developed an inclination to study mathematics. Carrying the same thought in mind, I appeared in secondary exams (i.e. 10^th Board), and result was same as always. I scored ordinary marks with extraordinary performance in Mathematics and Science. I ended up electing PCM a.k.a. Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics as the subjects for my higher secondary education.

Here, like any other student in 11^th-12^th class I was going through my teenage days and dealing with teenage problems. I can say my performance as a student in these years wasn’t good but I made some good friends and strengthened my old friendships. Anyway somehow I got 1^st grade in 12^th class and got enrolled in a regular Engineering college of my town.

Bachelor’s Degree: Studying Engineering in a local college wasn’t the best decision perhaps but the good thing was that I was there with my childhood friends. I enjoyed a lot for these 4 years and ended up with a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Communication (with 65.96%). I didn’t t have much choices in my career based on such education. No campus placement was arranged by college but good thing is I got qualified in GATE-2013 exams and this boosted up my moral instinct. Here in my final year of degree I had some good time when I used to teach Physics as a guest faculty to 11^th-12^th class.

After BTech: So looking forward, I decided to move to Indore for GATE exam preparation. I went to a classroom program and I realised what I had missed in my bachelor’s degree. At end of that year I got to know what I was supposed to study during my Bachelor’s degree. Then came the GATE-2014 exam. Without practice I could not achieve desired results. I performed better than previous year but the score wasn’t enough. I realised that enrolling yourself into classroom program isn’t enough and it was important to practice more than just classroom coaching.

I decided to give myself another chance. I came back to my city, started teaching Physics as I used to do earlier and also gave some time to GATE studies. That year I appeared in every technical and banking-related exam. However, I think I was blind sighted to the reality of the competitive world thanks to the ‘safe’ environment at home. I appeared in GATE-2015 examination. Results came out in April and unfortunately, they were the same as previous year. My father told me that he will support me till the age of 25 but then I would have to manage things on my own. That was my wake-up call.  From that moment, I started preparing for Master’s entrance exam for BITS Pilani and VIT Vellore. I spent days and night studying. I realised that this was a very important chance for me because I had already spent two years without a regular job after my bachelor’s degree. For those two months I studied rigorously. I wish I would have studied like that throughout my schooling and college life.

I wrote BITS’ exam followed by VIT’s exam. Couple of week later results of BITS came out. As usual I lacked some scores. Up to this point my story would seem like a series of failure. Nothing had gone as planned but sometimes the best things happen unexpectedly. VIT’s result came out, and my rank was good enough to get admission. I attended the counseling soon. Although my first preference was VLSI, I got Embedded Systems based on my rank. Actually I missed VLSI by one mark. I believe in almighty’s plan.

Masters Degree: I took the opportunity, and moved to Vellore. I learnt a lot of new technologies, made new friends. My marks in Master’s degree was comparatively good compared to my previous academics. My college curriculum included a year-long internship i.e. one year of academics and one year internship. After completing the academic year successfully, it was judgment time i.e. placements. I was hoping to get placed in any company regardless of my aspirations and capabilities. After a month’s struggle and lots of ups & downs, I got a chance to do yearlong internship in a pioneer automotive company.

Professional career: I started my professional life as intern in the said automotive firm. It was such a good place to start my career! I got a lot of great opportunities to work on various technologies here. With the help of my internship experience and academic knowledge, I wrote a meaningful thesis which was appreciated by my colleagues, senior employees and professors. Based on previous two years events, I got best grade in my entire educational career. During the internship I was offered a full time job in the same company. I happily accepted the offer and in fact, I am going to complete a successful year as an employee this July.

Though half of my salary goes to settle my education loan (Yeah I had a costly but worthy education), I consider myself a very successful person (Never measure success to numbers). I hadn’t dreamt of the life I am living today. These days I am coding for premium vehicles… gives me a superhero feel.

Lessons Learnt: When I look back and see my life story I got two main leanings

There was more failure than success but I gave myself new chances, again and again. This made the whole difference. I never let myself breakdown and this is what I believe one should do - give chance to yourself again and again.

Another thing, I never competed with anyone. I kept myself free of jealousy, enmity and worthless comparisons. Instead of wasting time and brain for such things, I used it for my own growth. If because of your natural instinct you can’t stop competing, then double check the worthiness of your competitor.

About the Author:

I am Gourav Purohit and completed MTech in Embedded System from VIT Vellore. Presently I am designated as an Automotive embedded developer. My hobbies include swimming and cycling.