Mystory@Nagaraju R: How I made my career – Challenges and successes

I belong to a very poor family. Getting educated was tough as I lived in a village and my family could barely meet the expenses. We lived in a shed made of coconut leaves and could not even pay my school fees which was Rs 15 per month.

I somehow managed to finish my primary school and now it was time to go to high school. All the high schools were in the city which was 6 km away from my village. In my high school, my parents had to pay Rs 500 per year as school fees. Overall expenses including books and bus pass was Rs 3000. To meet these expenses and support my parents I started working at a construction site as a helper during summer holidays. My father also worked at construction sites.

I completed Class 10 with second class marks. For Higher Secondary, my friends applied to many colleges but I applied only to Government Polytechnic and continued to work at the construction site.

After 2 months, the classes began. Since my college was 70 kms away from my village, I had to shift to the hostel. In hostel, everything was new and exciting but I was little homesick initially.

My trouble began with commencement of classes. The medium of instruction was English, while I had studied in Kannada medium. I faced difficulty in understanding the lectures but never missed the classes for regular attendance.

After 5 months semester exam dated were announced. I was scared as I didn’t know anything. I thought of seeking God’s help. I prayed at the temple till the exams got over.

The first paper was of Science. When I was saw the question paper l knew only 2-mark question. I didn’t know anything else but since I didn’t want to leave the exam hall before time, I wrote whatever came to my mind to sit through those three hours.

I did the same in all subjects except Maths, core subjects and drawing oriented papers. The result was declared after a month and I had failed. I had failed for the first time in my life. I had scored on 8 in Science.

I lied to my parents about my result. I told them I had passed and started working towards the second semester. But again the roadblock was English.

Now I run my own company.

About the Author:

I am Nagaraju R. I studied at SJCE and have worked as a Design Engineer at Conspel Qatar WLL.