Underdog success story
What is it about stories like Srikanth's that so inspire and fill one with hope?
Could it be the multiple zeroes after a dollar sign or the belief that you and
I can achieve similar success if we set our minds and hearts to it?
Underdog success stories touch a raw nerve. After all, everyone faces
adversity, they dream, and they work hard.
It is another matter that only a few cross the threshold of limits set by society.
In Srikanth's case, it is his sheer tenacity that shines through
the dark clouds of his misfortune.
Being born blind was just one part of the story. He was also born poor.
And you know what that means in a society like ours.
In school, he was pushed to the back bench and not allowed to play.
The little village school had no way of knowing what inclusion meant.
When he wanted to take up science after his class X, he was denied the
option because of his disability.
All of 18, Srikanth not only fought the system but went on to become the
first international blind student to be admitted to the prestigious
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US.
As author Paulo Coelho says, "We warriors of light must be prepared to
have patience in difficult times and to know the Universe is conspiring in our
favour, even though we may not understand how."
Today, Srikanth has four production plants, one each in Hubli (Karnataka)
and Nizamabad (Telangana), and two in Hyderabad (Telangana). Another plant,
which will be one hundred percent solar
operated, is coming up in Sri City, an integrated business city in
Andhra Pradesh, 55 kms from Chennai.
Angel investor Ravi Mantha, who met Srikanth about two years ago, was so
impressed with his business acumen and vision for his company that he not only
decided to mentor him but also invested in Srikanth's company.
"It was a small, tin-roof shack in an industrial area near Hyderabad.
There were eight employees and three machines under the shed.
I expected him to talk about how he wanted to make a social impact, but
was surprised by the business clarity and technical knowhow in
someone so young," Ravi says.
They are raising $2-million (around Rs 13 crores) in
funding and have already raised Rs 9 crores.
According to Ravi, his personal goal is to "take the company to IPO."
A vision to build a sustainable company with a workforce comprising 70
percent people with disability is no mean task.
"Srikanth's vision is inbuilt in the company.
It is not just a lip service to CSR," adds Ravi.
Isolation a big curse
"The isolation of differently-abled people starts at birth," Srikanth said in
his first public speech on the INKTalks stage in Mumbai last month.
According to him,
"Compassion is a way of showing someone to live; to give someone an
opportunity to thrive and make them rich. Richness does not come from money,
it comes from happiness."
When Srikanth was growing up, his father, a farmer, would take him
to the fields but the little boy couldn't be of any help.
His father then decided that he might as well study.
"In my parent's entrepreneurship model, I was a failure. In entrepreneurship, we
have a lean business model where we evaluate an enterprise and say how quickly it fails."
Since the nearest school in his village was five kilometres away, he had to
make his way there mostly on foot. He did this for two years.
"No one acknowledged my presence.
I was put in the last bench. I could not participate in the PT class.
That was the time in my life I thought I was the poorest child in the world.
It was not because of lack of money but because of loneliness."
When his father realised that the child was not learning anything,
he admitted Srikanth to a special needs school in Hyderabad.
The boy thrived in the compassion he was shown there. He not only learnt to
play chess and cricket but excelled in them. He topped his class,
even embracing an opportunity to work with late President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam in the Lead India project.
But none of this mattered much because Srikanth was denied admission to
the science stream in class XI.
He cleared the Andhra Pradesh class X state board exams with over
90 percent marks, but the board said he could only take Arts subjects after that.
"Was it because I was born blind? No. I was made blind by the perceptions of the people."
Having been denied the opportunity, Srikanth decided to fight for it.
"I sued the government and fought for six months. In the end, I got a government order
that said I could take the science subjects but at my 'own risk'. "
Thus not 'risking' anything to chance, Srikanth did whatever he could to prove them wrong.
He got all the textbooks converted to audio books, worked day and
night to complete the course and managed to secure 98 percent in the XII board exams.
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