On his way to the New Delhi Railway Station on Friday, Atul Kumar, who, after the Supreme Court’s intervention, could finally secure a seat at his dream Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), was more than excited to reach his Dhanbad campus Saturday morning.
From Titora village in Muzaffarnagar in western Uttar Pradesh (UP), Atul (18), a Dalit boy, accompanied by his father, started his journey on Friday morning to reach the railway station in the Capital to be able to board a train to Dhanbad, Jharkhand.
Upon the SC verdict, Atul received a letter from the institute to join the batch and reach campus by October 7.
“It has been long since I have been struggling to get to this juncture and finally when I am there, these few hours seem to be the longest. Nothing matters to me more than being on the IIT campus now,” said Atul, speaking to News18 over the phone while on the way to the railway station.
Finally getting to the campus, Atul said that he wants to become an entrepreneur and own a start-up few years down the line. “I dream of setting up my own start-up one day. I would want to get a good placement first, learn on the job, and eventually set up my own company. I believed I will get relief from the court, but now when I am close to living my dream, it’s quite a different feeling altogether,” he said.
On September 30, the Supreme Court came to Atul’s rescue, who had lost his IIT seat due to a technical glitch because of which he missed the deadline to pay the fees to secure the admission.
The SC directed IIT to admit the boy, who despite all difficulties, had happened to crack the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE)-Advanced exam to pursue BTech in electrical engineering. It is one of the toughest exams in the country.
Atul’s journey to IIT
Son of a part-time tailor and daily wage labourer, it had been hard for Atul’s father to even gather the fee, Rs 17,500, yet, he managed, but due to a technical issue the fee could not be accepted and he missed the June 24 deadline. His father Rajendra Kumar approached the apex court to get his son’s seat back and eventually got relief.
Upon completing class 12, Atul had joined coaching in Kanpur that helps students prepare for the entrance examination for free under a CSR initiative. It was on the advice from the coaching class that his father approached the SC for relief.
Since then, there has been no looking back. His modest house in the village has been swarmed by visitors and the press, including international media, to know about his story.
Joining the institute mid-semester, he said he will manage covering up for the time lost. “I will cope up on the missed syllabus, I am confident about that. Six other students from my coaching have made it to IIT-Dhanbad. They are all ready to help me with it,” he said.
Being the only boy from his school in the village to crack the exam to get into an IIT, he said, while his school was instrumental in creating the foundation, it was his coaching which made him mentally strong to prepare and be at it. “The faculty at the coaching have been motivating beyond measure. They always told us to not buckle under pressure and treat it like just an exam. 72 out of 100 students of my batch have cracked the exam this year. Many students who got a seat at one of the newer IITs get anxious that they are not able to make it to their dream IIT, but they were always told that they can instead get into an NIT in that case and not lose heart. There is always an option if one chooses to go on,” he said.
Always a bright student, Atul cleared the exam on his second attempt. He would study over 18 hours a day including the classes at the coaching and self-study, taking a break only for food and catching on some sleep.
He wanted to become an engineer since he was in class 9. The youngest of four siblings, he is not the only one to get into an IIT. He was inspired to crack the exam by his elder brothers, one of whom is currently in his final year at IIT-Kharagpur while another is enrolled at National Institute of Technology (NIT), Hamirpur.
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