Former President APJ Abdul Kalam presents graduation certificate to Bhavna Sweta in the presence of NIT director Asok De (centre), at the convocation ceremony on Sunday. Picture by Deepak Kumar

They were born in poor households, but beat all odds to excel in engineering studies.

Take the case of Manish Kumar, a mechanical engineering student who received his degree as branch topper on Sunday. The son of a mechanic and a resident of Didarganj, Manish faced difficulties paying his education fees. And yet, he fought all odds to not only become branch topper but also got placement at Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) at a Rs 10.12 lakh per annum package.

He told The Telegraph: “My financial misery might soon become a thing of the past with this job.”

He said he owes his success to the National Institute of Technology administration and his parents’ blessings. “My parents’ financial condition was not good. My father, the sole bread earner, earns less than Rs 10,000 a month,” he said.

To meet the financial constraints, Manish, after taking admission at NIT Patna, started giving tuitions to students of Class XI and XII. It was a double burden, attending his classes and then giving tuitions. While his classmates visited restaurants, malls or cinemas in the evenings, Manish would be busy teaching students. Many others like Manish worked hard to excel despite financial constraints.

Mohammed Shahid Ali, another techie who received his degree at NIT Patna’s convocation on Sunday, said: “I come from a weaver’s family. My father supports a family of ten, including my mother, five sisters and three brothers, at a paltry income of less than Rs 10,000 a month. When I cleared AIEEE, the biggest challenge before my father was how to meet my education expenses,” said Shahid.

Emulating his friend Manish, Ali, too, began giving tuitions to students of Class XI and XII and even junior engineering students from Maulana Azad College of Engineering and Technology, Patna, and RPS Engineering College.

A resident of a remote village in Bettiah, Ali, after clearing matriculation in 2007, joined mathematician Anand Kumar’s Super30 classes. He cleared AIEEE in 2009 and chose NIT Patna.

He has no plans to join any corporate house for now. “I want to continue teaching students. Towards this goal, a few friends and I plan to set up a coaching institute in Bettiah to provide coaching to students from rural areas.”

Uday Prasad, a computer science student, too, has decided to join the teaching profession. The physically handicapped student scored 7.39 CGPA in his final-year examination.

Prasad said: “I got a placement offer from Reliance Technologies, but have decided not to join the company.” Echoing the views of missile man APJ Abdul Kalam, Prasad said: “Kalam has always stressed on the promotion of technical education along with value education, and following the message of Kalam, I, too, want to pursue teaching as a profession so that rural students are benefited.”