INITIATIVE
OIL INDIA: HELPING UNDERPRIVILEGED TO ACHIEVE LIFE’S GOAL
Farmers experience a tough life. They are the sole reason for fulfilling our daily requirement for food. A farmer’s income is generated by selling the crops. If the crops are good, then it got sold and if the crops are bad then life becomes miserable. Though, they feed the entire humanity, their life conditions are far from satisfactory. I am Gayatri Kumbang and I hail from a lower middle class family in Jonai, Dhemaji, Assam. My parents have always been very active and vibrant people for whom age did not matter. My father is a farmer and the sole bread earner for the entire family and my mother is the home-maker who takes care about every small thing. They loved life and are hard worker and they felt that if a person worked hard then, he/she can achieve anything in life. My family and I have experienced difficulties in our lives. My parents struggled to make both ends meet, worrying about providing their children with quality education. Money was scarce, luxuries were unimaginable. There were times when I felt helpless but one thing that I have in me is the burning desire to make my parents proud.
The fighting spirit is in my genes and it was all because of my parents, who never gave up when life was too harsh on them. Though income was insufficient but my parents were never ready to compromise on our education. They never made us feel deprived no matter how hard the circumstances were. Making ends meet was not as easy for my family as it were for others, still my family never compromised on my studies. They got me admitted in the best school of my home town. But that was not all. Sometimes my parents could not arrange my school fee on time while at other occasions, I didn’t have money to buy books for me. I was disheartened and discouraged at times due to all the prevailing issues. But my parents never gave up on me and did every possible thing to arrange my school fee.
There was a turning point in my life, when I realized the importance of gaining knowledge and also scoring good marks made my parents smile. And this continuous progress of mine, particularly when I scored well in Class XII bought immense happiness in my parents lives. And it was then that I heard about IIT and I seriously had no idea about it but I still wanted to go for it. The only way I could crack IIT was through excellent coaching but that was not possible as I could not afford the huge fees that had to be paid. With the God’s grace, I saw an advertisement of Oil India Super 30, Jorhat and it added hope to my dreams. My selection into Super 30 bolstered up my confidence and I resolved all my doubts and decided that it was only IIT that I wanted to go for. Despite all the hurdles, with the 73rd rank, I got through IIT Bombay. My daily routine in Oil India Super 30, Jorhat included hard work, time management, rigorous studying, frequent tests and mentoring. The entire team never failed to guide us from the start till the end. They guided us for our exams and also ensured our success too. No matter if we received bad results in our tests, they always boosted us up and ensured that we performed well in the next tests. Oil India Super 30, Jorhat have completely changed the lives of underprivileged youth by giving them the opportunity and achieve their dreams. It was completely a game changer for hundreds of people like me.