Anand Kumar’s Super 30, a coaching institute in Patna which prepares 30 poor kids for the Indian Institute of Technology entrance exam free of cost, has achieved iconic stature because of its success rate.
A Ganesh Nadar met Anand Kumar, the fiery and idealistic teacher-founder as we continue our series on Extraordinary Indians.
They are a troika of very young, simple and humble teachers led by a fiery and idealistic Anand Kumar. I could have mistaken Kumar for the neighbourhood shopkeeper, he was unshaven and dressed simply.
But behind that deceptive exterior lay an extraordinary man who has become an icon for helping underprivileged students from the villages of Bihar clear the prestigious entrance exam to the Indian Institutes of Technology.
Anand Kumar runs Super 30, a small IIT coaching school in Patna. This year too, all 30 of its students cleared the IIT entrance test, the dream of many young Indians.
Kumar met me in his ordinary home where I learnt how he brought hope into the lives of many poor children, making them believe everyday that in merit and hard work lie life’s endless opportunities.
Like many Indians, Kumar had had his own youthful dreams of escaping from poverty by doing well in his studies. He had finished a BA Honours in Maths and was accepted for a post graduate degree by Cambridge University in the United Kingdom.
Just then fate struck and his father Rajendra Prasad, a clerk in the postal department, passed away.