Village labourer cracks IIT entrance

Radhika Iyer
Friday, June 6, 2008 (Khammam, AP)

With hard effort and single-minded devotion, you can make possible what seems impossible.That is what an 18-year-old has shown in Khammam district of Andhra Pradesh. With not enough to eat, and no money even to burn the midnight oil, in a village with hardly nine hours daily power supply, the boy managed to secure 453rd rank in the IIT entrance exam.

However, he has won only half the battle yet.At Garikapadu village in Khammam district, the IIT entrance rank holder, Narasimha Rao, is a labour under the National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme.With the daily wage of Rs 80, Narasimha wants to repay dues for borrowing books from a reference library.

Even at work, his thoughts revolve around science.”When I am working in the field also, I think of questions in physics. I just can’t understand how these mobiles work? How the waves travel?” says Narasimha.Narsimha’s mother Lakshmi can’t tell what exam her son has passed but the labourer parents say their son has made them proud.”My boy said he would buy me a gas stove to cook after he gets a job. I know he is grown up now. My eyes burn when we burn wood,” says

Lakshmi.Narsimha managed to get coaching in an IIT institute in nearby Vijaywada with the financial support by some elders in this village. Now the 18-year-old has to attend counselling at IIT Madras on June 18, for which he does not even have travel expenses.”After I am settled in life, I promise to pay back the money. I will be so thankful,” says Narasimha.