When destiny picks on merit
Prathamesh acknowledges that all the pain points were dealt with suitably to ensure sustainability of the project.
Thanks to the vision and support of some good Samaritans at the SP Mandali’s Welingkar Institute of Management, a social experiment resulted in two underprivileged youngsters getting a higher education that in turn transformed their lives.
For Prathamesh Vasudeo Balgi, a former office boy who is today the Branch Manager of a bank, life has transformed in an unimaginable way. Buoyed by the belief and support of several mentors and individuals who held his hand along the way, Prathamesh has been fortunate enough to turn his life around through the power of education.
In 1996, at age 15, he was a school dropout, living off a '4,000 salary and serving tea at the Mahindra and Mahindra office in Mumbai, but with the help of total strangers, he went on to earn ' 6 lakhs per annum.
From being an SSC dropout to completing an MBA from SP Mandali’s Welingkar Institute of Management, Prathamesh’s story is inspiring to say the least. Not just that, he was also among 20 students out of a class of 350 who landed a campus recruitment.
Apart from bettering his own life at a micro level, for the first time ever, Prathamesh started to pay taxes and increased his spending — which had larger implications for the nation’s economy at a macro level.
The 37-year-old attributes his success story to help from a few ‘angels’, hard work and a “fire in his belly”.
The eldest of three brothers, Prathamesh decided to stop school to earn a living for his family that used to stay at a clammy Lalbaug chawl. But destiny had other plans for him. For one, Prathamesh was brushing against some of the brightest minds in the country at work while walking in and out of their plush cabins — people who dared him to dream bigger. It was their coaxing that made him pick up his education again and complete his graduation from a night school. There was also the prim MBA degree from Harvard University that stared at him from director Ulhas Yargop’s swanky desk every day — a dream too big to figure in his imagination, yet a reminder of the power of education.
Looking back, a grateful Prathamesh says that it was a series of such small, inconsequential events and support that eventually stacked the odds in his favour. But perhaps the biggest of them all was the larger narrative brewing behind the scenes which he had no idea about.
Captain Raghu Raman, an ex-soldier and UN Peacekeeper at the time, was seeking to conduct a social experiment, which entailed picking out two office boys under difficult financial and social circumstances and putting them through an MBA programme at Welingkar Institute in Mumbai. Subsequently, 14 mentors were selected from amongst the hundreds of students and were assigned the task of supporting the two boys through the two-year programme.
While Prathamesh was the first pick, the other student was Jitendra Yadav, also an office boy at Mahindra and Mahindra, who unfortunately died of cancer five years ago.
Recalling how it all began, Captain Raman says, “I was working at Mahindra and teaching at Welingkar Institute when some students started harassing me for a project. Out of frustration, I told them to take someone who is at a financial disadvantage and help him do an MBA to add value to his life. One week later, the students said they wanted to do it and that is how the project was born.”
He adds, “The idea was novel and different. We selected about 14-15 mentors and told them that the disadvantaged students would have to graduate with them with an incentive that they would get 10 per cent more! On the contrary, if they failed, then they (the mentors) would lose 10 per cent.”
Further, Captain Raman made it very clear that the two boys would be given no special treatment. “There would be no subsidy given or leniency shown to the two boys just because they did not have a privileged background. It was the task of the mentors to teach them everything that they didn’t know in order to pass the MBA. This included teaching them Microsoft excel to Michael Porter’s Five Forces Framework in vada pav language.”
The result was astounding. “Not only did these two kids graduate from that college but they also landed campus recruitments,” says a proud Captain Raman, who adds, “There are three very important aspects to this story. The first is that they were earning only a few thousand rupees a month and were not customers for a bank, automotive company or a housing loan. But the moment they got their first job, they became a customer to them all, including Mahindra and Mahindra! The second thing was that while in a developed country, a person behind a McDonalds counter could very well be doing a PhD, in India, the chances are that they will remain behind the counter for the rest of their lives. But these two kids who once served tea at Mahindra, ended up having tea with Anand Mahindra! The jump from this side of the tray to the other is the biggest jump in India in any development sector.”
Interestingly, the two boys paid back the entire stipend to the Institute to fund the education of two more kids, creating a domino result of sorts.
Says Captain Raman, “That ability of underprivileged India to appreciate someone else’s grief, and to pull that person along with them is very different from the rat race that people get sucked into in the corporate world.”
An engineer turned educationist, group director Professor Dr Uday Salunkhe who has been associated with the Welingkar Institute for more than 24 years, says the project sounded fascinating to him.
“We thought we would explore the idea and see what happens. My objective was to break the narrative that students who do not graduate can’t do management. There was something wrong in the thought. Whether a person is a Class 10 or 12 pass, if you have die hard passion and a strong instinct to succeed, you should be able to progress,” says Dr Salunkhe, adding, “There are renowned businessmen who are not MBA graduates, so there must be something wrong in what we are doing as a society.
It was part of an affirmative action for us and we got such a great sense of satisfaction when it was successfully completed that even today, we speak about it with great passion.”
Dr Salunkhe states that it was the mentors who learnt the most during the experiment. “When we all met Anand Mahindra, the mentors admitted that they had learnt the most. These were students who had never known hardship, so their learning curve was amazing,” he adds.
The following year, the Institute tried to scale it up by giving four girls from the North-east and coming from humble backgrounds a similar opportunity. Since then, it has taken on major initiatives in collaboration with global institutions, all working to uplift and benefit the underprivileged.
Dr Salunkhe explains, “For me, the purpose of life is to nurture humans. My philosophy is a four-fold duty. First, start with the nation, then society, the organisation and then your family, including yourself. We cannot leave everything to the government; the responsibility to do something lies with everyone.”
On his part, Prathamesh feels only gratitude and love for his “Gods”. Remembering the time when he was first approached by Captain Raman in 2005, Prathamesh says, “The concept of the project was unique. It completely changed my life around and pushed me ahead. Ulhas Yargop, Shubha Shetty and Captain Raghu Raman at Mahindra, Dr Uday Salunkhe and campus coordinators Swar Kranti and Sujata Natrajan are all my Gods. Their help and support allowed me to do what I wanted in my life. At that time, I was just an office boy and not at all exposed to the corporate life that I am living today.”
He adds, “I always wanted to do an MBA but I was not financially stable. In fact, I was really surprised when I was first told about the project. It was very hard for me to believe it at that time. But it was a dream come true once I walked into the campus.”
The MBA gave Prathamesh an opportunity to see and do things that he probably would not have otherwise. But he is honest enough to admit, “At the same time, there was a doubt if I could complete it. However, Dr Salunkhe put his heart and soul into the project. He appointed mentors from among our batchmates to take us through the course for the entire two years.”
Prathamesh acknowledges that all the pain points were dealt with suitably to ensure sustainability of the project. “I used to stay in a chawl but Dr Salunkhe pulled me out and put me in the hostel at Welingkar Institute so that my environment would keep me motivated,” he recalls, adding, “Since I was the breadwinner for my family, he paid me a monthly stipend so that my family would not suffer. He also ensured that our food was sponsored by him.” Further, he recalls, “Jitendra and I even went to Japan, which was very exciting. Not just that, the campus, the professors and the syllabus ensured that the experiment was successful.”
Most importantly, Prathamesh says he now wants to reach out to many others like him. “The goal is not over and I want to do so much more. Many others should also be given the opportunity that I received.”
After working for seven and a half years at ICICI where he earned good ratings in his performance appraisals, Prathamesh worked with YES Bank for three years and is now presently Branch Head at Indus Bank in Bhayander. “I do whatever I can, wherever needed. My understanding of talent is not about ratings, but more about producing leaders. Landing a job was not the end goal for me. Rather, I want to give back to the society in every small way I can,” states Prathamesh, who has managed to keep his chin up through life's vagaries.
Sadly, five out of the last ten years have been filled with sickness and treatments for MDR TB, for which he had to undergo two major surgeries. Now, with 60 per cent of his lungs gone, and treatment lasting for years, Prathamesh has incurred staggering costs of up to '25 lakh.
However, without dwelling on his condition, Prathamesh says positively, “My intention is to help change many more lives. The reason I paid back my stipend is so that the Institute can help someone else. When you do something at an individual level, the impact is less but when you do something like an MBA from a business school, the impact is much bigger.”
Married to a banker and father of a seven-year-old daughter, Prathamesh lives in a joint family in Thakur village in Kandivali. Gratefully acknowledging the good Samaritans of his life, he says, “Till date, Dr Salunkhe has never called or stated how much they did for us. He did it with his heart and soul. There are very few people who think about society the way he does.” He adds, “When we met Anand Mahindra, he told me that I should make the most of the opportunity given to me. It was a clear message. Jitendra and I were the chosen ones and whatever best we could do, we have done it at our end.”
As for his future plans, Prathamesh expresses, “We want India to grow by focussing on the underprivileged so that they can also have purchasing power and contribute to society. This is one project that each corporate and B-School should come forward and do. If you look at the costs vs returns, the returns are far higher. And it can also have a domino effect as people like me now want to give back. We must look at the bigger perspective.”