Auto driver’s son set to join top
Munich institute:
By Reya Mehrotra
Ganesh had
tried for govt scholarships, but nothing worked so far. The 23-yr-old wants to
start an e-commerce agricultural website when he returns from college. 23-year-old
Ganesh RJ, son of an autorickshaw driver in Bengaluru, was over the moon when
he came to know that he had been selected for a Master’s in Management
programme in one of the top institutes in Germany.
His biggest
inspiration is Jack Ma, co-founder of Alibaba Group and he plans to start an
e-commerce agriculture website.
Born and
brought up in Bengaluru, Ganesh studied in the city till Class 2 and then
joined his mother in Chikkaballapur district, where his grandfather lived. He
continued his education there till Class 5 and then wrote the entrance exam for
Navodaya Vidyalaya, funded by the Centre which provides free education to
children.
After his
schooling, he joined PES College of Engineering in Mandya. When he completed
his graduation in 2017, he was desperately in need of work to contribute to his
family income. “Meanwhile, I joined an ashram in Chikkaballapur where I helped
authorities with data entry work. One day, I came across a visitor at the
temple who happened to be an entrepreneur and alumni of Stanford University,
California. He motivated me to study further and search for postgraduate
options. When I told him about my economic condition, he urged me to search for
funding options.” So he wrote the entrance exams for universities abroad and
got selected to Hamburg University of Technology. The fee was Rs 35 lakh there
and he could not afford it.
‘I did an
internship in a Bengaluru-based NGO which offers free education to children,
and started working as a teacher. I taught Maths and English to Class X
students. Later, authorities asked me to work for them on paid basis till I get
my admission. I was lucky enough to clear another entrance and got into the
Technical University of Munich, Germany, which is one of the best universities
in the world.” He also did a German language course before his admission and
scored 82%. “Currently, I am in the process of taking a loan and am approaching
banks. I also tried getting loans through many state and central government
schemes, but all in vain. I can manage fees, but for my accommodation and other
expenses, I need a loan of Rs 17 lakh. To get a visa, I also had to show a
minimum bank balance of Rs 7.5 lakh in my account. My mother managed the amount
by borrowing a part of it from relatives and by pledging all her jewellery,” he
says. He adds, “The only option now is to get a general loan where the interest
is as high as 12% pa. The state government too has a scheme where it gives Rs
10 lakh per year to students of backward classes studying abroad. But I have
not yet received any assurance from anywhere. I hope the education department
processes the Devaraj Urs Foreign Education scholarship for aspirants like me.
Otherwise, my dream of going abroad and completing my education will remain a
dream.”
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