You are a Fool. I hear that a lot when I tell people I want to work in the education sector.

People ask Why, when you are an academic topper in school and studying information technology engineering? Over the years, I have analysed problems faced by me and those around me. Take any of those problems and I could zero down its cause - our education. Most problems arise when people are not doing what they love. Our society and education system conforms them to do so. In India, education is a means to an end and not a passion. A way to earn money in the pursuit of material wealth.We need to teach and allow people to follow their passion in the pursuit of happiness. Pablo Picasso once said, "All children are born artists. The problem is to remain artists as we grow up." We need to ensure that this artist lives a lifetime with the child. If all children are taught to pursue their passion, many of the problems we face wouldnt exist. My passion is education. I firmly believe that education is the only way we can achieve the true status of human beings as organisms who enrich themselves and the environment in which they live. Our internal and external environment is deteriorating as we further drift ourselves and our children away from following one's passion. We need to create an environment where students are able to explore and do what they want. I believe that if we empower people with technology and critical thinking they'll teach themselves for a lifetime. This is why I have chosen to work towards improving education in India for a revolution in this field is more essential than in any other field today. Teach For India is the only organisation which gives engineering graduates like me an opportunity to work in the education sector as a professional and that too at the grassroots level. The Teach For India Fellowship is my way of doing a B.Ed, my real education. To bring on the revolution we need to start practicing, in parallel with the current education system, the revolutionary practices which we wish to introduce. The Fellowship is a golden chance. I've seen the Fellows in their classrooms and how they tailor the curriculum to each childs needs. This is phenomenal. I, too, want the opportunity to be innovative and nurture the innate creativity of kids. I am really looking forward to the Community Project in the second year. Being the co-founder of The Learning Revolution group on Facebook and a computer enthusiast, I can use the Internet innovatively to teach in the classroom and bring in the benefits of alternate forms of schooling from across the world. My immediate goal is to teach children, understand their problems and observe how they respond to the innovative teaching methods I practice. Being with kids makes me happy. I know that I have the responsibility of moulding them and I won't get a good night's sleep unless I do it right. My ultimate goal is to help deliver a better education for tomorrows India and restore teaching as the most prestigious profession. The Fellowship is the foundation of my goals. It is a journey which will help me learn a lot and take me towards my ultimate goal. As Sir Ken Robinson rightly said, Our task is to educate their whole being so that they can face the future. We may not see the future, but they will and our job is to help them make something of it. I want to empower the next generation to make something really worthy of it.

General Secretary. The sheer name of this position fascinated me. I wanted to bring about radical changes in my college. So, I wanted this position. The Mumbai University rules allow only academic toppers to be Class Representatives (CRs) who can eventually stand for the General Secretary (GS) elections. I am not an academic topper in engineering. Neither do I aspire to be one, because there are so many interesting things to do and learn other than academic rote learning. In engineering I had decided to focus only on concepts.So I decided to work passionately towards my goal of bringing about positive changes in our college, in the hope that impressed by my work I will be allowed to stand for the elections. During my first & second years I was really active in college doing everything from volunteering to participating to organising events during festivals, etc which helped me showcase myself as a doer in the eyes of the faculty & seniors. In third year I put forth a proposal to our Vice-Principal to give me a chance to contest the elections. He told me that only a CR can apply. A friend suggested that if my current CR & everyone academically above me signed a letter saying that they wanted me as CR, then I may be able to contest. Being the unofficial CR for the past two years I was quite sure that everyone in my class would support me. So I asked the topper of my class whether she was interested in contesting or she would support me in contesting instead. She said that she wanted to contest. So, I approached our Vice-Principal and Principal again. Seeing my passion and past work they told me that we can give you any position in the Student Council other than that of the GS. In between all this process, I realised that I was already bringing about the changes I had envisioned. So I told them that I do not want any position. Finally they decided to call me as an invitee to the Student Council. Now I know that a position does not matter, one's intentions determine everything. Today, I am an active member of the Council. I also represented my college at The Indian Student Parliament held at MIT School of Government, Pune in January this year. Every student, almost all the faculty members and non-teaching staff, even the lift-man knows that they can approach me anytime for any work. I am the founder, developer & coordinator of DJ Assembly (www.bit.ly/DJAssembly). It is a platform for recognition, collaboration, approach & encouragement. It is inspired by TED conferences, School Assemblies & the way Teach For India uses Google Docs. I firmly believe that our college or for that matter all the institutes have a potential to become better than the Massachusetts Institute of Technology if they utilise the talents of their faculty, staff members and students thoroughly. This can happen by encouraging them, giving them opportunities to explore their passion and giving them a common platform for collaboration. To get our Principal's time to discuss all these ideas was a real challenge. I would wait for long hours late into the evenings, only to be sent back home politely saying to come the next day. The challenges could not shake my confidence becuase of my conviction. I really feel happy today and confident that I canaccomplish much more to make my college the best institute in the world. Even if it takes more time I will stay connected with my college to accomplish this goal.

Come the examination day, you'll see heads buried into textbooks and tense faces. Enter me in the corridor with the widest natural smile, I wave to my friends and they glow seeing me smile. This glow transforms into laughter and they feel good before the exam. When they ask me,Prepared? I reply, Hell yeah! All subjects, all pass, always! The tremendous impact little things like a smile can have is amazing. One's attitude towards smallest things can bring about revolutionary changes in some-one's life. During my second year, I was the captain of my department during our cultural festival. We had a task to make a mascot for our department. We came up with the idea of making a ZooZoo with one moving hand and an iPad having a rotating screen in another. Our department being Information Technology, the mascot symbolized that we make the latest products keeping in mind the latest trends. We involved our juniors actively in the process. Out of the entire junior class strength of 60 students only around 10 were working actively on the ZooZoo. I was observing that some really enthusiastic and talented students, who actually came up with the idea, were losing interest. I asked one junior, What's the matter? He said that only a few people working for the entire department didn't make sense. They thought that being seniors we made them work, ourselves not doing much, and in the end we'll take all the credit. There was this one guy who felt this strongly. Moving ZooZoo and iPad are his ideas. So I started working with them. Before the unveiling on Monday, I stayed overnight in college with this guy and his friend, taking special permission from the principal, and finished the ZooZoo. We won the competition, we gave our juniors full credit, that guy thanked me and told me that you are different from other seniors. Today, after being the winning captain of our department in his second year, he is the Chairman of our Technical Festival this year and is doing amazing stuff. This shows that every individual always has a chance to be a hero's hero and I was fortunate to get and seize such an opportunity. There was a group who wanted to make an RC engine car. They knew how to do it, but needed funds. I have a habit of staying in college till late evenings. This simple habit has given me so many opportunities. One evening they told me about their idea. I told them to write a letter to the principal and ask for funds. They were reluctant in the beginning, How do we approach him directly?! I convinced them to do it, saying worst case he'll say no, but its worth a try. They can also approach sponsors from outside. They didn't feel confident of pulling it off. I explained that guys you need to go for it. And they did. Today they have their car made with twenty-five thousand rupees grant from the college, they've won several competitions at famous college technical festivals inside and outside Mumbai, they also managed to obtain funding from an external sponsor and our Principal and Trustees were really impressed. Another day when I asked a junior what he wanted to do after engineering, he said Patent Law. I told him that's really amazing. He was shocked to receive such a response, because generally students from my college either go abroad for masters or do an MBA. He told me that you are the first person to encourage me! Then I helped him find a professional counsellor to guide him. Finally I have only one thing to say, Enjoy life non-st