A Village Of IITians: 300 IITians And Counting…
The state of Bihar has been in the news for quite a while. Notorious for its recent spate of education scams, however, there is a positive story of a village which boasts of 300 IITians making a huge buzz of its rare achievements
. But, every cloud has a silver lining. There is a village in the state which is known for the number of students who get through the IIT every year. This year alone, 20 students from Patwa Toli locality in Manipur under Gaya district have qualified for IIT.
Patwa Toli village is inhabited mostly by weavers. So far, 300 students have qualified for various engineering examinations in this village of 10,000 people. This year, 20 students were successful in cracking IIT.
Like everything, this started a while ago. Go back to 1992. Jitendra Prasad was the first student from the village to clear the IIT examination. Inspiration took wings and now has morphed into around 300 IITians amongst a small population of 10,000 people.
During the recession period in the 1990s, the Weavers of Patwa Toli started focusing on the education of their children. Since then, the students have been earning laurels for their village and doing proud to their elders.
Jitendra Prasad left for the US for the job in the year 2000. This gave his juniors food for thought and the will to work hard and fulfil their dreams of becoming engineers and making their parents proud. The former engineering students of Patwa Toli have also formed an organisation called Navprayas which furthers the preparation of the students appearing for IIT.
These students are so dedicated to studies that the harsh cacophony of the power looms is like music to their ears. They claim that they do not get disturbed by the noise. Rather, it’s quite charming and adds to the charm of studying.
Just like Gautam Buddha, who meditated at Bodh Gaya for days together braving all odds, the students of Patwa Toli also surmount all hurdles to achieve success.
What’s the driving force behind this utmost dedication? The happy faces of their parents. The villagers here either work as labourers or weavers in the power looms of others to teach their children. Like selfless parents, they have dedicated everything towards providing a good quality education despite economic hardships or hunger. There is no end to their happiness after seeing the success of their children.
In some cases, both parents have worked as labourers to deposit the tuition fees and meet other educational requirements of their children. They also did over time. But even if they could not meet the requirements, they borrowed money to meet the demands.
However, they are the happiest people now.
By: Anamika Bhaumik