01 May Railroad to Success

“Hello son, so what did you see today?” Sadhna aunt asked in an affectionate voice. “I went to see the Railway Museum in Phoenix, Arizona,” replied Rituik. “My education and locomotives go hand in hand after all” he added.

Aunt Sadhna is without a doubt the most diligent, positive and talented woman I have come across. Presently she is working as a senior officer in the taxation department. During one of our interactions, she shared her son’s learning journey with me. I couldn’t stop myself from jotting it down for everyone here.

Work forced her to leave a three-year-old Rituik with his grandparents. It was a transferable job for aunt. She had to move to and fro and a train was the only mode of transport available. The little one associated train with his mum. Every evening, Rituik used to go to the railway station with his granddad. The train used to calm him down.

Later, he accompanied his mum frequently on the train journeys.

Stations used to fascinate him a lot. He desperately wanted to read all sign boards. Alphabets were introduced to him. To everyone it might have been “A for apple” and “B for ball” but to him, it was “A for Allahabad” and “B for Banaras”. A three-year-old took no time in recognising the first alphabet of every station and by five he could read the whole word. He knew the names of most of the stations in Uttar Pradesh.

Another interest that he had was Cricket – the gentleman’s game. He quickly grasped the concepts of addition, subtraction and calculating the average because he needed to calculate all scores. His parents always taught him with patience. By the age of five, he knew it all.

‘Learning the Fun way’ is the key to most of the success stories. A little patience blended with thoughtfulness and a pinch of love are required to make things beautiful.

Rituik got his degree in B-Tech in Electronics and Communication from IIT Roorkee. He later went to the Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh on a scholarship for doing M.S. in Computer Science.

On being asked about the secret of his success and he said, “I owe it all to my parents. They have been my strength throughout and huge facilitators. Their belief in me is what has gotten me to this stage.”