9-year-old Sharmishtha is dancing in the lounge of her house in Berunapadi village, Odisha. As she pauses between the beats of the music to good her strikes, her dad and mom watch on, with satisfaction etched on their faces. 

“My daughter is primary at school,” her father declares. “Not simply in dance but in addition research,” he provides. 

The house has a number of clues to Sharmishtha’s love for studying – English story books, college textbooks and the likes. Not way back, her dad and mom could be amused in the event that they have been informed that their daughter would someday be finding out at an English medium college, not to mention a world one. These luxuries have been exceptional within the village. 

However, in the present day, they beam with satisfaction watching their little woman string collectively sentences in English; studying and writing as fluently as she converses. And he or she is just getting began. 

At present a pupil on the ‘Utkal Gaurav Worldwide Faculty’, Sharmishtha has discovered the launchpad for her desires within the curriculum right here. “I need to develop as much as be a software program engineer,” she smiles. With world-class training backing her, there may be nothing to hinder this objective. 

As for her dad and mom, they’re elated that a chance this surreal is going on for his or her daughter and at zero price. 

Nonetheless, the story may appear too good to be true. 

However as Dr Pradeep Sethi — a number one hair transplant surgeon and the “angel” for a lot of dad and mom within the Berunapadi village whose kids discovered hope in his college — tells The Higher India, these younger minds deserve each alternative they’ll get. As soon as a day by day wage labourer who toiled within the fields round his village to generate profits to pay his MBBS charges, Dr Sethi by no means fathomed the flip his life would take. 

Born right into a poor household, Dr Sethi relied on the kindness of strangers who inspired him to dream large. He shares, “Our village and state weren’t very affluent after I was rising up. They have been lagging behind by way of infrastructure and civilisation. However regardless of that, I used to be surrounded by humble folks.” 

Recalling his childhood, he speaks of days when the household went with out meals; wore the identical units of garments for weeks, and put college on the again burner when work demanded. 

“Who else would take the cows to graze and reduce the weeds within the subject?” Refusing to resign to this lifetime of hardship, Dr Sethi determined to channel his energies into the one factor that he loved greatest — finding out. 

The federal government residential college he started attending when he was 12 years previous formed a lot of his future. “It was a semi-English medium college,” he elaborates. 

“It was right here that I used to be uncovered to Hindi and English for the primary time. My lecturers have been nice and motivating,” he provides. With this conducive environment that fostered studying, Sethi reached the heights of educational excellence, passing his Class 10 and 12 board exams with flying colors. 

Whereas the mindset again then was to pursue a well-paying authorities job, Dr Sethi harboured a unique dream.  

‘I needed to be a health care provider.’ 

The following few years have been a blur for the household. Their belongings have been bought to gather cash for Dr Sethi’s medical charges, whereas he used all his spare time doing day by day wage work. His childhood had taught him to be stoic within the face of adversity. 

When occasions get powerful, destiny steps in is what the 19-year-old believed. True to this, he remembers how a number of folks from the village determined to supply him a scholarship for his educational excellence. The quantity helped ease the household’s monetary woes. 

“I used to get a month-to-month quantity of Rs 1,300 as a part of this scholarship. I might use it for books, mess charges, and so on,” he shares. One specific e book that Dr Sethi acquired his arms on throughout this time, modified his life, in his phrases. 

The ‘Autobiography of a Yogi’ by Paramahansa Yogananda not solely inculcated the follow of day by day meditation in him but in addition championed the message of doing small acts in extraordinary methods. “Everybody has a larger goal in life,” the e book emphasised. 

“So, I started questioning what mine was,” Sethi shares. 

In 2004, Dr Sethi accomplished his MBBS diploma and acquired admission into AIIMS (All India Institute of Medical Sciences) for his MD. 

He graduated in 2008, skilled within the methods of hair transplant surgical procedure. The years following this noticed his profession gaining momentum. The who’s who of the world started to achieve out to him for a session. However the younger physician by no means forgot his roots. 

As a pupil, there was one factor that he had craved. Mentorship. It was the figuring out issue between mediocrity and greatness, he found. 

And thus, when at an expert crossroads — Dr Sethi was considering between opening a clinic in Dubai and pursuing one other stem cell mission — he selected a very totally different path. He determined to offer the youth and youngsters of Odisha the training he had not had the chance of getting. 

Previous to founding the Utkal Gaurav Worldwide Faculty, he began a training centre in his village in 2016. A heartwarming story prequels this. 

Dr Sethi’s father, who was affected by abdomen most cancers, was intent on having a house constructed within the village. Whereas Dr Sethi determined to fulfil his father’s dream and had a home constructed inside 5 months, his dad handed away quickly after. 

In weeks that adopted, the vacant area took on the avatar of a training centre the place younger boys would come to study spoken English, and Maths. They have been skilled by lecturers from exterior the village who have been additionally supplied with lodging. From August 2016 to March 2023, when the college began, the centre noticed 300 college students being mentored.  

Watching these younger boys being given the correct steering and coaching was gratifying. And this was when a revelation struck Dr Sethi –  if a training centre might impression a whole bunch, why not begin a college and impression hundreds? 

And that’s the place Sharmishtha and lots of different younger women and boys are discovering the correct training.  

Utkal Gaurav Worldwide Faculty

The one issue separating the underprivileged and the lucky is alternative. The cutting-edge college and uncompromising curriculum are a corollary of this reality. By offering Odisha’s underprivileged with world-class training, Dr Sethi helps the kids leverage their abilities and abilities in additional targeted methods. 

The CBSE-affiliated college is unmissable by anybody who passes by way of the Berunapadi village. With its stately configuration, the college has courses from decrease kindergarten to class 12. At present, 450 kids are admitted into the college. Dr Sethi says that within the coming years he plans to extend the consumption to 2,000. 

Sarcastically, the college stands on the identical piece of land that Dr Sethi remembers as soon as engaged on as a labourer. 

Talking about its journey, he’s insistent {that a} mission of this scope wouldn’t be doable with out funds. He mentions Adar Poonawalla, CEO of the Serum Institute of India, as certainly one of his sturdy supporters amongst quite a few different individuals who have donated funds to see the mission come to fruition. 

On the college, kids are inspired to understand their full potential. By means of the ‘Scholar Enrichment Programme’, teaching is offered to center college college students, pre-placement coaching is given to highschool graduates, and extracurricular actions corresponding to dance, yoga, theatre, and sports activities are organized for. 

Along with this, courses on agriculture, human values, enterprise, and trade are additionally performed. 

Whereas staying true to its roots, the curriculum additionally encourages kids to get publicity to a holistic training. Lectures by professors from the US, Japan, and Britain give the scholars insights into these respective cultures. 

Name Dr Sethi a philanthropist who has accomplished wonders for his village, and he modestly denies it. “The assumption is commonly that individuals born with a silver spoon accomplish nice issues. However that isn’t true. Actually, I name being born poor a fortune. As a result of if it weren’t for my roots, I wouldn’t aspire for one thing like this.” 

As daylight slants by way of the home windows on the Utkal Gaurav Worldwide Faculty, it carries with it hope for the underprivileged kids of Odisha who research inside its partitions. 

A hope that every one one must do is dare to dream. 

Edited by Padmashree Pande.