Super 30 founder Anand adds another feather to his cap

Super 30 founder and Maths wizard Anand Kumar added another feather to his cap when 25 out of 30 students from his institute qualified for admission to different IITs following the announcement of results of JEE-Advance here on Thursday.

The mood at Anand’s residence in Mithapur, from where he runs Super 30 (the institute for 30 extremely poor students), was ecstatic as successful students jostled with each other to offer sweets to their teacher. One such student from extremely impoverished background was Dhananjay, whose father is unemployed, while his mother runs a small shop at Patori village in Samastipur to eke out a living.
Dhananjay’s economical background can be gauged from the fact that he had just one set of dress which he used  for the entire year.

Similar case was with Sumit of Masaurhi whose father Satyendra Kumar is a labourer.
“At Super 30, it is only the education which matters. We sit, eat and sleep together solving problems. A healthy competition amongst us sharpens our thinking ability,” said Abhinav, son of an agriculture labourer from Nalanda.

Every year, Anand selects 30 meritorious students – mostly from poor families and grooms them for IIT. The students stay with Anand. They are provided free food, stay and lodging. Anand, who never accepts any donation from anyone, bears the expenses from his income which he earns from his another institute Ramanujam School of Mathematics.

“All the 30 students are from the underprivileged sections of the society. From the son of a daily wage earner, roadside vendor, private tutor, magazine vendor, they all made it to the IIT. In fact, Super 30 is just a big family for me, where my wife, brother, mother and all my team members work in tandem. This gives me solace and strength to carry on,” Anand told Deccan Herald.

“Had it not been Anand sir’s Super 30, my son would have not been able to study at all,” said Yogeshwar Kumar, an agriculture labourer whose son Prem Pal  cracked the IIT exam as well.

“It was like a family. We worked hard. We could seek any help from Anand sir or other teachers any time. He was always there. Even if anyone fell ill, he took personal care,” Prem added.