India's Best Students: Education helped them succeed

STORIES of extreme hardship, braving impossible odds and innumerable sacrifices, abound in the lives of nearly 90 percent of the students in the country. But among them, some perform exceptionally well.

Their academic laurels are so brilliant, that at times their CV looks intimidating.  And each one acknowledges that it’s the right education that made them what they are today. We identified 40-odd brilliant students of this country. Most of them came from very dire conditions.

Some, like our Prime Minister, had to walk miles to reach an unlit school, while some, like Dr. Mashelkar, were forced to go to the nearby railway platform to study, the only well-lit place in the vicinity, in the dead of the night when rail traffic slowed down. Some others, like Dr. Homi.J.Babha, were not challenged by penury, but faced tremendous intellectual isolation, and at times, prejudices. Invariably each story is one of constant struggle; against poverty, against social order, against the system and at times even against indifference, with only their powerful intellect and tremendous capacity for hard work as allies. We present a microcosm of such individuals  as a package. Be inspired.