K.C. Deepika, The Hindu, BENGALURU, June 22, 2015
When Gompa Kumar Satyamurthy brought his parents to the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB) campus, they simply said, “What a nice place.” Neither did they know what an IIM was, nor did they realise what their elder son had achieved.
The village that Mr. Satyamurthy belongs to — Athava in Vizianagaram, Andhra Pradesh — has just one primary school. But after finishing Class 5, he went to a high school in a nearby village and then completed his B.Tech. in electrical and electronics engineering from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Kakinada. “I was the first engineer from my village,” he told The Hinduon Sunday, beaming with pride. After a stint with Tata Consultancy Services, he cleared the State Bank of India Probationary Officer (SBI PO) exam, but he wanted to achieve more.
Posted as a bank employee near Nellore, he set his eyes on an IIM degree and made it in his third attempt at the Common Admission Test (CAT). In the last three years, he funded his younger brother’s education and repaid debts his family had taken, and he has now taken a loan to pay for his MBA.
“Growing up in my village, I always thought I will end up in a job that may get me Rs. 5,000. People there rely only on agriculture. But there are a lot of bright minds there. It was during my B.Tech. that I realised it was not my aspiration,” he said.
When he graduates from the PGP course, Mr. Satyamurthy hopes to apply his managerial skills in the social sector. “I want to do something that will help not just my family,” he said.
My father studied till class four, my mother till class seven. We have half-an-acre land and my parents do whatever jobs come their way under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.
When I had to leave my job at SBI, people in my village said I was making a mistake by leaving a government job as they did not know what an IIM was. It was a difficult decision to make.
Gompa Kumar Satyamurthy