When you do something in life, don’t just do it for yourself. Let others learn from your experiences and experience the joy of inspiring others. It is the idea behind all the activities that Prashant Priyadarshi takes up in his life. The boy from Sahibganj in Jharkhand did not let his small town limit his big dreams.
Prashant Priyadarshi proudly speaks of the two good things about his hometown – it is located between the river Ganges on one side and mountains on the other with the most pleasant weather and St Xavier’s school run by the Jesuit Missionary Society of India. It was the best school in a town with a large percentage of students coming from different parts of the world, and living in the hostel and a comparatively smaller group of students who enrolled as day scholars.
While things in his town went on like this, Prashant Priyadarshi and his family have dealt with difficult situations on the economic front. His father ran a control shop and found it hard to meet all comforts as a control shop owner and a part-time astrologer. Despite his economic limitations, he wanted to ensure the best education for his children.
Knowing the situation at home, Prashant’s elder brother started supporting their father by giving tuition to children younger than him. Soon his brother moved to Delhi to study at Delhi University and later secured a job in an MNC in that city. His brother’s job gave them the luxury of buying a color television, and Prashant’s dreams were further fueled by the fantasy shown on the silver screen. He says Amir Khan’s Taare Zameen Par and 3 Idiots left a lasting positive impact on him.
Prashant Priyadarshi’s Hidden Dreams
Now it was Prashant’s turn to choose a career and his parents, like most others, wanted him to be an engineer. But Prashant Priyadarshi, who was always an active participant in stage plays, poetry, essay writing competitions, and other activities, had different dreams. He told his father that he wants to be a journalist. With limited knowledge about journalism and its prospects, his father didn’t approve of the idea.
Prashant reluctantly agreed to his father’s suggestion and took up sciences in his 11th and 12th grade in Delhi Public School, which is known to be one of the best of its time. While studying this curriculum, he attended coaching classes for the entrance exam to get him into a good engineering college. His love for the stage, poetry, and literature was being pushed into the background. Prashant felt that he was experiencing a significant setback in his life.
The turning point in his life came in 2009 when Prashant appeared for his 12thgrade board exams, and he secured 72 percent. His family could not understand why a boy, who consistently scored nothing less than 94 percent, has dropped to 75 percent. He appeared for AIEEE twice and secured 55,000 and 5,55,000 ranks, respectively. Prashant’s father finally asked him what he wanted to do in life, and he told him about the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) in Bangalore.
Prashant had learned about NIFT from his classmate who had already enrolled in that college. As he broke this news to his father, Prashant was challenging several taboos at the same time. First was the taboo of entering the world of glamour, which is very unpredictable. The second was the taboo of choosing a more suitable profession for girls, and the third was the taboo of fashion being nothing more than a tailoring job.
Swimming Against the Current
Prashant Priyadarshi fought all the taboos and emerged victorious when he secured a place for himself in NIFT. When this became the biggest news in town and circulated through the newspaper, Prashant was happy. Still, the incident made him wonder why someone getting into a professional college was big.
He then realized that all the special attention was scarce for someone to choose fashion as his career, which was not very popular among the general public. It was when Prashant decided that he must educate people about a variety of professions that can be opted for apart from the mainstream options.
His years in NIFT gave Prashant a chance to relive his days of school. He got countless opportunities to interact with many people while going back on stage and participating in literary competitions that gave him immense pleasure. The inter-college competitions gave him a life that he missed for a long time. Prashant’s passion and enthusiasm allowed him to be vice president and president of various clubs and design and décor head at NIFT while influencing a larger group of people.
He recollects it as an exciting experience to be one of the few boys among many girls. During the third year at NIFT, Prashant and his friend started providing career counseling to people like them, who had dreams away from the normal. Prashant Priyadarshi wanted the younger crowd to have the knowledge and guidance he didn’t have when making a career choice.
The Philanthropist in Prashant Priyadarshi
They started counseling two students, sometimes in the garden and at other times in the theater. The number of students kept increasing. By the time Prashant was in the fourth year of college, he and his friend were coaching five students and providing them the much-needed career guidance. After Prashant finished college, he got a job, but he continued to volunteer to help his friend, who took the counseling provided to the next level.
By that time, they had as many as 25 students looking forward to being guided by them, and by now, Prashant had counseled more than 10000 students through various Workshops, Conferences, and Seminars in the last six years. Today, his friend coaches and counsels more than 2500 students every year, and Prashant continues to provide his support in whatever way possible. While enjoying a successful career as a visual communication designer at Lifestyle, Prashant has not forgotten his responsibility towards the people about to begin a career and are looking for guidance.
Today, the small Voluntary steps taken by Prashant and his friend’s initiative have taken the shape of an institution called Ignite India Education, where Prashant passionately supports reaching out to the millennials whenever called for. Ignite India’s motto is “Education For All,” It aims to educate the entire nation. The inspiration from this comes from a term coined by the former President of India, Mr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam, whose mission was to ensure that all the children of our country have access to education.
Their passion for making children learn is so strong that Prashant and his friend randomly decided to teach the kids of a slum nearby. They employed innovative and interactive methods to give the kids a basic understanding. They didn’t want to leave it at that. So, they spoke to the parents of these kids and encouraged them to send their children to schools by informing them that the Government of India provides free primary education and that they don’t need to worry about the expenses.
Prashant makes it a point to speak at colleges and schools and inspire kids to follow their hearts whenever he gets an opportunity. He says he does it for personal satisfaction, and money does not come into the picture.
As he mentions, Prashant’s reward is when these kids come back and tell him that they’re doing something special in life inspired by him. He speaks with great pride about speaking to more than 20,000 students over so many years. Whether it was college fests or fashion shows where Prashant Priyadarshi was called a jury for the model hunt, he went with only one motive – to inspire youngsters to work towards their dream.
He recalls one such event when Prashant visited the Narayana School as a keynote speaker; he asked all the students what they wanted to be. One of them said he wants to study literature, but his father disapproves of the decision as he believes that novelists can’t make it big professionally. Then, Prashant Priyadarshi explained to the boy that you can be many other things than just a novelist by studying literature. For instance, a content writer, copywriter, or creative writer, and many more.
In this regard, Prashant says it is not just the students that require counseling; sometimes, the parents need it. They should be counseled to identify their child’s talent and encourage their child to pursue it further. This realization has compelled Prashant to interact with many parents of young kids. In becoming what he aspired to be, Prashant has been adding many feathers to his cap. A parent counselor is one of them.
Being an ardent fan of poetry, Prashant Priyadarshi created a platform called Lehza. It’s a place to express those emotions that cannot be displayed through regular communication. Another striking feature of Lehza is that it is a place where people talk not only about achievements but of aspirations as well. It’s a place that talks of achievement as a never-ending journey and not a destination. It is the reason why a large number of people connected with him within just a couple of months of starting Lehza. Through Lehza, Prashant wants to imply that inspiration does not necessarily come from celebrities all the time. Someone can inspire people as familiar as you and me.
A Seeker of Opportunities
Prashant’s journey is a perfect example of the quote, “What you seek, seeks you.” As he enthusiastically looks for opportunities to make the world a better place, he finds such opportunities in the most unexpected ways. In a casual conversation with his colleague, Prashant Priyadarshi discovered an opportunity to make Bangalore litter-free. His friend Sandeep, who is the president of Marwadi Yuva Manch, Bangalore, wanted to prevent the degrading quality of the environment in the city.
Sandeep was so attached to the cause because he considered the city his Karmabhoomi – the place where he makes a living. His consciousness of responsibility towards his city inspired him to come up with an eco-friendly idea. Sandeep suggested the usage of trash bins that are the size of coffee mugs. These, he said, should be part of every car in Bangalore. It will help all the trash generated in the car find a place in that bin instead of being thrown away on the city’s roads.
Prashant gladly volunteered Sandeep’s initiative, and the duo got in touch with a few companies that were happy to sponsor these trash bins for a larger good to society. They started distributing the trash bins on traffic signals to have a better reach and maximum awareness about the mission. To ensure that Sandeep’s idea does not die out, Prashant Priyadarshi recorded an interview with his friend and took his message to the general public through social media. The positive response was overwhelming, he says.
They wanted to take this to the next level, so Sandeep met celebrities who favored such ideas, and they gladly agreed to be a part of this initiative. Interestingly, even Smt. Mridula Sinha (ex-Governor of Goa) became a part of this initiative, and many more celebrities like Kiran Bedi (Governor of Puducherry), Tejasvi Surya (Member of Parliament), and celebrated RJs and Actors to count a few, promoted the mission. The message spread like wildfire and reached many cities in India. With the growing popularity of the car trash bin initiative, the team grabbed a chance to present a project on this to the Swachh Bharat Team of the Government of India.
The car trash bin sparked off a chain of ideas. They think it would be more beneficial if cars came with an inbuilt trash bin. The team spoke to many car companies and hopes to see the results soon. Two years of tireless efforts in this direction gave them a reward of being featured on the Government of India website along with their eco-friendly product. Prashant Priyadarshi has been closely involved with the car trash bin campaign, and he’s satisfied in playing the role of a supporter in Sandeep’s campaign.
Whatever he may associate with, Prashant Priyadarshi has only one message for the world, i.e., creating a better society where young minds can flourish to their full potential.
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So inspiring :-)
Great going
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