Mr. Anand, welcome to Talks at Google. How are you?
I am doing well, thank you very much. My regards to everyone watching this episode
We hope that you are happy coming here, because we are very excited to meet you through this platform
As my name is Anand, which means happiness, my job is to be happy
Today I feel very satisfied to come to this platform and talk to you all.
That is great. If we talk about Google, do you have any memories of Google
or any opportunity to visit any of Google’s offices earlier?
Thank you for bringing that point up. A lot of my memories are attached to Google.
I would like to share that in 2008 I went to San Diego for a Mathematical Conference.
From there I happened to travel to San Jose.
I mentioned to my friend that I was interested in visiting the Google office
as he had asked me what places I wanted to visit in California
I said I wanted to visit the Google office.
Unfortunately we could not enter the office as his friend, who was an employee at Google, was on leave.
In some way, my dream of seeing the Google office remained unfulfilled
But I was so excited about seeing the office
that I ended up clicking a photograph outside the office.
Then when I went to the US another time, Google invited me to their office to deliver a lecture.
However due to the short notice I could not visit them.
But today I am on Google's platform, so it seems like a dream come true for me.
It feels great to hear this, Mr. Anand, and you shared a very strong example of a dream coming true.
Now, I will start this conversation with my first question
Your journey in the last 18 to 20 years has been full of difficulties and challenges
but you have still achieved a lot
I would like to give some examples like Time magazine and the State of British Columbia who have honored you.
Discovery Channel ran a 1-hour documentary on your Super30 program,
and that was followed by the Hindi movie Super30 that was released in 2019.
So you have achieved a lot in the last few years
However, if you look back at your life,
what are those moments and achievements that you find most satisfying?
As I said earlier, like my name Anand, I try to find happiness even in difficulties.
It is true that there have been a lot of moments of happiness.
I have had lots of achievements, honor and recognition that I received on multiple occasions.
However, I am the happiest when I get an opportunity to teach and empower children who live a life of scarcity,
whose parents are poor and don’t have enough to feed them.
When such children clear the IIT exams and they reach a comfortable place through high paying jobs , I am very happy.
Although there are hundreds of stories, I will start with Abhishek Raj's story.
Abhishek Raj lived in a small village in Bihar (as seen in the picture)
There were no facilities. His parents hardly earned anything but they still worked hard.
Despite their condition, they worked hard and were really passionate about educating their children.
however they found it very difficult to educate him beyond 10th Std.
But then Abhishek came to Super30.
The boy who used to sleep hungry and thirsty,
eventually completed his studies from IIT Kharagpur and is currently working in the US.
His life completely changed, as you can see in the photograph.
You can see the huge difference between the pictures we saw.
I feel really satisfied when lives change for the better.
Although there are a multitude of other examples, I will share another special story of Shashi.
You can see Shashi's photograph. He used to stay in a village.
He also came from a poor family with no resources. But he never lost courage.
When he came to the Super30 program, he was physically weak and would often fall sick,
but together we worked really hard and he managed to get into IIT Kharagpur
Then Shashi went on to study in Europe
and the same boy who had once studied in a Hindi medium school in a village,
is now a research scientist at Google, London.
So this is again an example of a life getting transformed, which coincidentally highlights my pleasant association with Google.
Hence, the ability to impact lives gives me immense satisfaction,
especially because the poor children come from places where they have no access to resources
and go on to reach unimaginable heights.
It is very interesting to note this connection between Google and your student.
Thank you for sharing two heartwarming and inspiring stories of Shashi and Abhishek.
And as you said, Super30 has impacted hundreds of children and their families,
and in turn has indirectly impacted many more families.
But if we talk about super 30, when did the first thought of starting this program come to you?
What did you do as an immediate next step?
I had a lot of interest in mathematics from the beginning.
My father also wanted me to become a mathematician and teacher.
So I used to study hard.
There was no library in Patna(my hometown), so I used to travel 300 kms to BHU in Varanasi to read journals.
I wrote some papers which got published in some maths gazettes and spectrums,
and on the basis of those, I successfully applied to Cambridge University
and got an offer to pursue higher education in Mathematics.
However we did not have enough money to even buy flight tickets(so I couldn’t go to Cambridge),
Given that my father was a low paid employee in the postal department.
This made him very disappointed,
although we used to convince him that we will get more opportunities in the future.
However, he could not bear this and one day succumbed to a sudden heart attack.
Everything got over in a flash, and all the responsibilities fell on my shoulders
I started thinking of how to move forward in life.
I left the government job that I got as compensation, and decided to do something that would impact lives of people like me
who are much more talented than us, but have no platform or opportunities to show their talent.
Hence, from there I started the journey of Super 30.
You gave a very good example and shared a very inspiring story.
During my research, I was reading a 2011 article in the New York Times where they have referenced
that out of all the students who apply to get into the IITs, only two percent are selected.
That article also goes on to say that-”This percentage may make Harvard look more welcoming”.
However, in your case we are talking about 30 students and 18 years of successful and consistent performance of your students
So how do you train your students at Super30 that 90%, sometimes even 100% of your students get into the IITs which has such a low acceptance rate?
Our students come from villages which don’t have access even to the internet and electricity.
They study in dilapidated school buildings and their teachers also don’t visit the schools regularly.
Hence, they majorly resort to self study.
When they get admitted to Super 30, they get nervous and feel that IITs are for children who have money and facilities and who study in schools as grand as 5-star hotels.
They feel that only such students can succeed and get good jobs.
So I feel that there is a need to give them confidence
which is why we have made two comic characters in our Super30 program
First character is Ricky. We have created this character using multimedia technologies.
This is Ricky, who has access to all that he needs, like good food, a motorbike and a good coaching centre.
The second character that you will see is Bholu.
Although he comes from a small village and has hardly any access to resources, he has a lot of courage.
So as soon as we project a maths or science question through the multimedia projector, we encourage the students to imagine themselves as Bholu.
The students imagine themselves as Bholu and start thinking about a solution.
First of all, we show that Ricky, who is of the privileged class, solves the problem first, and then makes fun of Bholu.
Then Bholu challenges Ricky that he would solve the question in multiple ways using different methods.
Then after solving the problem, he asks Ricky- “Who of the two of us is smarter?”.
This is how we encourage the students.
You said an important thing that motivation is extremely critical,
and I also feel that the environment impacts motivation levels.
I have also seen the environment of super 30
But when it comes to IITs, given that I have also been an IIT aspirant, I think it needs strong problem solving capabilities.
So how do you develop that in your students at Super30?
Both motivation and problem solving capability are important.
However we first need to encourage them and generate a belief in them that they can clear the IIT examination.
So if any problem comes, we want the children to think about the how and why of the question.
If the how and why of the question are not clear, then how would the student solve it!
Therefore we focus on helping them understand the how and why of a question.
Take an example of this question: “If x^2 + y^2=1, what is the maximum and minimum value of x+y?”
What the student does is that in place of y, uses the alternate value from the original equation.
Then they use calculus, maxima and minima, etc.
The usual students just use these couple of alternate methods, but I encourage them to think deeper.
I ask them-”Look at it from more perspectives”.

The student after thinking gets to a simple quadratic equation, and feels encouraged and satisfied with the result.
Then I further encourage the student to think more . They realize that x^2 + y^2=1 also means a circle.

Taking cue from the multiple approaches to solve a problem, the student feels encouraged to solve more difficult problems and goes in detail to solve every problem.
and goes in detail to solve every problem.
In this way, they understand every question in detail, enjoy it, are filled with confidence, and eventually don’t feel discouraged by their identity(Bholu).
The student also realizes that success in exams doesn’t depend on money, but on hard work and perseverance.
Then after a year of hard work, the same student takes the IIT entrance examination, succeeds in the same, and eventually reaches big organizations like Google.
You gave a very good example.
It is great to see that you train and develop your students to come up with multiple approaches to solve any problem.
You demonstrated this very well with an example of x^2+y^2=1, that we can look at a problem from multiple perspectives,
and this is a great attitude to develop in the students.
So my next question is if we look at any high profile program,
specially one like Super 30, which has been going on for the last 18 years
and gives great results every year, which is a difficult thing to do.
I am sure you would have a lot of difficulties in running this program and in order to overcome these difficulties,
there would be a team of people who would support you.
So tell us about the challenges and your support system.
You asked a very valid question. Most of the tasks that we undertake are full of difficulties.
Although the result is bright and shiny, the struggle behind it is very intense.
For instance, when the Super 30 program had initially started, I was really worried about feeding the students,
because all 30 of them, after getting selected, lived with us in our own house.
I thank all my friends who had encouraged me,
but I would specially call out my brother Pranav who left everything and dedicated his life to the Super 30 program.
My mother on the other hand agreed to cook meals for the children.
So all in all, the children continue to stay at home with us, my mother cooks for them,
my brother looks after them and I teach them.
Till date many businessmen and politicians have voluntarily offered me financial help.
They offered me lakhs and crores of rupees, when Super30's success became well known.
However, we have not taken financial help from anyone.
I earn money through tuitions, and by giving lectures in external platforms. This is how I take care of my family and my students together.
Despite my not taking financial help and receiving a lot of encouragement from various people,
there were some people who did not want the Super 30 program to succeed.
There were a lot of physical assaults on me.
If you watch the film, there is a mention of one physical attack in it but there were a lot of attacks on me.
Even my brother was attacked when a truck tried running him over.
I am thankful to the Government of Bihar which has given me special protection through four bodyguards.
So I would say that there will be difficulties, but you will have to keep up your morale and develop the ability to struggle.
When the film on my life(Super 30) was being released, people wanted to malign my image
and filed lawsuits against me and spoke a lot against me to hurt the film's release.
Even though I have not taken any money from the children, a few students made a case that I have cheated the children.
Although there are no cases left in the court,
they left no stone unturned to malign my image
so that when people look me up on Google search, they come across these negative news first.
I remember my father’s sayings that the more one struggles, the greater will be the success
and the more you encounter negative forces, the bigger hero you would become.
All these things give me a lot of strength and increase my enthusiasm to continue working.
I would like to say through your platform that it is easy to speak but very difficult to face these challenges.
In situations like my brother being physically attacked so brutally
that he was hospitalized with a broken leg for three months, it becomes very difficult to maintain your composure.
But amidst all these challenges, the ability to maintain your composure and mental balance, and to teach students,
to discover new mathematical formulae, to keep abreast with competitions like the AMC of the US, and then compare them with those in IITs,
to understand the trend in the Russian Mathematical Olympiad and then to further explain it,
all these are challenges, but it is satisfying that despite these challenges,
when my students succeed and platforms like Google invite me for talks, I feel encouraged to take up more challenges and face them with all my might.
What an inspiring story, Mr. Kumar.
It is inspiring that you made your program financially self-sustainable.
When we talk about a big program and a powerful initiative like yours,
we see that it has a profound impact on the thirty students and their families.
Did you never think about expanding this program from thirty students to more like say fifty, or hundred?
We see that the number of students is very consistent at 30 throughout the journey of 18 years.
You asked a very good question! Actually, when we started this program,
our financial condition was not great and we could only manage to take care of thirty students.
Despite this, we tried to undertake this initiative and as mentioned earlier, did not take any money from anyone.
To your question on expanding the program further, we will definitely try to reach more children through technology.
However, as mentioned earlier, initially our constraints did not allow us to go beyond thirty students.
Sure. And I will definitely ask you more about your future plans for Super 30.
My next question is about your movie. 1 year ago, the movie Super30 was made about your life, and Hrithik Roshan played your character.
For the first time in India, a movie was declared tax free in eight states. The movie is about to complete a year on July 12
So how much has your life changed since the movie released a year back?
And what are changes that you see in yourself after the movie was released?
You tell me Hanzala, if you think my life has changed, or there has been a change in my attitude?
A lot of people would think that entering the world of glamour and films, and getting to meet and do programs with film stars would change a person.
However, a person should always be attached to their roots, and should continue to strive to not forget their origins.
In a nutshell, my life hasn’t changed since then. I am sure you would have also felt the same.
Yes, I feel the same too. I remember having met you briefly in 2006 in Patna.
If I compare that meeting and my telephonic conversation with you 2 months back for Talks at Google,
I don’t see much of a difference in your personality and attitude.
Let us move forward and talk about today. The current COVID-19 situation these days has impacted a lot of people
A lot of people are struggling, be they in India or in the US or any other country.
For our viewers who have been impacted by this, be they professionals or students,
especially those graduating in 2020 with scarcity of jobs and opportunities.
what would be your message for them?
Here is what I would like to say
Similar to the story of my struggles and challenges, there are a lot of struggles in the world.
Gautam Buddha’s teachings summarized that challenges and problems will always be there.
At times they will be big, at times small or at times even sudden.
One always has to be prepared to face these problems and challenges.
So one has to accept the current situation as a part of life.
Focus on what you can do, and how you can convert the crisis into an opportunity.
Earlier I used to teach students using the blackboard.
Later I used a multimedia projector, and eventually I also understood the concept of online teaching.
Earlier, when I used to go to the US, and would get invitations on a short notice, like the one from Google that I spoke about, I could not go.
But now we can connect with you through technology.
So how you turn this difficult situation into opportunity is important.
Having said that, everybody can have a different approach to tackling this crisis.
A tech savvy person or a farmer would have completely different approaches.
I for example, am motivating and teaching students through newspaper columns.
So I am trying my best to convert this crisis into an opportunity.
For people working from home, utilize the commute time that you save to think creatively,
or think about creating new tools, etc. as these are times when we should think differently.
In addition to what I mentioned, we are thinking about new problems, solving new assignments and creating new opportunities.
These crises could be so painful that one may start to break. So one needs to develop a lot of patience.
The longer the crisis continues, the scarier it becomes, hence try to develop more patience.
As the saying goes- “The darker the night, the closer one is to the sunrise”
I am sure the light will definitely come and tomorrow will be ours, if we are able to utilize this time well.
Thank you for sharing such a wonderful thought.
We will definitely keep learning from your examples of converting challenges into opportunities through the Super30 program.
Before we break for the live audience questions,
I would like to ask you about the future plans of the Super30 program, say five or ten years down the line?
We have seen that planning helps our ideas take a bigger shape.
However at times, the situation shapes things and ideas, just like we see the impact of CoVid-19 on technology.
So right now we wish things will become normal soon.
Once they are, then I plan to open a school for the underprivileged from Class 6th to 12th.
That school will not only prepare them for IITs, but will give them an option to choose their careers.
Through the online medium, I would like to reach out to students across the global communities and help them develop interest in mathematics.
Thank you for sharing your plans. We wish you all the best.
Now we will invite live questions, so I would request that the live questions are shown.
We can definitely make the system less burdensome.
Our current Super 30 selection process for example focuses foremost on the students’ interests.
If you understand the interest of a student then things become easy.
New and most difficult things like building a website, which was a new thing for me, can also be learnt by a person if they are interested.
One should keep in mind that if they are interested in anything, then they would be able to understand the most difficult things.
If you want to guide a student, then technology and a good teacher can definitely be helpful
But the most important thing is how much interest does the child have in the subject.
If teachers want to develop and enhance the interest levels in the children,
then teach them the how and why of things, and try to connect things with our practical lives.
Students will not understand until things are easy and simple.
And if they don’t understand the concept, they would not enjoy it hence would not be able to develop interest.
All these factors are interdependent.
I have a follow up question to this. You spoke about the importance of a teaching style that would make things simpler for the students.
However, there is an aspect of the examination, which the students would need to clear to get into the premier institutes like IITs.
Do you think we can change the pattern for that examination so that it becomes easier for students to clear them?
You just spoke about ease and difficulty, however my point is slightly different.
As an example, there is a huge difference or gap between our 12th class syllabus and IIT syllabus.
Students go to the coaching center to cover this gap. While the resourceful students are able to go to coaching centres, the poor students are left behind.
I have requested the Government of India (HRD Ministry),
and I think there is some work going on in the right direction, to simplify the syllabus and the examination pattern
so that a student can clear the IIT examination even by doing self study.
If a student is hard working and has the capability, they should have equal opportunities to succeed.
Thank you Mr. Anand. Let us take one more question.
We always feel and say that “One cannot gauge the depth of the sea just by looking at the waves.”
We cannot predict the future of children just on the basis of the marks they score in their examinations.
Therefore, marks have very little role to play in the success of the student.
How much creativity a child has and how logical they are paints a true picture of their potential.
If your children are studying, then my request to you is to pay attention to developing the creativity and logical capabilities of your children.
Encourage your child to solve problems and puzzles, which will hone their skills.
Even if they score a little less in the examination, there should be no concern.
The rule in India is that you need 60% marks in the 12th grade to sit for the IIT entrance examination.
When this rule wasn’t there, we had a lot of students who scored low marks like 45%, 52%, etc.
however they went on to study in colleges like IIT Delhi and Mumbai and made great progress from there.
So, if we decide on the basis of marks then a lot of talent will be left behind.
Therefore, how students can think creatively, like in story-telling, etc. should be focused on, rather than just marks.
We will take the last two live questions.
[Smiles] Becoming a teacher is not so easy. Teaching is our livelihood.
Having said that, you surely can become a good teacher if you have interest.
In that case, you will have to think what new can you give to your students.
and how you are able to go beyond theoretical concepts and connect the topics to real life things.
If you do not do that, and make learning fun, then it will be difficult for the child to learn.
Also, to maintain and develop the student’s interest, one has to be encouraging and has to highlight even the smaller achievements of the child.
This will make the child happy.
We have also seen the impact of motivation in helping children reach great heights.
Also, ignore the small mistakes and believe firmly that whatever the child is doing in the current CoVid situation is enough.
Thank you for your wonderful suggestion.
We have seen that during the CoVid times, children have had to bear the brunt by not going outdoors, and being completely in a lockdown state.
Thanks for asking a good question, Nimesh.
The reality is that when people like you thank me for doing what I do, and give your best wishes, that in itself is a big motivation.
When I have to face challenges like defamation, court cases, etc., I get really hurt and feel that I should give up my efforts.
My family and friends also at times suggest to me to give up, as all these struggles are not worth it.
But when I remember the faces of children whose fathers are engaged in occupations like working in the brick factory, brooming the floor, or driving auto-rickshaw,
and they are unable to sleep well due to the anxiety and anticipation of their children’s IIT entrance examination results.
Looking at their children’s (Super30 students) faces motivates me.
especially when I see my students like Shashi Narayan who get into companies like Google and do a great job, I really get motivated.
Special mention of my visit to the Cambridge University for a lecture, when Shashi took the entire day off from Google to be with me, which was so great and inspiring
To summarize, I get really excited and motivated to see these things, in addition to your encouragement and appreciation.
This helps me march ahead despite the challenges.
Thank you so much Mr. Anand.
Thanks to the viewers for asking good questions.
My last question to you is that you are currently in a powerful position, from where you can create an impact.
You have the ability to use social media, newspapers, etc. to spread your message.
On the other hand, students or professionals like us who don’t have the platform to create that impact,
what help do you need from them? And what is the suggestion you have for them to create a social impact ?
I really liked your last question. The first thing is that we wouldn’t need any monetary support from you all as we have never felt the need or desire to ask for the same.
However, what you can do is encourage, honour and motivate whoever is trying to create even a small social impact.
A few words of encouragement from people like you, creates a lot of difference to us and our motivation levels.
A few days ago a few of my students were discussing the current coronavirus situation with me.
They spoke about people walking on the streets for days on end, and a lot of people dying of starvation.
People are impacted by poverty much more than by the coronavirus. They asked what they could do to help?
This question is similar to what you asked. I would tell you that if you are able to help one child or one family, then that is enough.
You don’t really need to be either stressed about social impact or try to eradicate global poverty, which you can’t.
So creating a small yet meaningful impact is the need of the hour.
I would reiterate that if there is a need, like tech interventions for my programs, etc., I would definitely reach out to you all.
If we can together make small changes in the society through some inspiration from this episode of ‘Talks at Google’,
then I would consider this conversation to be successful.
Mr. Anand, thank you so much for joining us.
We wish that your journey ahead is meaningful, and together we are able to create a level playing field with equal opportunities for everyone.
I would like to thank the live viewers who joined us. I hope you all liked the talk.
I would like to thank everyone who have been instrumental in organizing this program,
Hanzala, Surabhi and Alan from Google, and Ms. Mona Puri from our team who helped a lot in coordination
I hope to receive the love and encouragement from all of you! Thank you so much.
