Meet man who failed class 11, mocked as ‘son of panipuri vendor’, later cracked IIT entrance exam, with score..., now wants to pursue...

Harsh Gupta’s determination and passion helped him secure a seat in IIT despite being from a poor family. But what makes the 19-year-old man’s achievement so unique is that he has never been a brilliant student but with hard work he achieved a difficult feat which many could not. Harsh’s father runs a small panipuri stall in Mumbai and gave his all to aid in his son’s studies. However, Gupta failed class 11 but secured a seat at IIT Roorkee in Uttarakhand. His dream is not to secure an IT job but to become a civil servant. 

How Harsh Gupta cracked IIT exam despite failing in school?

Despite this failure, Harsh never even thought once about giving up and, with grat efforts and support from his family, again sat for Class 11 exams and cleared it after which he also managed to clear Class 12 and then enrolled himself at a coaching institute in Kota, Rajasthan to prepare for IIT. Harsh scored a brilliant 98.59 percent mark in JEE-Mains and only in his first attempt which qualified him for JEE-Advanced. Even with such a good score, he failed to get into the college of his choice. He tried again and secured his choice of college. 

“After failing the Class 11 exams, I decided to go to Kota. My family supported me in my decision... I always dreamt of clearing IIT and securing a seat in either IIT Mumbai or Roorkee,” Harsh was quoted saying by NDTV. His journey was a difficult one as his failure made him a subject of mockery by his classmates who also doubted him academically. He only focused on his goal and studied for 10-12 hours a day. “But I didn't pay much heed. I worked hard,” he said.  

His father, Santosh Gupta, had a low income but he gave all his savings into his studies. He expressed happiness after Harsh’s achievement and said, “I may be a pani puri vendor, but I will go to any extent to support my children's dreams.” Despite low income, Santosh Gupta wishes for his two more sons, Shubham and Shivam, to pursue higher education.  

“I also want my two other sons, Shubham and Shivam, to pursue higher education,” he said.