Satish Chandra Buriuly, student, IIM Ranchi class of 2012

You could call this a different kind of ‘rags to riches’ story. Only, there were no rags and there are no riches either. Satish Chandra Buriuly’s story is about how a commonplace person from a tribal area in India can start making it big and compete with the rest of the world using sheer grit and hardwork. Satish (32) was a hotel attendant boy and a school van driver before he got an admission to the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ranchi and is today receiving a Rs 10 lakh job offer during placements.

“But I may not take up the Rs 10 lakh job as I have one more offer from a company that gives work to rural artisans. It makes carpets. This company has not yet described the job profile or the money but I would like to do something for rural people,” Satish told PaGaLGuY.

Satish is from Jhinkpani in the interiors of Jharkhand, a place centered around an ACC cement plant. The biggest town close to Jhinkpani is Chaibasa which is largely tribal in nature. Born to a modest family, Satish lost his mother when he was very young. My stepmother brought me up with so much love and affection that I owe much of what I am today to her, he says proudly. The rest of the credit Satish gives his girlfriend who has stuck to him and been with him at the oddest moments in his life.

And the odd moments have been many.

Satishs father died in 2000 and Satish being the eldest in the house, decided to take up the responsibility of the family. But he had little to start with: an SSC degree (with 51% marks) and an intermediate degree (50%) in 1999. He did not have the finances to study further so he took a break and started working at any and every job that came his way.

Some of the first jobs that he did were those of a computer teacher in a local institute and a house attendant in a hotel. I had learnt computers since that was the basic skill required for any job. And hardly had I learnt computers that I was asked to teach computers. The salary at the computer institute was a little over Rs 1,000 so Satish juggled both the jobs (the hotel boy one was well) at the same time.

I was house boy by night and a computer operator by day. I had to do all the odd jobs in the hotel including taking the guests bags to the room. I did that for a while but could not continue it because I was not sleeping enough and falling ill frequently, said Satish.

Some more less flattering jobs followed. These included that of a school-van driver and a door-to-door salesman. Satishs three younger brothers were still studying back then. Both my mother and I wanted them to study and that was the best thing to happen to me. It gave me time to consider various options to go ahead with, the IIM Ranchi graduate said.

The family owned a few small-sized paddy fields but they were not enough to support a growing family. Life was hard but my mother made sure that I and my brothers did not lose hope. After my fathers death, a lot of my time was spent in just running around to get my fathers pension money, he said.

In 2006, Satish got a better job as a computer operator in Noamundi. This job paid better, though not great. Satish then bought a second-hand van and started driving children to school and dropping them back to their homes. This earned him some extra money but also took a toll on his psyche. He often just broke down with mental fatigue and physical stress.

My girlfriend and mother were there by my side all the time and they made sure that I never gave up, said Satish. That was the time when his girlfriend who is a teacher in a local school pushed him to resume his studies. He took admission in Tata College in Chaibasa. At the same time, he also took up English speaking lessons. I knew that if you have to move ahead in life, English was a must, the Satish added.

When IIM Ranchi opened in his state Jharkhand, it gave Satish hope and he dared to dream to take admission there. In 2009, Satish took the Common Admission Test (CAT) and scored in the 80.08 percentile. But the fees were still high for me. It was my friends, my brother and my girlfriend who all came together and chipped in Rs 1.1 lakh for the fees and thus my dream got a face and a direction, Satish said.

Today, with an MBA degree in hand, Satish has two offers to choose from — a huge contrast from the days when he did every job that came his way. I come from a tribal background and I know what it is like to originate from there. With no opportunities at all, life is very hard. I want to give back to society since society has given me much so will work with the company based in Jaipur that helps artisans made carpets, he says.

Satish also has one more errand to complete. To get married to the girl who has been with him all these years and waited for him to get settled in his career, the one who made him fulfil a lost dream.

Prof MJ Xavier, director of IIM Ranchi is extremely happy with Satishs performance. He is a humble and soft-spoken boy. Very polite and it is good that he is going to do so well in life, the director told PaGaLGuY.