KOCHI: We might have heard of many engineering dropouts. Only a few of them have made an impact and did something different. Three years ago, fifth-semester engineering student Gokul Mohandas felt that he was missing out on something. Theoretical knowledge was just not enough to master engineering. So he decided to give it a practical shape. He dropped out of college.
Gokul knew it was a hard step. But he had to take a chance and give one last try. He started his own firm ‘ORIF Rubber Tech Private Limited’. “I always wanted to be an engineer. But wanted to do something different from the mainstream engineers,” said Gokul. “I wanted to develop my own materials. Seeing my mother who is an industrialist, I thought of starting my firm, except the fact that I did not have a manufacturing unit.”
This startup deals with R&D in sealing technology. It is one of the major supplier and associate for Instrumentation Ltd Palakkad, Vijay Seals Private Ltd, and Royal Seals Private Ltd. ORIF, along with Vijay Seals, is a major supplier and associate for Steel Authority of India, ISRO, Heavy Vehicles Factory of India, Baba Atomic Research Centre and many centres in other countries. Gokul is the CEO of ORIF and also serves as BDO for Vijay Seals.
“Mostly we do research and development for industries in steel, defence, petroleum and hydraulic industry,” he said. “I develop these materials after a lot of research. I have been developing materials for the major government projects and for European countries.” Apart from this, this engineering dropout has already authored a fictional autobiography ‘Sunsets Had a Reason’.
The book is a story of his life after dropping out of college, the difficulties he had to overcome when he left college and how he was successful in setting up a firm of his own. “I thought of recording the trials in my life and how I struggled to set up my own firm which was my dream,” says Gokul. The book was published last year. Currently, he is planning to set up a manufacturing unit in Palakkad.