BHUBANESWAR: ‘Winners don’t do different things, they do things differently.’ Educator and entrepreneur Anil Pradhan and author Jubanashwa Mishra have proved the adage true with their accomplishments and innovations with profession and life. The young achievers regaled the audience at the 10th edition of Odisha Literary Festival with their unusual yet engrossing tales of adventure and ambition.
While Anil is known for changing the lives of children at the grassroots, Jubanashwa is known to rediscover himself by embarking upon an experiential journey of working 28 jobs in 28 states of India. Jubanashwa’s journey entailed travelling 25,000 km across the length and breadth of the country. In his journey, which started in 2013, he explored a long list of jobs like working as a mountain cleaner, TRP analyst, rafting trainee, cremation assistant and even a tattoo artist. His book ‘28 jobs, 28 weeks, 28 states’ was published in 2016.
When festival coordinator Kaveree Bamzai asked what inspired him to embark on this unique journey, Jubanashwa mentioned his mother, who, he said, nudged him to find his inner-self. “I am from a small town of Sonepur and had joined TCS as a software engineer. My mother, however, seemed not very amused as every other family in our neighbourhood had a son or family member working as a software engineer and pointed this out to me. In a way, she inspired me to look at life differently. And here, I am,” Jubanashwa said in the conversation with Bamzai.
Anil’s journey too is no different and an inspiration for those wishing to make a difference in theirs and others’ lives. Son of a CRPF head constable, he founded Young Tinker Foundation (formerly Navonmesh Prasar Foundation) in 2015 and took it upon himself to educate children by developing tinker pace, affordable tinker kits, indigenous rockets and projects that solve real-life problems.
Anil was called crazy by his parents and friends, but he did not stop and till date Tinker Foundation has impacted the lives of over 1.5 lakh children across the nation. “The education system of our country does not inspire children to think differently. I wanted to change that,” he said much to the applause of the audience.