Bharat Ki shaan

For many of us it was a regular last few days. But not for these 9 young aspirational students who spent their time learning English and getting ahead in life.

The youth today is aspirational, inspired and hardworking. Following are stories of 9 students that are making India proud.

On the Josh Skills app, you get points for working hard and learning new skills. Earning these points was not an easy task- all of them had to watch hours of English and grammar videos, learn and practice new words everyday and speak in English for many minutes with other students on the app through the Practice with Partner calls. These 9 students have crossed the threshold of earning more than 5000 points on the Josh Skills app which is a fantastic record in itself. They are the top students in the English course among 18000 students who started the course together. 

These points show that these students want to go out there and change their circumstances. These 5000 points are a sign of the resilience and persistence that these students have shown.They are the flag bearers of our bright future. They are the reason India believes in a bright future.

1. Deepak Kumar, 24, Bihar 

Mother’s Name : Smt. Dhanweshwari Devi 

Father’s Name : Sh. Ram Ratan Singh 

Deepak has a flawless AIR 1 on the English Course. He has over 20,500 points! In conversation with him, Deepak said a few remarkable things. “Mujhe Josh Skills se mohabaat hai. Main Bihar ke ek chhote se gaaon se hoon, par main Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, aur na jaana kahan kahan se kareeb 600 logon se baat kar paya hoon. Samay tha jab main 1 se bhi English mein nahi bol paata tha” 

( “I am in love with Josh skills. I hail from a small village in Bihar, but I have been able to speak with over 600 students from Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai , Kolkata and god-knows how many other places across the country!There was a time when I couldn’t even speak with one person in English ”)

He found freedom in talking to people and dissolving his fear of speaking in English. He has maintained a stellar score and his commitment to make his State proud is beyond compare.Deepak wants to build Bihar as a self-sustainable state and be an Entrepreneur. He says “The idea of getting connected to a practice partner is revolutionary. “ We are madly rooting for Deepak to follow his dreams!

2.Dharmendra Kumar, 23, Ghongarariya village, Bihar 

Mother’s Name : Smt. Indra Kala Devi 

Father’s Name : Sh. Sant Lal Byas

6 years ago, Dharmendra started to learn English, because the promise was that at the end of it, his salary would see an increment of 3x. He couldn’t overcome this challenge because of the unbelievably high cost of the offline learning centres(INR16,000), so inadvertently his learning came to a halt. Fast forward 6 years with Josh Skills, in just Rs. 499 Dharmendra Kumar hasn’t gotten tired of answering the question “How have you been at the top of the Josh Leaderboard for weeks?”

 Dharmendra right now has a flawless score of 16,200 points and is a favourite of all learners. He mentioned to us “Pehle toh jab english wali madam hasti thi toh hum bhi haste the kyunki samajh toh aata nahi tha, ab toh dinn mein 4 ghante English bol lete hain” 

(“Earlier, I would just laugh alongside my English teacher because I wouldn’t understand a thing, but now I am able to speak in English for over 4 hours each day!”). Dharmendra’s parents are really proud of all his hard work. 

3. Shivam Gujjar, 19, Haridwar

Mother’s Name : Smt. Suman

Father’s Name : Sh. Brijpal Singh 

Shivam has a stoking 13,616 points and All India Rank 3(AIR 3) on the Josh Skills Leaderboard. During his interview, we tried speaking to him in Hindi, for ease of conversation but not-so-surprisingly Shivam answered all our questions in English! He is 19, a BSc Student and has an excessive interest in Stocks and Computer Sciences. He had always been shy and under-confident until this change happened in his life. Shivam mentioned that his friends noticed the incremental changes in him with respect to him speaking, understanding and fearlessly talking in English. His friends said and we quote”Shivam bhai, Humein bhi karna hai jo bhi tu kar raha hai. Please!” 

 (“Shivam, even we want to change our life the way you have!”) 

Shivam lives with his father who is a policeman in Haridwar, and he is very proud of Shivam!

4.Rajat Kumar, 22, Rajori District, Jammu and Kashmir

In this remarkable conversation, Rajat spoke to us for 15 minutes in English. Not surprised? We weren’t either, until he told us that it was the effort of just 30 days! In this short span of time, he was able to comprehend, register and respond in what we call “faratedar angrezi”(super-smooth English) with our team member for the interview! Rajat comes from a middle class family, from J&K, and even though he has 3 older siblings, he never had any guidance for his future. He is a first-generation graduate and has a whopping 9,408 points in the course!What really left a mark on us, was his passion to continue working on his dream to be an IAS officer and the gratitude he holds for Josh Skills in his life-helping him discover more of himself!  

5.Anmol Jain, 22, Madhya Pradesh

Mother’s Name : Smt. Rekha Jain 

Anmol is an engineering student who struggled with his coursebooks because of their medium being English. He shared how significantly difficult it was for him to talk to his teachers in English. He is one of the firsts in the family to speak in English. He recalls how mischievous he was when he was in class 5 and still is! He mentioned that his mother had him transferred to live in a stricter environment because of his habits! His father runs a grocery shop, and both of them would be extremely proud of his work today- 9402 points.

6.Yogeshwar Paswan, 18, Madhya Pradesh

Yogesh, by far, is the youngest top-scorer. He is 18, with over 7,369 points and is a class 12 commerce student hailing from Panna, Madhya Pradesh. He wants to make it big as a CA and started living a very simple life from the age of 10. He lives in an Ashram, wakes up at 4, and is very sincere in his efforts. He considers his “bade papa” to be his inspiration. We asked him a simple question about his dream- and his young and innocent self said “Ma’am, main apne aas paas ke logon ki madad karna chahta hoon, jaise bhi- chahe padhai ya fir rozgaar se”  (“Ma’am, I want to help people around me- be it through education or employment”)Yogeshwar may be someone who speaks less, but executes with sincerity twice as much!

7.Jaynath Maurya, 32, Sirkina Gaon, Jaunpur

Mother’s Name : Ms. Yashoda Maurya

Father’s Name : Mr. Vikram Maurya 

Jaynath has been working and leading teams here in New Delhi for the last 10 years. But let’s go back to when he was in class 10. “I would’ve dropped English as a subject in 10th if it were an option! I was scared, and just did not want it”  Imagine living with that fear as a student. Jaynath was equally intimidated when he found out his Bsc medium was entirely English. One language became a big barrier in him moving forward. But when we spoke to him in 2021, he took his entire interview in English. He has a mad score of 8,012 points with a full time job! He is so proud of being able to let go of his “fear”- that he is after his younger brother Amarnath Maurya’s life to start his journey with Josh!

8. Subhashree Sahoo, 21, Odisha

Mother’s name : Smt.Nirmala Sahoo

Father’s name : Sh. Maheswar Sahoo

Subhashree is a Nursing student from the district of Koraput, Odisha. She is one of the top-women on the All India Leaderboard of the Josh Skills course with a brilliant score of 7,648 points. When we asked Subhashree about her dream job in life, she said “I want to help people, and help them become better, that is why I am in a profession of healing people”  Her village has seen a lot of diseases come in and take away lives with lack of resources and healthcare. Her challenge was that her profession requires them to interact a lot in English. She decided she wasn’t going to let English become a barrier in achieving her dream, and we are taking a bet on her being able to madly follow them!

  9.Tabarej Alam, 22, Bihar, 

Father’s Name : Sh. Mr.Syed Mazhar Alam

Tabarej’s story moved us. He has already completed the course in under 25 days and scored a perfect 98% in all the exams of the Spoken English course! Tabarej studied all of his student life in a Hindi-medium environment but wanted to learn English because it is a global language. He mentioned that in his village, people do not want to spend on education at all. Despite these social situations,his father who a 55 year old farmer, always defied the odds and supported his son’s dream. Tabarej said and we quote “agar main aapse aaj baat kar paa raha hoon, it is because of my father”.  Tabarej is a UPSC aspirant. 

We salute the parents, teachers and mentors of these students. We are proud of you, India is proud of you.