This is no story of making million dollars, nor a story of achieving the stars. This is a simple story of absolute hard work. It’s a true incidence and a journey of the utmost levels of tolerance. This is about Ananta Kumar Mahanta – a young boy from Lahunipara – a small agglomerate in Sundergarh District down south of the industrial hub of Rourkela, for whom financial crisis was but the daily part of his life. A day without troubles was like a day without the Sun.
He thus, came down to the Government Industrial Training Institute (ITI) at Rourkela town where he got enrolled in the Mechanic Refrigeration & air-conditioning trade for the 2010-12 academic year. A good rigorous training helped him get Apprenticeship with Whirlpool, where he worked for one year between 2013-2014. With good valuable experience, but money being important, he worked with INR 1500/- per month only despite being a paltry amount to sustain himself and his family. Then Ananta decided to work with a private firm, but, faith walked with him as here he could only derive INR 100/- to 200/- for every installation or repair.
In his own words as he says: “No money can buy you learning, skills and experience. Only life teaches you lessons that are free and unforgettable”.
Here he came across a long Mr. Nihar Ranjan Pradhan who used to be his trade faculty when at ITI. The Principal of ITI Rourkela further recommended Ananta’s candidature to Odisha Skill Development Authority for the Nano Unicorn programme. Ananta got selected and finally completed the then five-day accelerated entrepreneurship training in the 2017-18 financial year. Ananta with the project loan support, ventured into starting his own Electronics & Refrigeration Unit during November 2018 at Lahunipara near his village. While celebrating his success on the fifteenth day after inaugurating his shop, he lost his father which made him half broken. Coming out of the tragedy took him nearly six months. In a vision of fulfilling his father’s dream, today he his putting his day and night in this pandemic to scale up his business. Ananta continues on his journey of providing service to his community through his business. He has repaid 100% of his loan amount back to the project and continues to shine despite all challenges.