Gardener to Department Manager: Phenomenal Rise of an Unnati Student

MohanKumar – 16th batch – 85531-77065 – Department Manager at Staples, Marthahalli Branch

“The history of the world is full of men who rose to leadership, by sheer force of self-confidence, bravery and tenacity” – Mahatma Gandhi

This is the success story of one such leader. He is a leader in his own little space. Mohan Kumar belongs to the 16th batch of students from Unnati.

Mohan hails from Tumkur and belongs to a family whose primary occupation is gardening. Mohan’s father is a gardener, and Mohan was helping him. Mohan’s school education was in the Kannada medium.  The family had meagre monthly earnings.

It was through his father’s employer that Mohan Kumar discovered Unnati. He registered for the 16th batch, after his cousin registered for the 15th batch. There has been no looking back for Mohan and his family ever since!

Mohan mentions that Unnati moulded him to what he is today. In his mind, this is a new life for him. Unnati taught him self-discipline, self-confidence, punctuality, responsibility and gave him the most important life-lesson of how to achieve goals. He learnt retail as a special course at Unnati.

After graduating from Unnati, Mohan’s first job was at Spencer’s as a Sales Assistant at `3000 per month. He moved on to being a Supervisor at Food World (`6500 per month), to being Assistant Manager at Reliance for almost 2 years before joining Staples as a Department manager.

We met Mohan at Staples; and it was amazing to see how Unnati has transformed his life. He exudes so much confidence, is charismatic and leads the floor. Colleagues called him ‘Mohan Sir’ and we felt wonderful about his growth! His monthly income is now a whopping `20,000 a month.

Mohan is very thankful to Unnati – his social stratum has now changed. He says he wants to now give back to Unnati – he is willing to volunteer and contribute in whatever way possible. He has already recommended 4 to 5 people and will recommend more.

From being a small-town lad who spoke only Kannada to being a Department Manager conversing in fluent English at a retail multi-national, Mohan Kumar’s growth has been exponential!

We are proud of achievers like Mohan, and would like to see people like him grow to CXO levels!

Team Unnati

Article  by volunteer Ms.Sukanya and Mr.Sunder.