Standing Tall with self confidence

Chaithnya – 37th

‘Self-confidence is the foundation of all great success & achievement’ – Anonymous.

Chaithnya hails from a suburb of Bangalore, and has spent most of his life at the Ramakrishna Ashram at Shivanahalli. His father is a headmaster with a school affiliated to the ashram and mother is a home-maker. Chaithnya has an elder brother who lives near Tumkur. He has a day job as a teacher in a small school, but most of the income comes from him being a part-time Purohit. At the time when Chaithnya was doing SSLC, the family’s monthly income was Rs.10000 and the extended family had around 6 mouths to be fed with this minimal income. If this were not enough, Chaithnya was not successful in his first attempt at SSLC, which meant the family had to wait longer to get that additional earning member. And they also had to fund his education another year in the minimum. Since this was becoming difficult for the family, Chaithnya had to start working to at least fund his re-attempt at SSLC. He started working at a polymer company, and successfully completed SSLC in his second attempt.

It was around the time he completed SSLC when one of his father’s acquaintances gave Chaithnya a pamphlet that, according to him, was a life- Changer! It was about Unnati and the courses they offered. Chaithnya called Unnati and joined the 37th batch, choosing the Instore vocation.

Chaithnya had a lot to say about Unnati – very much like all the other successful students that we speak to! The first of the life-lessons that Chaithnya learnt was on effective communication. He used to be a very timid, self-conscious person when it came to speaking to others. He says he would feel very inferior to anyone that he spoke to, and would hesitate to communicate even in his own mother tongue. Unnati changed it all for him. The staff at Unnati, he says, helped shape his personality. He was taught lessons on how to talk well to impress & influence customers. He was taught the value of competition in any industry and how important it is to retain your customer base. He was taught on how to have the ‘winning edge’. And he took all that was taught seriously.

Prior to joining Unnati, Chaithnya mentioned that he often felt too scared and too depressed. He felt dependent and his future seemed very scary in his own eyes. He says ‘ he was too scared to face life’. Chaithnya was placed at Mast Kalandar through campus placement at Unnati. He worked there for a brief period when he found his calling through a message from a friend: A ‘xerox’ shop was coming on sale and Chaithnya was asked if he was interested in buying it. He says the self-confidence that Unnati gave him enabled him to take that independent, swift decision of buying that shop. It started as a photocopying shop three months back. Chaithnya has now expanded into providing multiple services like RTO documentation / PAN card documentation / LIC policy documentation etc. He says it is becoming like a mini ‘Bangalore- One’ office.

Chaithnya has a steady customer base. He even services some expats with whom, he admits, he would have never been able to communicate without Unnati’s training. His customers are calling for repeated services, which is a healthy sign for a start-up. Chaithnya is very happy with his work, handles the entire shop all by himself, works an average of 12 hours a day because he  likes what he is doing; and all this hard-work is paying off well.

He is already making a monthly income of Rs. 30000/-, and exuded confidence in telling us about his business. Chaithnya has spread the word of Unnati among all his friends. He tells them  how his life was transformed by Unnati. To him, Unnati is the first step in shaping a youth’s future!!

His shop’s adress is

SRI RAGAVENDRA ENTRY PRISES

NO.63/2, SHOP NO.4, RAJA REDDY BULIDING,

CENTRAL JAIL ROAD, ELECTRONIC CITY POST,

HOSA ROAD,OPP:KARANATAKA BANK,

BANGALORE-560 100.

Team Unnati is very happy about Chaithnya’s progress and wishes him more and more successes in his business and life!

Contribution by Sukanya Kuppuswamy ( volunteer )

Team Unnati