Speaking at an event ‘Spirit of Hyderabad’, where he interacted with CEOs and IT professionals, minister K.T. Rama Rao was his witty self. He talked about his younger days and how he hated Math and was rather aimless.
“I was like Hrithik Roshan in the film Lakshya, drifting away, clueless with no particular goal,” he said in a chat with Ramana Gogula.
Lakshya was the first film of millennials that addressed the confused, goal-less generation of the early 2000s. Rama Rao said he was quite like that a confused soul who didn’t know Physics has Math!
“When I was in school, I wanted to get away from Math. So I joined BiPC in Guntur because I hated Math, but alas, I didn’t know that even Physics and Chemistry had Math!”
Somehow he managed to study and become an 11th ranker in the state in Intermediate. The major decision of his life was taken by his father, and that went against his mother’s wish. He said, “My mom wanted me to be doctor but in the entrance I got 1,600 rank! You wouldn’t get a MBBS seat for that rank. I applied for Karnataka entrance which I cleared, but my father said it would take forever to be a well-settled doctor.”
Rama Rao did BSc in Osmania University, and later for MSc, he said, “When I had the option between HCU and University of Pune, HCU was like ‘ghar ki murgi’, so I went to Pune”.
It’s not just Math, Rama Rao had an aversion for the US too because of his two friends who would flaunt their Yankee cap and bags from US.
Similar to Lakshya, at the time of graduation Rama Rao’s friend circle was a representation of every college graduate a mix of lost souls heading for an MBA and the focused ones making everyone else feel bad about their lives. Rama Rao had no goal so he returned home, and for almost one year did nothing “mostly sleeping”.
“Six months into this dormant period my mom asked me to join IT and again due to Math it was a no-no. To kill some more time, I picked MBA.” He opted for GMAT as CAT would need mathematical skills. With 650 marks in GMAT, he got into TA PAI in Manipal and Narsee Monjee, but both the B-Schools made him feel like he was old “I felt like an Uncle”. Despite his dislike for the US, to avoid the “Uncle feeling”, he picked City University of New York (CUNY) because it was in Manhattan.
While pursuing MBA, he was working in dotcoms which are now termed as start-ups; he worked hard, became project manager, regional sales director and returned to India from Hong kong in 2004. Without informing his father he quit the job in 2006 to join politics and stands tall like the dialogue of Lakshya “Jis din usne faisla kar liya use kya karna hai, fir dekhiyega woh kahan se kahan pahunchta hai”.
However, Rama Rao says he didn’t have a wow moment but like Lakshya showed us, passion is irreplaceable. It doesn’t matter what your goal is, the point is that you need something to work towards with all your heart.
