Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, March 16: Kundan Mohapatra, a 26-year-old from Bhubaneswar, was born with a rare congenital medical condition that rendered him unable to walk. However, that was hardly a deterrent in his pursuit of his life goals.
In a remarkable tale of grit and determination, Kundan achieved one of his goals of working at a reputed organisation when he joined Infosys in Pune last year. The self-effacing young man is overwhelmed by the admiration and support he gets from his colleagues, who are full of praise for his hardworking nature.
The son of a gram sevak, Kundan began his career in a telecommunications call centre in the city in 2011. His performance soon caught the attention of his managers who promoted him to team leader, putting him in charge of a group of young workers.
“I finished my BA in Statistics from BJB Autonomous College, and soon after my graduation I began working with Aircel. I quickly rose up the ladder to become team leader where I handled management information systems and guided many juniors under me. It was a wonderful learning experience and instilled a lot of confidence in me,” Kundan recalls.
However, getting a job for himself was not Kundan’s only goal in life. Sometime later, Kundan quit his job with Aircel and took time off to train and guide physically-challenged youths at the Vocational Rehabilitation Centre for Handicapped at Pokhariput and helped them get jobs with reputed firms.
“I wanted to train and guide some enthusiastic youths from the city. They too gave their best to prove their worth in society and I just helped show them the way to get jobs with good companies where they would get a chance to prove their worth. Many of the youths later got placed, and this gave me the feeling that I had the capacity to do something for people around me. It felt good to be helping other physically-challenged people realise their dreams,” Kundan says.
Around a year back, Kundan took up an offer from Infosys. But he does not want to see that as an end of his philanthropic efforts.
“One year has already passed since I joined Infosys. I’m trying my best to induct talented people who are differently-abled but have the passion to prove their worth. I want to give back more to society than I have taken from it. We don’t want sympathy from society. We want to chase our dreams. Many people put labels on us such as handicapped and disabled, but these are negative terms that imply we are not able to work as much as any other person. We might be physically-challenged, but we have the determination to overcome this challenge and pursue our goals with passion,” Kundan says.
