“Don’t believe what your eyes are telling you. All they show is limitation,” said Richard Bach in Jonathan Livingston Seagull. Many students across India, from economically challenged families, are now conquering such limitation to achieve pinnacles of success. Abhishek Agrahari, a third year Mechanical Engineering student at TIET, Patiala, is one of them who is striving hard to carve out his success story.With over 50 international research offers in both sciences and mathematics from top institutions in the US, the UK, Europe and elsewhere (18 countries) under his belt in the last one year during the dreaded COVID-19 pandemic and his family facing acute financial hardships, he is now seeking sponsorships to visit prestigious foreign universities from January, 2022 for research work and to realize his dream - to "win the Nobel Prize (in the sciences) and the Fields Medal for the country."“For that to make it happen, a lot of effort has to be put in, coupled with exhaustive research study, perseverance and some financial support. Ironically, my economically challenged family is not capable enough to support me financially for my research work. Life has never been easier for me. All hell broke loose after my father lost his job last year. Family is facing acute financial hardships,” said Abhishek.Right now he is collaborating with few institutes remotely on various research themes ranging from pure and applied mathematics to condensed matter physics, materials science, chemistry and chemical biology. "I have several offers scheduled from top foreign universities for next year from January. I’ll need sponsorships to meet my research related expenses,” added the 21-year-old multidisciplinary student.
He has written a letter to Punjab chief minister Capt. Amarinder Singh asking for help. He has also appealed to Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhariyal Nishank, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and former cricketer & BJP MP Gautam Gambhir seeking help in this regard. But, he is yet to get any response or assistance from anyone.Decisions determine destiny. Initially, he said, it seemed a Himalayan task but once things become clear, everything becomes easy. It is a rarity for students to receive research offers in both engineering, pure sciences & mathematics, but Abhishek is one of the ones to qualify in this regard.For Abhishek, the love for research stems from the fact that he does not believe in following the mainstream and the constant urge of exploring something new every day. ‘‘Research has attracted me from the very beginning as I do not like following what has been done in the mainstream. I constantly want to explore something new.’’He said that he has to study from other sources for his research as the topics that he is focussing on are not taught at the bachelor’s level and they are mostly researched during the post-doctoral or PhD level.“Since all my work is research oriented and being a multidisciplinary I learn various aspects ranging from pure mathematics, mechanical and aerospace engineering, materials science, physics and Penrose formalism. I’m confident that my area of research and foundation work will pave the way for Fields and Nobel few years from now,’’ he said.His hard work has paid off. But still he has miles to go. This chunk of "success" didn’t come to him easily. He has to face his share of challenges during his graduation days because of the depth and complexity of the research topics and the subjects which undergrads or bachelor students generally aren’t familiar with.