By ABHISHEK GUPTA
Courtesy of The Asahi Shimbun. This photo and the related article were published on December 12th, 2015
The tale begins with my acceptance by UTokyo for their PEAK program as an undergraduate student. It was the most unexpected part of my life because I was just aiming for the star but definitely landed on the sun. After my acceptance to PEAK my life has became a rollercoaster ride as my laughing face was on almost every national daily in India. The next stage of unexpected happiness was to know that international media, such as Daily Mail and New York Times reprinted my story.
Things happened so fast that just in a day most Indians knew that Abhishek Gupta was selected by UTokyo on full scholarship. The main reason of this fame was I being a part of the prestigious program in India called ‘Super 30’. Super 30 gives special training to 30 talented students selected from all over India to pass the Indian Institute of Technology entrance exam. The founder of Super 30 Mr.Anand Kumar has always been headline news for the media so being his first student from Super 30 to be selected by UTokyo was just like icing on the cake for Super 30.
All my relatives were impatient to meet and congratulate me for this massive achievement as they were unaware about this acceptance and they were informed by my article in the regional newspaper. During that period my family was also interviewed which made me so happy because I was able to make my parents proud. So after all these events took place, all my friends and Super 30 staff started calling me “Japani Babu,” which means “Indo-Japanese person.”
After I came to Japan the legacy of giving interviews continued and in mid-December again my laughing face was on the front page of Asahi Shimbun which made me more popular this time among Japanese people. In class the professor posted a copy of the Asahi Shimbun article about me on the white board which was the best experience of my life as I became the star during the whole session. Recently I met an Indian student in Sendai who knew me as the newspaper UTokyo student.
When I went back to India for vacations I was giving appointment to people so that they can meet me and present my story as an inspiration for their children. My story was inspirational for many students because I didn't have good education background as my father had been educated only till tenth standard, also my mother has been educated till high school. So, this is an extraordinary achievement for an Indian student like me.
The hardest part of this fame is when you talk to your friends and then they start killing you by their harsh word for not talking to them very frequently. But there’s also a bright part of this fame when you get to know that your friends boast about having a friend in UTokyo. Recently while talking to a friend she told me how she boast about having a friend on the front page of prestigious newspaper in Japan and getting attention which for me were heart touching words.