Man of Determination, Krushankant Jha


1980 Govt of India declared roaster system i.e., reservations in promotions. This lead to massive agitation throughout the country. In Gujarat it was opposed by 25 associations, but finally it was left to Gandhinagar association being lead by an employee of Sachivalaya. B.B.C flashed the news "One handicapped person has made the parliament handicapped" front page of T.O.I reported "Tricycle is leading the procession., but being an Govt employee, he got suspended, till he got justice after 4 yrs.

During his suspension period, he was highly influenced by Murari bapu & used to denote lot of time in reading Geeta & other religious books. It was his initiation that Gandhinagar got the first Hanuman temple constructed within a period of one month. He believed in idea that temples must have activities besides being a religious place. So he started teaching Geeta & Ramayana to kids & students. With enormous knowledge of Vedas & skill in correlating the normal activities to past, he gave the idea of Nrutya Natak, where present scenario was compared to the activities of past. First to happened in History of Gandhinagar 110 students took part in the well organized event, all the big people along with top Media shots were invited and it was staged in most popular town hall. But to his despair not a single paper reported the event.

This made him think that when I was involved in destructive activity everybody made me Hero, all reported the event, but when it came to constructive nobody supported.

The event made him to start paper which will refelect only the positive things & activities besides Sachivalaya activities in Gandhinagar, so in 1982 he went to Delhi & got the declaration, and in name of his father gave birth to biweekly magazine/paper Gandhinagar Samachar which after 1984 became the daily newspaper of Gandhinagar.

This is a story of Krushankant Jha who was born on 1950 in small village Sardhav near Gandhinagar in Gujarat. The only child of parents, who was denied the blessings of God, at the age of one and half became victim of polio and both of his legs got paralysed.

Life for jhaji has been full of frustrations and humiliation He used to go on the career of bicycle to school. His father was the principal of school and wanted him to secure first position in S.S.C, but unfortunately he got 3rd rank. Father got disappointed and said no to him for further studies, with the fear that he will spoil his name. But the urge of doing something in life and to prove his worth made jha, talk to his mother who supported his idea and gave him Rs. 100 from her savings.

With 100 Rs in hand and no information about colleges, Jha with physical limitation but with full of determination landed in Ahmedabad. Earlier days medical facilities were not very good, so no facility of tricycle, even if it was very costly for Jha.

When he got down from Auto at gate of college, the distance was 200 m to office form gate, which he had to cover trailing, Principal from his office looked at him and shouted who is the beggar entering and send his peons to take him out, Jha showed his marksheet and told his purpose, but then he decided its not the right place for him, highly demotivated because of event and humiliated by the attitude of people towards handicapped people, he decided to go back, but his determination made him to move to second college, where he get good response, principal was nice, he arranged for the fees and gave him the nearest room to college in hostel. Jhaji took the admission and came out happily. He got shocked when he saw his father at the gate of college, who was following him form the village throughout the whole event, he had tears in his eyes & said now I am confident that besides being a handicapped my son can fight with world & can stand on his own, that day onwards he always kept faith on him.

In college, days were difficult, due to trailing his clothes used to get dirty & full of dirt is rainy season, first 4 months were very difficult, nobody talked to him & nobody bothered to look at him & his difficulties, that made him realized that life for an handicapped is very difficult in cruel world & he gave a thought to leave the college.

Fortunately came the election date & Jhaji being an assertive and full of initiation filed his nomination, he became the talk of college, lot of cheap language was used for him, people commented the person who cannot stand has stood in election. In the customary speech of expressing the view by contestant, he got the last chance out of 9 people (4min.limit). He moved the audience with his speech, full of emotions, he expressed his views and thoughts which continued till 14 min. and at the end people were impressed. The result was shocking, out of total vote of 108 he got 92 & he became the Hero of the college, he completed his 3rd year from Gandhinagar commerce college started on that year in 1974.

His father wanted him to join Govt service and live happy life, so he got his name registered in Employment exchange deptt. on very first date after his degree he got a job in Sachivalaya as a clerk.

But his urge of doing something of his own and leadership quality made him jumped into Nav Nirman activity in 74, due to his immense talent, one of minister took him in his office, Jhaji learnt lot from him, and was one of source of motivation for him.

In 1984 after getting justice from court on his suspension he resigned from Govt job and started concentrating on his biweekly magazine, his aim was to make it daily newspaper, but then it needed lot of hardwork, finance, with physical limitation 99% of people said no to him for task, but with his strong determination & being follower of Maithali Sharan Gupt words that says "We have to make our way, and the way we follow will be our path" and was the birth of Gandhinagar Samachar daily in 1986. Because of his contacts & persuasion he got the loan of Rs. 15 lacs from Govt & Rs 5 lakhs from his friends & relatives. Took a small basement in sect. 16 on rent and started his venture. Initially for first 4 years he didn't get the good response, working capital was very high, people started denying for paper without money, he got very frustrated and demotivated, staff went on strike because of not getting bonus & salary on time. Meantime he (at 39) got married in 1990, lady was highly impressed by Jhaji's value. Jhaji along with his wife and brother started concentrating on cost reduction and activities leading to increase in sales. From 91-95 they did lot of hard work, advertisement, reduced cost by taking flat from Govt at Rs. 600 instead of Pvt. Plot for Rs. 6000. Instead of paying to compositors he purchased computers, he managed to reduce his liability from 45 lakh to working manageable of 5 lakhs. In 1996 they did lot of campaign for publicity and got good response, publication went upto 7000 copies per day almost competing to Gujarat Samachar, with present sale of around 18000 copies.

Man of values, who believes in honesty (field of journalism can earn lot of money, but he still doesn't have office and house of his own, both are on rent) never losses his temper on anybody and never shows his bossism over employees.

He feels that its the efforts of past that are getting realized now. Who believes that there is no measurement of success. Its the own satisfaction that decides the level of success, who says that innovative things should be converted into reality.

Who shares what people say is not right, shale to your inner soul, act according to it, always follow to your first thought. Life is made for the reflection of one's self esteem. Carry paritue attitude that will increase your confidence.

If you cannot become sun, not Moon atleast became a Diya so that atleast your own life can be enlighten and are should work hard for it.

Source: Gandhinagar Samachar