Harsh Gupta, a 19-year-old from Kalyan in Maharashtra, has achieved something truly inspiring. Despite failing his Class 11 exams, Harsh didn’t give up. He retook his exams, passed Class 12, and has now secured admission at the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee.
Harsh is the son of a pani puri seller, Santosh Gupta, who runs a small stall in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. Though they had financial struggles, Harsh’s family stood by him and supported his dreams.
After failing Class 11, Harsh decided to go to Kota, Rajasthan, a city known for IIT coaching. He joined a coaching institute there and worked hard to prepare for engineering entrance exams. In his first attempt, he scored an impressive 98.59 percentile in JEE-Mains and qualified for JEE-Advanced but didn’t get the college he wanted. So, he tried again and finally got a seat at IIT Roorkee.
Harsh now aims to become a civil servant in the future.
He shared, “Don’t let failure define you. I failed in Class 11, but I didn’t give up. My father always told me to chase my dreams even though he couldn’t study himself.”
Harsh also revealed that many people made fun of him after he failed, but he ignored the negativity and stayed focused on his goals. “They teased me, but I didn’t care. I worked hard and proved myself,” he said.
His father, Santosh, is extremely proud. “I may be a pani puri vendor, but I’ll do anything to support my children’s dreams. Harsh was always good at studies, but we didn’t have enough money,” he said. He used his savings to fund Harsh’s education and now hopes his other two sons, Shubham and Shivam, will also study further.
Harsh is the first IITian in his family and his school—showing that with determination, support, and hard work, anything is possible.
