Discontinuous education
I come from Bangampalli, in Peddapalli talaku near Karimnagar district. My father is Venkataiah and mother is Lakshmi. We are three brothers and three sisters, and I am the youngest. When I was in third standard, my father passed away. There were many breaks during my education due to the dismal situation of our family. After my father passed away, I had to do farm work to supplement family income, aside from going to school. But I always wanted to study. I used to be in the fields early in the morning, go to school thereafter and return to field work, before studying again at night. During the agricultural season, there was no scope for me to go to school.
I studied in my village up to third standard and then in Appannapet from fourth standard to 10th class.
Halted school for sheep rearing
I was a very active child in school. During my seventh standard, I did not go to school for about six months because someone had advised my brother that there was no point in education and that we should stick to our sheep rearing business. My school headmaster then came home and convinced my brother that I was the only studious child among 20 kids at the school. Then I resumed studies. In 1976, during the Emergency period, I joined BiPC in Peddapalli. But later I moved to Karimnagar, where I took up M.P.C
Wanted to study mining
I wrote EAMCET, but did not get a good rank. Luckily EAMCET got cancelled; and the second time, I got a seat in Osmania. My choice was mining due to the influence of Singareni. But first year, I got mechanical; and in the second year, I got civil engineering. I wanted to be civil contractor than do a job. While doing engineering, I used to take up college issues relating to hostel mess, scholarship, and sports amenities, among others. I was part of the students’ unions.
Father-in-law’s influence
During engineering 4th year, I got married. My father-in-law Damodar, got to know me through a mutual contact and prevailed over me to marry his daughter Pallavi. My father-in-law was an RSS man. He contested from the Himayat nagar constituency in 1982 and lost by only 1,200 votes. The winner passed away and later the seat went to ‘Tiger Narendra’. My father-in-law worked with (former PM) Atal Behari Vajpayee, Jan Sangh, and the Bharatiya Janata Party. My father-in-law’s influence has been significant on me considering that I come from a village with a humble background. Once I was married, he gave me work to develop ventures at Mahendra Hills and since then there has been no looking back for me. Since then, we have always been associated with RSS and BJP.
Real estate from Mahendra Hills
Since 1984, I have been in Mahendra Hills and pretty much a Hyderabadi. I started off with real estate. I did ventures in Mahendra Hills, Tirumurthy Colony, and Balamrai among other areas. When we constructed Minerva, Secunderabad and Grand Minerva; there were some threats, but we tackled them. In my real estate works, we constructed CMR Showroom, MLA and MP Colony near Yousufguda, which we completed in 1 year. Apart from schools, I am into Green energy – power projects: waste to energy. We started Prasad Hospitals: there are three of them now – at Nacharam, Bachupally and Manikonda.
Launching school in wife’s name
I developed many educational institutions that serve students and parents well. They have grown in numbers, attracting 40,000 students each year. I started schools in the name of my wife Pallavi. The first school came up in Old Bowenpally 1994 with a very small strength. Since I had had a lot of breaks during my schooling and faced hardships in education, I wanted to start a school. Soon Pallavi grew into 15 schools, along with 5 franchisees and 10 preschools. There are around 18 000 students in Pallavi schools alone.
I took the franchise of DPS in 2003 from a friend at Mahendra Hills. The second branch was DPS Nacharam, in 2006. The 25- acre area had initially been acquired for a real estate venture, but later a school campus came up and spread across the 25 acres. Recently we started a school near the Airport which saw 1,000 admissions in the very first year. The second-year admissions are going on.
Free hand to teachers
My son Yashashwi studied in DPS School. If he did wrong, the principal would call us and scold him. That is the kind of free hand we have given to teachers. During Covid-19 period, there was some tension on how to run the school, especially in the context of parents who could not pay and teachers who needed to get their salaries. We transformed from physical to virtual mode from day1. We understand the concerns on fees in private institutions. Our fees are very competitive, based on the infrastructure provided. In Pallavi Model Schools or DPS, educational facilities are same. But Campus, building atmosphere will be different.
Focused on work
My wife says that I take things that do not work and then fix it. For instance, when I took DPS franchise, it was not in a good shape first. It was taken from my friend. But once I get involved in some work, I remain focused on it. Now over the past 5-6 years, there has been massive expansion and huge success. From 50 students, we have now grown to 40,000 students, with support from parents and students. Once you have established to a level, you come into public life and get to serve more people.
Wish to contest from Malkajgiri
While I am able to help people by providing good education, somewhere I feel driving a good policy is imperative. So, being in power would help it. So, I wish to contest. I have applied for it. It is up to them (party) to consider my candidature. Regardless of who gets the ticket, we will work for BJP’s win. It is after decades that Narendra Modi took a bold step of rolling out the New Education Policy. It is under BJP that, India is making strides in foreign policy, infrastructure and is moving ahead to become a super power. My wife sometimes asks, ‘Do we need this politics at this age? But we are into it and want BJP to win. My son, Yashashwi, is taking care of business and my daughter, Bhuvana, recently completed her MBA and will be joining us.
BJP is good for Malkajgiri
I have been in Malkajgiri for almost 45 years now and it is the right time to give back to the place that gave me so much and make a larger impact. We have seen that Revanth Reddy, the current Chief Minister, despite becoming MP from Malkajgiri, hardly cared about the constituency. Except for getting land for the Congress, there is hardly any difference he made. In fact, Metro is not covering Malkajgiri and Revanth Reddy’s proposal does not even cover the people who made him MP. During floods, he did not visit the affected people. But I have been here always and I will be there for people to make the right impact. If BJP MP is in Malkajgiri, we can get things moving faster, be it roads, skywalks, RUBs or whatever.
Quick bytes
Fav color – white
Fac food – rice dal, fish
Movies – hardly any
Sports – I used to play badminton, now I like watching cricket
Sportsperson – earlier Gavaskar and now Sachin
Strength- being focused and sincere
