Life was a roller coaster from his childhood days, from the time when he had to live far away from his parents and stay with his grandparents. He became independent from an early age of 11, when he took care of his school admissions, filling forms, to submitting relevant documents. He recalls, “I knew my grandparents were in no position to run around for us(me and my brother), and I couldn’t rely on my anyone else. So, I got exposed to a lot of outside world, which kids of my age generally didn’t bother to think about, while they were dependant on their parents to do everything, I was dependent, but, only for financials”. His talent of speech was recognized by a teacher in his school, and he was trained to participate in various elocution competitions. He also participated in various science quizzes and exhibitions. He is also a second rank holder and silver medalist in an all India computer Olympiad organized by a Chennai based organization. “It was in class 9 when I got distracted and lost the focus from academics. That lead me to secure 79% in my 10^th grade which was pretty decent, but the expectation from me was of above 90%. I clearly remember the principal telling my grandfather when we went to collect the report, ‘I had high hopes from him, he could have easily scored in 90’s, but he has wasted his potential’. I enrolled in a college for pre-university, unknowingly of course, where speaking English was mocked upon, it alienated me from the rest. I started losing my command over the language. I didn’t get the platform I needed to polish my skills” he adds.

Life after Pre-University, was a bigger challenge which, a lot of students today face. He felt, he almost lost the good phase of his life, when someone held  his hand and lifted him up and helped him fly so high that he can never go low in his life. Meet the final year student, from M H Saboo Siddik College of Engineering, Hussain Sakriwala, who adds a lot of meaning to the word, ‘Determination’.

“I got a seat into engineering, but, was even more frustrated because, it was not what I had expected, as a result of which, I lost interest in studying and started enjoying and hanging out. That’s when I got my first KT(Keep Terms).I had 3 subjects that I had failed, in my first semester, but I worked for semester 2 and cleared it, in my first attempt. In Semester 3, I had failed in 2 subjects, but the subject of ‘mechanics’ that I carried forward from 1st semester wouldn’t just leave me. I started developing a phobia. During the 4th semester, I had to appear for mechanics as well, and if I didn’t clear, I would definitely get a year drop. The fear increased exponentially, since I had not told about the failures, at home and they were in illusion that, I was clearing my exams. When I appeared for it, I was not sure whether I would be able to clear it and that created a mental block about all the subsequent exams that I wrote. Despite of studying everything, I was always in self doubt during exam that whether I knew it or not. This led to poor academic performance. By the time I reached semester 6, I was under so much pressure that I had decided to take a drop, and that’s when i3 came in my life and the graph has never gone down since then” he says.

When he got a chance to be a part of a platform like i3, Hussain got back all the confidence, that he had lost in the first three years of engineering. Every week, he would get an opportunity to meet personalities who have created a mark of their own in various industries and learned from their inspiring stories of how they faced the biggest challenges of their lives. Once, he happened to meet Mr. Ashok Shankar Rathode (Founder of OSCAR Foundation), who was born in a slum and has today, been the reason for thousands of children in the slum to get educated. Hussain also got to listen to the story of Mr. Ashish Vaidya, who came from a small town in Himachal Pradesh, and is today, the senior software engineer at Amazon. Hussain met more such people every week at i3, and gained more confidence, week after week. On listening to their struggles of life, he felt, his’ was not as big as theirs’, which meant, he could also achieve in spite of all the hurdles that he had to overcome. He also believed that, such challenges emerged, for him to create an inspiring story that could uplift more youngsters who are in a similar situation. He also felt that the challenges only made him a stronger person.

Not only did the stories of people inspire him, he also acted upon his dreams, rather, he actually began to Dream! Along with attending conferences, he began to execute social projects, where he reached out to the backward sections of the society, understood the amount of struggles they underwent, encouraged them and contribute to help them in the best way possible. He executed various projects like the financial literacy project where he taught people of how they could save money for future, iU Youth 2 Children project where he impacted the students of government schools to help them gain the knowledge of higher education, health and hygiene, more such topics.

Support from his college decreased, even more, where people around him laughed at him, telling that he would certainly fail in more subjects, along with subjects he had previously failed, since, he could not study when he had to, with no other activities, but now, he was involved in so many other projects, and that, he would end up failing again. They never knew, how strong, his inner self grew by then. He would not answer them much, since he wanted to prove through his actions. HHis examinations began, he was still connected to i3 then. He had 12 subjects to write, including the subjects he had failed in the previous semesters. The day came, when the results were announced and the result shut the mouth of every person who bullied him. In a single shot, he happened to clear, not just the subjects of that particular semester, but also, the subjects he had failed during the previous years! Hussain knew he had to make them realise so much, that they would never degrade anyone else. Not only did he prove himself in his academics, but, he was also entitled True IUITE of i3 season 1, Mumbai. The person with consistent performance and impact, is rewarded with this title. He continues to motivate lives. Various colleges and schools invite him to cast the spell of inspiration. “Thanks to i3 and my mentors for giving me a new life” he shares. We have heard the saying, ‘Nothing Is Impossible’ and Hussain stands as the perfect real-life model to prove this saying. Not only an example, but a hope for a lot of students who are bullied and discouraged by the society. His life teaches that, ‘Nothing can stop a person from achieving his dream, as far as he is determined to do it!’. “Life is fully lived only when we have up and downs, otherwise, it cannot be called a LIFE” are his encouraging words to those who have failed and have the desire to get back!