Pranjal Deshpande – a saga of courage and intelligence 

By Prakash Shesh

After securing 17th position in the merit-list of the SSC examination, who could have blamed an energetic youngster for trying to “reach the moon”? Fate however had something else in mind for Pranjal Deshpande, a student of Somalwar high school. While in XII standard, he accidentally fell down from the fifth floor of a building and survived but with a severely paralyzed leg which forced him to walk painfully with braces and crutches and not without the help of a personal attendant. This would have crushed the aspirations of any individual and Pranjal admits that he too felt as if his world had come down crashing. The tragedy would have scarred the psyche of any normal person but Pranjal is not one to take things lying down. Looking back at his achievements now, it appears that the only damage that this major tragedy was able to do was to delay his HSSC by one year.

The entire family rallied around their brave and intelligent son who decided not to let the calamity come in the way of fulfilling his dreams. Pranjal went on to win the Gold medal for topping the merit list of B. Com.-students of Nagpur University. He astounded everyone by clearing all three examinations (in his first attempt) conducted by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) to become a Chartered Accountant in November 2002. He was ranked 19th in the national merit list for the CA foundation examination; ranked 22nd in the national merit list for the Intermediate examination and was the topper in the whole of Vidarbha in the CA final examination. In the final examination he secured highest marks in the whole country in the paper “Management Accounting and financial analysis”. Pranjal has worked at Ms Shah Chari & company and is presently employed in Rodi - Dabir and company as an “audit and taxation manager”

Ordinary mortals would have rested on their laurels but Pranjal & his father Mr. B.N. Deshpande are not ordinary mortals. The latter approached me to investigate if we at PRIME could train his son to appear for CAT (Common Admission Test for IIMs). Looking at the past performances of Pranjal, we decided to take up the challenge. Pranjal too worked like a man possessed. The last bench of the classroom was reserved for him; he would come with his attendant who had to help him sit on the bench and could not leave until all students in the class had trooped out. A car had to carry him right to the doorstep of the classroom but Pranjal was an example of what happens to a person when he “sees” nothing except the goal that he has set for himself. About 1, 25, 000 students appear for CAT and total seats in all six IIMs taken together are just 1300 – getting selected is obviously very difficult. When we found out that he had been shortlisted for group discussion and interview, we felt as if Mt. Everest had already been conquered until the reality of getting through this last round hit us “in the face”. Then started the “one-on-one” training sessions, with me! No subject was unimportant and no news was trivial. We analyzed scams, economic policies, spirituality, his career goals, his physical handicap, problems India and the world was facing – in short, everything that we could think of. Pranjals’ confidence soared every day until he finally left for Indore in his car with his father and his faithful attendant. The rest is history. In two years from now, Pranjal’s nameplate & letterheads will be embellished by those magical degrees CA and MBA from IIM Indore. Nagpur has a new hero. I think he deserves a standing ovation.