During my B.Tech days, I had a roommate who was from a relatively poor background. He had grown up all his life in a village, studying in Hindi Medium schools. He had also cleared JEE in Hindi Medium. As a result, while he was extremely sharp, he faced problems scoring well in the exams at IIT Kanpur because all the lectures, books and exams were in English.
 

Considering he could not afford the fee at IIT, he was able to survive with the means-cum-merit scholarship provided by IIT Kanpur to students from poor income backgrounds who were able to maintain a decent CGPA. For him, maintaining a decent CGPA was a necessity for survival, and he worked day and night for it.
 

In fact, I have not seen anyone in my life so far who worked as hard as he did. He had multiple thick English-to-Hindi dictionaries open in front of him, where he would look up English words every now and then. He had to look up the meaning of even simple words like “whereas”. He never took a break - he was always studying. With all that hard work, he was able to manage a CGPA of around 7.0 - which was just enough to help him qualify for the scholarship.
 

There was another guy in my batch who was from a rich background, but did not concentrate on studies. That guy used to squander away his time playing cards, or watching movies all night. While he had potential to score above 9.0, he was able to just score a CGPA of 6.5 with his minimal efforts.

In my mind, there are two types of people in this world.

The ones who do not have any resources spoon fed to them, but still work hard enough to survive and succeed in this world. They have to work 10 times harder, but they are clear in their goals and do not shy away from sacrificing everything to achieve their goals. I feel really inspired whenever I hear stories about people from poor backgrounds, who are still able to create a dent in the world with their extreme hard work and focus.

And then, there are those who were born on the brighter side of the lottery of birth. Those who were born with resources that gave them a distinct advantage as compared to many others, but they still choose to waste away the opportunity and lead a mediocre life.
 

There are two types of people - those who go days without food because they don’t have money, but still never lose their resolve, vs. those who have been spoon fed with resources all their life, and end up taking those resources for granted.

-Rohan Jain