Author: Unacademy
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Yesterday I was going through Quora and realised that there are hundreds of answer (read opinions) as to why I resigned from IAS. People have written a lot of such answers, which are not only unethical, hurtful but are also factually incorrect. Some are saying I ran away, earlier from AIIMS and now from IAS; wasting tax payer's money, some saying government spent 50 lakh rupees on my IAS training, rumours are doing the rounds that a politician slapped me, an anonymous writer is claiming that he is a fellow batch mate and he slapped me too, some say I might become a second Kejriwal etc. All sorts of social media abuse have been hurled upon me as if I have done some unpatriotic act and betrayed our motherland, and few of you even want to put sedition charges against me (not kidding). One day my father was reading a few answers on Quora, and he was like, "Beta tune kuch bura kiya kaam kiya hai kya, log itna bura kyun likhte hain tere baare main." So, I have finally decided to write an answer to end all the rumours, once-it-for-all. The true reason is I have resigned is to pursue Unacademy.in (www.unacademy.in), which is a registered organisation, envisaging to provide high-quality, affordable, accessible education. There was a lot of scepticism in my mind whether this would be the right decision or not. No one can be sure of the future right! But Gaurav Munjal convinced me to take the plunge. We have been friends over a decade and his enthusiasm is infective. He reaffirmed my faith in the fact that our nation needs some drastic changes in the way education is imparted to the masses and it can be made affordable using technological solutions only. Considering he has run a few tech startups before, he will be the CEO of the company, and I have full faith in his abilities to get sh*t done. He also made a valid point that scaling using a brick-and-mortar model is really not that effective, especially when it comes to the education domain. So, we have started working on providing the cost-effective technological solution, so that more and more educators can teach and impart their knowledge. Gaurav has gathered one of the best tech team seen at the start-up stage, especially our co-founders Hemesh Singh and Sachin Gupta. No one can know for sure that this is the right decision (though many of the pundits will pass the judgement retrospectively). God forbid if we fail, all the haters will leave no stone unturned to criticise me and rub my face in the traditional sarcasm of "I-told-you-so". But all we can do is try, with our maximum possible potential, to change India's education structure. Is it that bad these days to give it a good-old-fashioned try? Is it so abhorring, so alien an idea that a single digit member team can revolutionise India's education system? Let's not get bogged down with orthodoxy, status-quo and mediocracy so much so that people are afraid to try anything new. It will be really detrimental to our nation in the long term. Let us encourage the odd ones, the misfits, who view the world differently and then change it altogether, irreversibly, once-it-for-all. FYI: No politician slapped me; the batchmate story is a complete, utter, shameful, disgusting lie; I've returned the training amount spent on me to the GOI. I respect the fact that tax payer's money has been spent on my education in AIIMS, but the things which have learned during that 5.5-year course, I will utilise them in anything which I do in life and will eventually give it back to the society. PS: Though we will be running as a registered corporation, you can watch all the lessons free. But through Unacademy Contribute you can leave an optional fee or Gurudakshina for the educators teaching on Unacademy.in. The majority part of the fee goes to the educators of the platform. This is completely optional and you can pay if Unacademy.in has helped you. Rest it helps us cover the cost of our free education initiative. Please note that Unacademy.in is a for profit organisation with a goal of free education. This is not a donation but a professional but optional fee that you give to the educators of the platform. The contributions or fees through Unacademy Contribute is distributed among educators of the platform on the basis of the reach of each educator. Unacademy Contribute - you can leave an optional fee for the educators teaching on Unacademy here http://imojo.in/7hrsl2