Vijayawada: His is a story of guts and gumption. Once a child labourer, K Siva Prasad now wields a stethoscope. “Any success lies in encountering the challenges that life throws at you,” is how Prasad puts it. 

   Son of a daily wager couple, Prasad has indeed come a long way to emerge as a medicine graduate. “I used to stitch gunny bags for a living since my family could not afford my education,” Prasad recalls. He did his MBBS from Santhiram College in Nandyal, Kurnool district with flying colours. Prasad emerged as the college topper in the results announced by NTR University of Health Sciences here recently. 

             But how did he overcome the odds to complete MBBS? “I have always wanted to achieve success in my studies. Thanks to the help from a government official, I could finish my course with ease,” he says. 

   After discontinuing his studies in class VII from ZP high school in Kurnool in 1999, he enrolled himself in a gunny bag manufacturing unit to support his family. His father Eswarappa works in a glass factory and mother Visalamma is a labourer in a small unit. The turning point in Prasad’s life came when the factory inspector M V Sivakumar Reddy visited the premises of the gunny bag making unit where he came across Prasad. 

   Though his poor parents resisted the move to send him to the school saying they would be losing the daily earnings (Rs 26) of Prasad, Reddy managed to convince them and promised to support all his educational needs. Reddy’s belief and Prasad’s perseverance paid off when the latter secured 512 marks in the SSC exams in 2002. 

   Though he got excellent marks in Intermediate, his rank in Eamcet didn’t fetch him a free seat in the medical stream in 2004. He worked hard, got a better rank the subsequent year and secured a free seat in Santhiram College. “But I didn’t have the requisite money to pay the fee of Rs 33,000. Luckily, the YSR government came to my rescue by granting Rs 29,000 towards scholarship,” he says. His term fees for subsequent years were reimbursed by the government and there was no looking back for Prasad as he studied hard to emerge as college topper. “We owe everything to Sivakumar Reddy. He has been a pillar of strength for our son. The government has also bailed him out by granting the scholarships,” thanked Eswarappa. 

   Lauding Prasad’s efforts, Sivakumar Reddy says it was no mean achievement for a small town boy to come this far in life. “He worked hard towards his goal despite poverty staring in his face all the time,” Reddy surmises. What next? Prasad says he would serve the villagers in his mandal. “Without the support of Reddy, I wouldn’t be standing here as a doctor,” he says.