Director Profile
Rajeev SAUMITRA
Mr. Rajeev Saumitra is a world famous mountaineer and a renowned Geography teacher. He was born in Samastipur in Bihar and both his parents were teachers. His father, late Mr. Ram Sarovar Prasad Sinha was a Mathematics teacher and his mother Dr. Gayatri Singh was also a teacher. Dr Gayatri Singh did her Ph.D in association with the country’s leading educational institution – Benares Hindu University.
INSPIRING PERSONALITY:
Adventure has been in the blood of Mr. Saumitra right from his younger days. Close to his school, there was a mountain – Koodapahar – which no one would climb because it was believed that there were many ferocious bears living on that mountain. However, without telling anyone including his father, Mr. Saumitra led a team of 4 students and they took a new, more difficult route to conquer the peak. “We climbed by holding on to the roots of trees…it was an exhilarating experience and that is when I decided – I must reach the highest point in everything I do. This is also my advice to all the people whom I meet,” he says candidly.
SERVING THE NATION…
It is a dream for most of the youth of the country to serve the nation by joining the Civil Services and Mr. Saumitra was no exception. In 1997, he came to Delhi to join some Coaching Centre and prepare for the competitive exams, but all he met was with rejection and ridicule. “Basically, what the senior officials of a number of Coaching Centres told me was that convent education was necessary for being successful in these exams and since I had come from a Hindi medium school, I could not join their Coaching Centres.”
When a person is faced with hurdles, he can either buckle under the pressure or stand up, tall and forthright, and write his own future. Mr. Rajeev Saumitra saw an opportunity here through which he could help thousands of students who come to Delhi with similar aspirations as he had, and facilitate their path to serve the country.
“I felt that something different needed to be done – there was a need for an Institute that would understand the needs of students who had studied in the Hindi medium and came from villages and small towns of the Hindi belt – UP, Bihar etc.- and guide them to success,” he stated.
That is how, in 2005, Mr. Saumitra started Paramount Coaching Centre in Delhi. “We looked at the course content and created an innovative style of teaching so that students from Hindi medium schools would be comfortable with it and get rid of the ‘inferiority complex’ that the English based coaching centres would try to thrust on them. We met with instant success and today Paramount has a presence in a large number of cities. Our success rate is also the envy of most of the other Coaching Centres,” he says with pride.
REACHING NEW HEIGHTS
Mountaineering is an expensive hobby and primarily for the youth. Most mountaineers retire once they cross the age of 30. But Mr. Rajeev Saumitra created history when he conquered Mount Everest when he was 41 years old.
“Mountaineering had always been a passion for me, right from my school days. Once Paramount Coaching Centre became successful and I could afford to invest in the equipment necessary for mountaineering, I went for mountain training. That time, I was the only Geography teacher in my Coaching Centre so I requested my students to let me go for 3 weeks. They readily agreed.”
On May 22, 2013, Mr. Rajeev Saumitra scaled Mount Everest and proudly flew the Indian flag as well as the flag of Paramount Coaching Centre on the peak. Earlier, his first bid on the mountain had to be cancelled for the entire group because of adverse weather conditions.
“As I climbed Mount Everest and reached the South Summit, I thought that this was it, I was on the top of the world. But then I saw … there was another peak at a 80 degree angle and I thought ‘Oh no, I have to climb this too !!!’ It looked so difficult and yet once I started climbing it and reached the top, I looked down and said, ‘This was simple.’ Actually there is a lesson for all of us there. The same is true for life. There are times when some things look so difficult, but you must take them on and start doing them. As you do them, you will find that it was not so difficult after all,” he affirms.
In his quest to achieve new peaks, Mr. Rajeev Saumitra has scaled Europe’s highest peak ‘Mount Albrus’, the Tanzania located highest peak of the African continent ‘Mount Kilimanjaro’ and Antarctica’s highest peak ‘Mount Vinson’ . He has also planted the Indian and Paramount Coaching Centre flags at the South Pole making India proud.
HAPPIEST MOMENT
The happiest moment of Mr. Rajeev Saumitra’s life came on October 18, 2014 when his son Harshit Saumitra, at the mere age of 5 years and 11 months, scaled the Everest base camp and Kalapathar (5550 metres), setting a new world record. In order to make this achievement memorable and keep it alive for the times to come, Mr. Rajeev Saumitra has started a Foundation named after his son ‘Harshit Foundation’ which is focused on providing education, support, better health and encouraging mountaineering amongst students and sportsmen.
Giving back to society is a priority with Mr. Saumitra and, among other activities, he provides free education to blind children all over India while the physically challenged get a rebate.
