Sunil Handa

1969

Taxila

West Wing

sunilhanda@eklavya.org

+91 997 898-0151

Core House, Nr Parimal Garden , Opp. Apollo Hospital, Ambawadi, Ahmedabad-38006

Bio

I have studied in 7 schools in my life, the 6th was Vidyaranya in Hyderabad (classes 8 and 9) and the 7th was HPS (classes 10, 11 and 12). I always say- i was a frog and then a princess called HPS kissed me and I came alive and turned into a Prince! I spent 3-yrs at HPS (one year as a day-scholar, we lived in Sanjiva Reddy Nagar and I would come on my bicycle) and 2-years in hostel under SN Tiwari and Jim Bray as wardens.
I really blossomed in HPS:thanks to the wonderful teachers (Daniel Sam, SN Tiwari, SW Chandrasekhar, Aehsan Ali Khan, VP- Subramanyam, VK Raman, Sambasiva Rao, Venkatachary chemistry...list is endless)
thanks to the wonderful batch mates (you all and our senior batch articularly CSS Murthy who taught me Maths all over again, starting from LCM and HCF- but that story can only be told in a 'spirited' way when we meet!
thanks to the wonderful 'ambience' of HPS which gave so much freedom and encouragement to any student wanting to do anything, try anything.
After school I did not want to write another exam, so applied only to BITS Pilani and was lucky to get in, did BE (EEE) there, first batch of dual-degree (Electrical and Electronics); P Krishna, Turlapati Anjaneyulu and PLN Prabhu were there with me in BITS from 72-77. That was wonderful. Just like HPS- on a larger scale. Very very good institution.
Went on to do an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad (77-79) where for admission I was on the waiting-list, but was 7th ranked among 168 students at the end of first-yr.Did a job for 19-months -near Ahmedabad there is a small town Bhavnagar, near that is a very small town called Shihor where there was a steel factory, the owners used to drink a lot and take away funds from the company, so the company became sick, closed, the bank took it over, made me Chief Executive (my first job and I am a Chief Executive!) and it was my mandate to revive it, which I did, little bit good, little bit not-so-good, learnt a lot, was thrown into the ocean, swim or sink; was there for 19-months, getting 19-yrs experience!

Family

I then joined my elder brother (Sushil, also from HPS, one-yr senior to us, which was difficult because all teachers used to say- why can't you be like your elder brother?) and started a consultancy co- Core Consultants Pvt Ltd, which did very well; then got into Pharmaceuticals (put up a factory to make Intravenous Fluids- became the largest producer in India, largest in Asia, third-largest in the world; invested Rs 600cr in land, building, plant and machinery over 8 years) then had a separation (traumatic) with my brother, thought what is the purpose of life etc, went to panditjis and swamijis and all that, finally decided to give up the chase for material success and the corporate world, and put up a school (Eklavya) in Ahmedabad over 31-acres of land, a very nice school, rated amongst top 10-20 in India (should be rated amongst top 10-20 in the world, really !) which is what I do 30% of my time since last 27-years.
Meanwhile started teaching in IIMA, visiting faculty, a course called LEM (Laboratory in Entrepreneurial Motivation) which is one of the top-rated courses in the 2-yr programme there; I also teach in a few IIMs and IITs- basically 70% of my time goes in helping young people become entrepreneurs.
My daughter and son-in-law run a fine bakery called The Baker’s Dozen out of Ahmedabad; son works with Amazon in Bangalore and daughter-in-law is a high school English/History teacher in Canadian International School, Bangalore.

Sunil Handa

West Wing

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