Hawker to hacker-cracker: Son of a laborer gets Rs 4.5 crore offer from Microsoft, let’s spread his success story

I am sure there are many inspiring students who motivate us by their adventurous, thrilling life-stories. Today, we will learn about the story of a student who proved that it’s not the institution but the student who defines his career.

Coming from a poverty-stricken family in a Pehowa village in Kurukshetra, Virender Raika has been offered a whopping 4.85 crores annual package by software giant Microsoft recently for his extraordinary anti-hacking software. 21-year-old Virender Raika was born in a poor family and could not acquire a decent livelihood. He worked as a hawker to earn money for his studies. He had gone through a lot of struggles. However, all the hardships he faced never stopped him from achieving the pinnacle of success.

When we were blaming the system, our family circumstances, financial instabilities and many other things to take action, Virender Raika was doing all this with just 3 things – “Sheer dedication, Passion and Will”.

Virender had also cleared JEE entrance, but could not study in IIT due to financial constraints. His father works as a laborer. Despite financial crunch, Virender’s father understood the value of a good education and encouraged his son for higher study. 

(Credits: Daijiworld)

“After my father who works as a laborer fell sick, I had to take up the job of a hawker. I soon realized that money won’t suffice. So, I started giving Physics tuitions,” said Virender Raika. 

Raika said, “The idea to develop an anti-hacking system struck me while I was watching a movie. I saw a girl hacking into a system and then I thought why not develop a system that has foolproof security. There are ways to hack into a system but no permanent way to secure it. So by working on various cyber theories, I made an anti-hacking system, stated the tech-wizard. 

He gave a demo of his anti-hacking project to a group of expert hackers at Microsoft office in Hyderabad. Later on, Peter Klein, the Chief Financial Officer of Microsoft, offered him a job straightaway after being impressed by his demo online.

I want to open my own company in India. I want to do something for my country. We are so dependent on the US for technology. I want to turn the tide, Virender said. Since his father Mr. Gyan and Mrs. Mother Shinder were not educated so they had no idea about what their son has achieved. 

We both are illiterate. We just know that Virender has got a job of 4.5 crore and companies from China and Japan are pursuing him, said Gyan Chand, Virender’s father. 

From my point of view, Virender is one of the most inspiring students

and we need to take a lesson of motivation from him.

Writer, historian, and activist Dharam Sikarwar is a very active author The Youth. He writes on national and international issues, environment, politics. He is an avid book reader as well.