From Super 30 to Rahmani 30 to Magadh 30, I watch the experiment grow from a distance

There was nothing extraordinary about the results that Super 30 produced. I feel it was the ‘Top Cop with a Chalk’ image that made it exotic.

Super 30 Class of 2006 with the Bihar CM, Nitish Kumar | Wikimedia Commons

My children had got admission into the prestigious IITs one after the other. I continued to serve in the peripheries of the police department as per the wishes of the government. During this period, I chanced to meet a young man named Anand Kumar in the room of the editor of an English daily in Patna. Anand appeared to be a man of average means, who was coaching students in mathematics at the intermediate level in his coaching institute named Ramanujam School of Mathematics. We got introduced, and our interactions began as he started visiting me in my office and at my residence. Mathematics would be our common talking point. I also got an opportunity to teach physics in his classes; an activity I hadn’t experienced before but ardently wished to.

I always believed in the power of education, especially in the lives of poor families, and I had seen that it was their only ticket to prosperity. From my early days, I felt a deep sense of gratitude towards society. The feeling that I owe a lot to the people around me overwhelmed me. I could now see a path getting carved out. With some confidence after teaching my children and seeing them emerge successful in their competitive exams, I decided to try my hand at guiding poor talented students for IIT-JEE.

I sought the help of Anand Kumar. In 2002, my idea was set into motion when we decided to select 30 bright students from his classes, all belonging to financially weak families, and started guiding them for JEE. Super 30 was born.

We did not have a chemistry teacher. Students were enthusiastic and managed without one. As I started interacting closely with them, I soon realized that these students needed us not for helping them gain knowledge of the subjects but more for instilling confidence in their abilities. I took physics classes every day, even on holidays.

The classes were held in a remote corner of the city, where even connectivity via a concrete road did not exist. I remember it used to be a walk of about 100 yards through narrow alley, literally with a handkerchief over my mouth and nose to prevent an attack from flies and insects. All of this faded against my passion for teaching the students. The result of the first effort was satisfying quantity-wise, though not as much quality-wise.

As this journey progressed, I discovered my deficiencies. Not being a professional teacher had both its advantages and disadvantages. Introspection helped. The results started improving every year, from 2003 to 2005. The coaching world of Bihar had woken up to a new phenomenon, one that was becoming a household name.

The 2005 general elections had brought in a new government that decided to put me centre stage with onerous responsibilities. My teaching time was being snatched away by State obligations. I was now not able to monitor the Super 30 activities on a daily basis, which I had managed so far in the first three years. At the same time, the results of Super 30 had started positively impacting the commercial output of Anand Kumar’s classes, which were his source of livelihood.

By 2006, this experiment had caught the attention of international media. By 2007, I figured that things in Super 30 were not going as per the original intentions.

I reckoned that this was essentially a clash between profession and passion. For me, this was a passion, but for him, this was his full-time profession. We had diametrically opposite missions, and therefore, couldn’t run in tandem. I parted ways with Anand Kumar. I even declined to be a part of the celebrations of the results that year in Patna, where the CM of Bihar was the chief guest. Our last public appearance together was in an award function titled ‘Real Heroes’ organized in Mumbai by Reliance Industries.

I had never tried to find out how the expenses of Super 30 were being met by Anand Kumar. I only knew that my contribution was absolutely non-financial and purely academic. In my mind, Super 30 was a philanthropic effort that was never to be made commercial.

The concept did not die out though. Many people approached me to carry it forward. Each child who has benefitted from this experiment is a story of the transformation of lives of thousands of poor families overnight, not through corruption but through education.

In 2008, I had withdrawn from teaching activity completely after getting disillusioned. One day, I received a sudden request from one of my acquaintances seeking time for a meeting on behalf of somebody named Maulana Wali Rahmani in my office of ADG (BMP) for a serious dialogue. I acceded to his request. A sober-looking old man in white attire and white flowing beard came into my office. His demeanour impressed me. He put forward his request. He said that he had seen me help many poor students find their feet in life through education. He wanted me to do the same for his community, which he felt was educationally not up to the mark, especially in the field of science and mathematics. The candid and forthright manner of the Maulana le me no option but to accept his request with great pleasure.

Rahmani 30 came into existence instantly because all logistical arrangements were made by him without any delay. I was amazed at the fervour the community showed for their future generations.

What followed was a decade of association with the Maulana. Although he was essentially a politician, he always respected my principles and never talked to me about anything apart from education in the Muslim community. He never discussed Bihar politics with me, though he knew fairly well that I had access to many important facts as the DGP. Similarly, the political chief of the state, too, knew that the Maulana, who enjoyed a pride of place in Muslim matters, held me in high regard. Yet, he would not get his political feelings conveyed through me. May the soul of Maulana Wali Rahmani rest in peace.

Rahmani 30 grew in stature with age. Today, it is a strong organization that has kindled the flame of education in its community without state support. They are competing with other students in all national-level competitions without seeking any type of concession.

Hailing from Gaya in Bihar, I got an invitation from the people of my native place to set up a Super 30 for the poor children there in 2009. is effort was led by a businessman named Dalmiya. Vagaries of old age had caught up with him, yet, he literally begged for resources from society, even though he could fund it all by himself. His motto was ‘Samaj ke dwara, samaj ke liye (By the society, for the society).’ It resonated with my views.

This is how Magadh Super 30 came into being. It was managed by a local journalist, Pankaj Kumar, who is now seen as a father figure for the hundreds of families whose economic status has been transformed through education.

Although Shri Dalmiya is no more, today, his efforts, in the shape of Magadh Super 30, is a modern-day living example of our traditional gurukul. One has to see it to believe it. is experiment contributed in its own novel way in containing the menace of extremism that had hit the Magadh region hard. is was a silent, bloodless revolution.

S.K. Shahi, who was running an NGO in Delhi called the Centre for Social Responsibility and Leadership (CSRL), approached me in 2009 to help set up a Super 30 at Kanpur under the aegis of Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL). He brought along with him a request from the chairman as well. I thought this was worth exploring. The board of GAIL had very direct and blatant questions about my methodology. I explicitly put forth the concept and the USP of Super 30 without weaving emotional stories. By 2008, Super 30 had cleverly been made to look like an intricately beautiful fairy tale. After speaking to me, when the board was able to see through this clearly, they were very keen on bursting this bubble.

They requested me to come on board. I agreed on one condition: ‘I will not have any financial links with the project. My involvement will only be academic.’ I travelled to take in-person classes on long holidays and would teach online on other days.

This was the beginning of a long list of CSRL Super 30s, the count of which I fail to keep.

Other PSUs, too, noticed the promising results of GAIL Super 30 and contacted me. My model of engagement with them remained the same. is activity yielded improved results every year. The number of such centres increased markedly and got noticed by universities across the world.

The activity still goes on, but I watch it grow from a distance.

In the year 2010, one day, I received a letter from the Andaman government addressed to the Government of Bihar, requesting my help to set up a Super 30 outfit for the benefit of the educationally backward people of their area. I was delighted to see this.

Within a few days, I got a letter from the Bihar government seeking an explanation about this activity without government permission. I was amazed at this, more so because the head of government had attended the celebration of Super 30 results publicly in the past. I sent a reply nevertheless, ‘I do not need anyone’s permission to teach physics and mathematics to poor children in my free time. I am not making money from this activity.’ The matter did not arise again, but I realized I couldn’t carry out this activity on a large scale.

After my retirement in 2014, I devoted all my time to teaching. Transparency in every aspect of this activity pierced the veil of secrecy that had hitherto been worn on various grounds, most importantly security.

Well-meaning people gravitate towards Patna to understand the concept of Super 30. Each one edits the story in his own way. Each has his own version of the truth. Projects that don’t have any hidden agenda thrive, and those that have vested interests fall by the wayside.

Many individuals and organizations continue to approach me for help. I have but one thing to say, ‘I don’t have money to run such institutions. I can hand over, for free, the “software” I have developed and handhold you for a few years. Your institution will learn to mature and become independent, while another Super 30 is born somewhere else.’ is approach has worked. Super 30, today, has proliferated into every part of the country, helping poor and talented students. Numerous such Super 30s today are delivering the benefit I always desired them to. The carriers, who joined me on this journey at different points in time, kept changing. It has been heartening to see that after I initiated Super 30, a noticeable number of officers started chipping in with similar efforts to help poor children.

If a mathematics teacher teaches mathematics, it is no news to the world. If a coaching organization that avowedly makes arrangements for students to help them qualify for IIT-JEE, tells the world that a large fraction of its students succeeds each year, the world will not sit up and take notice.

It is akin to saying that if a dog bites a man, it does not make news. However, if a man bites a dog, it catches attention spontaneously. This is exactly what happened during the period 2003 to 2007. People observed that a top cop who was busy tackling the menace of crime in the ‘badland’ of Bihar took time off to teach and guide students with a genuine intention of transforming society through education. His efforts were noticed as ‘never before’. The man was seen as ‘biting the dog’.

There was nothing extraordinary about the results that Super 30 produced, as there were many institutes in this country that gave better results both qualitatively and quantitatively. I feel it was the ‘Top Cop with a Chalk’ image that made Super 30 exotic.

This explains why the international media lost interest in this experiment after I announced my exit from the system in its first form. Inertia at the national level carried it on for a few years. Unfortunately, no one tried to probe into the tall claims made by the organization and how it was being run. Transparency steadily became a casualty till Super 30, in its original form, died a natural death. The essence of the experiment, however, survived.

The king is dead, long live the king!

This excerpt from ‘Unbounded’ by Abhayanand has been published with permission from Rupa Publications.