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Born on June 17, 1968 in Jabalpur,
M P, to a Cinema Manager, Shri Kapil Ponda and a School Teacher,
Smt. Manjula, Sumeet was destined to be brought up as the only
child of his parents from a very modest background. An introvert
and a shy child from the very beginning, as a missionary School
student, Sumeet had an inconsistent stint. By the yard-stick of
the marks that he managed to score, he touched every end of the
spectrum – from topping in the Class to barely managing to pass
with grace marks. Routine studies did not fascinate him.
However, his score in English in the Higher Secondary
Examination in 1985 that placed him in the top bracket in the
entire state gave him the required pep and he chose to take a
path less treaded.
Going not by the popular trend of opting for a coveted
engineering degree, Sumeet opted for a then less-popular
graduation in Management from the Bhopal School of Social
Sciences. He had, as always, full support of his parents in his
selection of the course. One always propels to justify one’s
choice. Perhaps, that motivated Sumeet to top the University
Exam in the first and the final years of his course.
An MBA was a natural choice
then. Having qualified the entrance Examinations of the biggest
institutes, Sumeet chose to stay in Bhopal and pursue his
Post-Graduation from the only MBA institute in Bhopal, CRIM,
Bhopal University. Keeping with the trend, he topped the
University in the II, IV, V and VI Semesters eventually winning
the Gold Medal. His dissertation on Hindi Feature Films as a
consumer product in the Final Semesters won him not only rich
accolades from reputed film-makers in the Country and the media
but also got him offers from Bollywood.
He joined internationally
acclaimed film-maker Shekhar Kapur as his Business Manager and
also assisted him in the patch-work of his award-winning film
‘Bandit Queen’ and canned a few independent schedules of the
shelved ‘Time Machine’ featuring Aamir Khan, Rekha and Raveena
Tandon. He also learnt scripting from Vidhu Vinod Chopra during
the pre-production phase of ‘1942-A Love Story’ and editing from
Mr. Naidu, the Chief Editor in Yashraj Films. But destiny has
its own sweet ways of driving people.
His father’s indifferent health
brought him back to Bhopal and he joined his mother’s dream, the
Red Rose School, which she had started in 1977. The
School was a middle School then but already was a known name.
The base was ready for him to take the big leap. The School
achieved the status of a Higher Secondary School then and
shortly became a recognized name in the educational arena of
Bhopal. It also grew in numbers. His first objective was to
stabilize the School and introduce systems. 35 years already and
the School is known for its high academic standards
The first branch of the School
took shape in Arera Colony in 1997 which now is a beautiful and
quality campus in Trilanga offering high quality education in a
small yet functional nest. The next Red Rose School came up at
Housing Board Colony, Karond in 1999 which now has become the
most emotionally satisfying venture of the group as a part of
its Corporate Social Responsibility where high quality education
is being imparted at nominal fee. The newest Red Rose School
came up at Lambakheda which is now the Flagship School of the
group with its huge and vast campus meeting international
educational and infrastructural standards. It is the first
School in Bhopal to have introduced the Smart School Concept
with Educomp and has also won the National Computer Literacy
Award instituted by the Government of India apart from many
other awards. It is also the first and only School in the State
Capital to be affiliated to the Cambridge International, UK.
As regards his philosophy of
education, Sumeet believes that our system of education is
flawed and needs a total revamp. The conventional approach to
education where marks only matter needs to be given a face-lift
and the educational institutes must focus on complete
development of the individual rather than only scholastic
development. He advocates tension-free education for the young
ones and believes that if a child is not able to enjoy his or
her childhood, then the education is a wasteful exercise. Make
children street-smart and not book-worms is his prophecy.
Sumeet Ponda strongly believes
that if India were to grow, it must groom its students to become
entrepreneurs and create employment and wealth. It is with this
focus that the Red Rose Group came up with a new, concept
management College – the M K Ponda College of Business and
Management in 2007. Designed as a no-placement College, the
Institute already has given scores of new-breed entrepreneurs
who have created jobs for others too.
In the Capital, The Red Rose
Group imparts quality education to thousands of students and
already thousands of its ex-students have collaborated in the
growth of the Nation. The Group now is on a state-wide expansion
trail with more Schools and Colleges coming up in semi-urban
towns and cities.
Sumeet’s philosophy of education
that it is a method of sensitizing children and it is not marks
that maketh a man but a child’s success lies beyond marks
has won him many prestigious awards like the Rashtriya Vidhya
Samman Puruskar, the Educational Excellence Award, Gujarat
Shiksha Ratn Puruskar Rajiv Gandhi Educational Excellence Award,
Vidya Ratan Gold Medal, Best Educationist Award, among many
others. |
