How Alakh Pandey, an engineering college dropout, toiled hard, braved umpteen odds and battled well-funded edtech rivals to build his IIT and medical coaching empire
Alakh Pandey, founder, PhysicsWallah
Image: Madhu Kapparath
February 2014, Softways Coaching Institute, Allahabad. Alakh Pandey was super confident of pulling off a class act. And why not? The 22-year-old from Allahabad (now Prayagraj), Uttar Pradesh, who had just dropped out of an engineering college in Kanpur, had been burning the midnight oil to thoroughly prepare the second chapter of Class X Physics. After quitting engineering in the third year, Pandey came back to his hometown, joined an institute in Allahabad to teach physics and had got an opportunity to work at another coaching academy.
The idea was to maximise income. The young dropout had been drawing Rs5,000 per month from his first coaching class in the evening. “I didn’t want to lose this chance of doubling my salary,” recalls Pandey, who started taking tuitions when he was in class 8. His first tryst with coaching happened when he cycled a few kilometres to teach some half a-dozen students of Class 9 when he was in the first year of higher secondary schooling. “The vibes that you get from teaching a bunch of curious students is a big kick,” he underlines, adding that his cycle was stolen when he was in class 12, and he could not afford a new one.
Later, at Softways Coaching Institute in 2014, Pandey was about to enter the class. The vibes, though, were negative and he got anxious for two reasons. First, four Physics teachers had quit from the coaching institute. Pandey didn’t want to be the fifth one. The owner of the institute has asked Pandey to prepare the second chapter as his predecessors had tried teaching the first chapter, and the students were apparently exhausted and bored with the same lesson. Second reason for jitters was a packed class. Pandey had never taught a class brimming with 40 students. “It was overwhelming,” he recounts.
Somehow, the young educator maintained his composure and starting teaching second chapter: Work. “It didn’t work at all,” he says. To understand the concept of Work, he lets on, an understanding of Force was a pre-requisite, which was in the first chapter. The students, unfortunately, didn’t have a grasp of the first chapter. And Pandey had not prepared the first chapter. “I didn’t have a choice. I had to start with Force,” he says. Within minutes, students started reacting. “Your definition of Force is different from what is written in the book,” said one of them. “What you are teaching is missing in the chapter,” said another student.
Pandey panicked. He quickly grabbed a book, glanced through the pages for five minutes, and then put it on the table. Newton and Dyne, he underlined, are the units representing force. The class drew a blank face. Pandey realised there was something missing. The dramatist—Pandey was actively involved in street plays and theatre during his school and college days, and in fact at one point of time thought of taking acting as his career—got into his act. “1 Newton=10 to the power 5 Dyne,” he said. What he uttered next had a thunderous response. “Ye daayan nahin dyne hai (This is not a witch, but Dyne),” he said. For the next hour, Pandey managed to get the full attention of his students. As a teacher, he explains, one has to be engaging, loud, funny, sarcastic, strict, and let the initial content flow in a slow pace.