Sudeep Mehta
Early Life
I, Sudeep Mehta, was born on the 19th Day of August in the Year 1978 in Jamnagar District of Gujarat to Smt. Prafulaben Mehta & Late Shri Anatrai Mehta. I belonged to a middle-class educated family with rich values. I am the youngest of 4 siblings. Late Shri Anatrai Mehta, a Mechanical Engineer of his time was a very strict father. My grandfather, Late Shri Girjashankar Kanjibhai Mehta was a School Head Master at Nana Dahisara Village of Maliya Taluka of Morbi District of Gujarat. And so the family had a great inclination toward education. The entire family was and even today is highly educated.
Like many children of that era, I wasn’t an exceptionally bright student. Schools, Teachers, and Education were different in those days. I was passionate about playing cricket. My father was an Engineer at GEB (Gujarat Electricity Board). Due to transferable job, I had to change my school every 2 to 3 years. Things changed academically and sportswise after I shifted to Rajkot from Jamnagar in the year 1991. After taking admission at Matru Mandir High School, I developed well as a student thanks to the teachers there. The beginning of my cricketing career came once I joined Anil Pavilion (Rajkot Gymkhana Cricket Ground) at Shastri Maidan, Rajkot.
School & Cricket Life
My Academic life and cricketing career were about to kick off. In Std. 10th I scored 84 % marks and was also playing U-16 for Saurashtra. I became the First Player from Gujarat to be selected for the prestigious trials at MRF pace academy, Madras. Owing to my good 10th Std. result, I opted for Science Stream in Std. 11th & 12th. One factor that impacted my decision was my elder brother who was already doing bachelor’s in Chemistry. I opted for Science but realized that balancing academics (Science) and cricket was extremely difficult. I was highly irregular at my higher School (Secondary Lalbahadur Shastri Vidhyalaya) due to his cricketing commitments. I was irregular even at the tuitions.
An Interesting Story
In those days there wasn’t anything like A – Group or B – Group students. Every science student had to study Physics, Chemistry, Maths & Biology (All 4 Subjects). To reduce financial burden on my father I didn’t go for Biology tuitions. I couldn’t study Biology at school as I could not attend school regularly due to cricket commitments. There were 38 chapters of Biology in Std. 12th and I did all those chapters on my own through self study in just 40 days. I got 68 % Marks in 12th Boards (getting these marks in the year 1996 wasn’t a cake walk).
College Life
In 1996 after getting around 65 % in 12th Science I could not get admission in any degree Engineering College. I got admission in the diploma course of Instrumentation & Control Engineering at a very reputed A.V. Parekh Technical Institute (AVPTI), Rajkot. The best part was that I was studying in Rajkot so I could continue with my Cricket practice at Anil Pavilion. The reason behind wanting to practice at Anil Pavilion was that the institution gave highest number of First Class Cricketers in Saurashtra. I played U-19 from Saurashtra studying at AVPTI. During those days there were no tournaments like U-22 or U-25. A player had to directly play in the district team and then Ranji Trophy. If a player didn’t get selected in the district team he had to play local tournaments to prove his worth. Almost all players of Rajkot District Team at that time were current Ranji Trophy players. So it was very tough to get a place in the playing XI of Rajkot District Team. I was a very sharp fielder. So I did the duty of a 12th man for Rajkot Team for 2 years
(i) Once it so happened that 3 players of Rajkot District Team had to go to play for their company Bharat Petroleum Corportation Ltd. (BPCL). A golden oppurtinity was created for me to play in the team. I was a fast-bowling all rounder and the report was that it was a green top wicket. I was very excited as I thought I would be surely playing for the team for which I waited for more than 2 years. For non-cricketing reasons I was not selected in the playing XI. I took my kit bag and decided not to play cricket any more. The captain of the team (Sitanshu Kotak) called me and asked me to come to the ground and not to lose hope as he might have seen something in me. I tried to leave cricket but cricket didn’t leave me.
(ii) Next year, another opportunity was created for me to play a match against Bhavnagar district because of the same reason. But there was a hurdle. I had my semester exams going on. It was a three-day match and I had a paper on the second day of the match from 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm. It was confirmed that I would be playing that match. I shared my problem with my cricket coach Respected Shri Mahendrabhai Rajdev and asked him to let me go for just 2 hours to write my paper, so that I could write that much which would be enough for me to pass the exam. He obliged. As destiny had it, I went to bat as no.8 at 11:15 am. The team needed me to bat well. I survived for 15 minutes before lunch and started building a good partnership with Saurashtra Ranji Trophy Stalwart Bimal Jadeja. I started playing aggressively as I had to leave for exam latest by 1:30 pm. I got out after making a crucial 42 runs (partnership of 80 runs) at 1:40 pm. With no time left for changing my clothes, I took my stationery and reached the exam venue at sharp 2:00 pm. I was holding a pen 20 minutes after wielding a bat for 2 hours. I wrote paper worth 70 marks, and returned to the ground at 4:00 pm. Bowled a spell and took a wicket.
(iii) Once, our club team (R.Y.C.C.) had to play a tournament (Vivekanand Trophy) at Ahmedabad. It was a ‘world cup’ like tournament for us. The entire team was leaving Rajkot at 2:00 pm. Due to my semester exams, I had to leave at 6:00 pm. In those days there were no mobile phone facilities in India. I was given an address of an apartment where the team was staying. I reached Ahmedabad at 11:00 pm, and arrived at the address given to me. To my agony, the team wasn’t there. I had no close relatives in Ahmedabad at that time and very little money in my pocket. I was barely 18 at that time. After searching for my team, asking about it to other people in the area, I finally decided to rest on a camel cart parked at the road side. I saw a colony on the other side of the road. I went there and asked the security about a cricket team staying around in the area. He was unaware about it, but looking at my condition, offered me to sleep in the security cabin if I wished to. I accepted his offer and decided to rest there. After all, it was better than the camel cart. I took a security round with him at 3:00 am. Woke up in the morning, used his bathroom to get ready and went to the ground, only to see my teammates laughing at me. Sports teaches you how to handle hardships.
(iv) At AVPTI I was treated as a celebrity due to my cricket. I got many privileges. Most of the professors who came for external viva used to ask me more questions about my cricket instead of the subject. I completed my Diploma in Instrumentation and Control Engineering in 1999, and got admission at S.S. Engineering college, Bhavnagar. I went to Bhavnagar thinking that my cricketing career was over as I was going away from Rajkot and into a city that considered Rajkot team as its arch rival.
Graduation (1999-2002)
These were the most happening years of my life. It was a roller coaster ride. I went to Bhavnagar to pursue my Bachelor of Engineering in Instrumentation and Control faculty. I had to stay there for 3 years and I was sure that I would not be allowed to practice there, as I was an upcoming talented player from Rajkot District. I felt my cricketing career was over, but thought of meeting the principal of the college Shri M.R.Patel. I went to meet him with a file containing the newspaper cuttings of my achievements & performances in cricket. After seeing my achievements, he was highly impressed (he seemed to be a cricket fan like every other Indian). He asked me about what I expected from him. Pretending to be innocent, I asked him to allow me to stay in Rajkot and practice cricket and do my engineering from Rajkot like a distance learning program. I promised him that I would be regular in all my submissions. To my surprise, he agreed completely and from that day, I got a license for not attending any lectures at the college. It won’t be an overstatement if I say that today I am a first class cricketer thanks to Shri M.R.Patel.
During this time, my elder brother Mr. Brijesh Mehta, was working with – S. N. Kansagra, a very renowned English medium school of Rajkot. He was working as a Chemistry teacher in standard 11th and 12th. Since I wasn’t going to college and was free during most part of the day, he asked me to work in the same school as a cricket coach. The idea was to earn some money to meet my cricketing expenses and personal expenses, as my father got retired from his job in the year 1999. I was selected for my first job with a salary of Rs. 3000 a month. I was more than happy with it. Brijesh used to do personal tuitions of Chemistry and Maths. Students coming to him needed someone who could teach them Physics too. Brijesh asked me to try my hand at teaching Physics as the subject was closely associated to Engineering. I happily agreed as it would mean some additional income for me and my family. This way I started my journey as a Physics teacher.
In the same year, BCCI announced U-22 tournament at the state and national level. I was selected as the main fast bowler for Saurashtra team. We had a knockout match at Mumbai against Mumbai. We lost the match but I took 5 wickets for 52 runs. Based on this performance, I was selected as first standby player(16th player) for a Ranji Trophy match between Saurashtra and Uttar Pradesh.
So in the year 2000, I was an engineering student, a sports teacher in a school, a physics teacher doing group tuitions, and a Ranji trophy probable cricketer. So many things were happening in my life.
Ranji Trophy
In the year 2001 I made my debut for Rajkot district team as well as in Saurashtra Ranji Team as a fast-bowling allrounder. It was a good start to my first class career as I scored 43 runs (in 47 balls) against Gujarat and 51 runs (in 33 balls) against Baroda team in 50 over games. My first Ranji match was against Baroda. I got 4 wickets in my first match but after bowling 27 overs in a duration of almost two days I experienced unusual pain in my lower back. I played my next match against Maharashtra hiding my pain and taking pain killers. But I couldn’t play my next match against Mumbai as I was limping by that time. I played the last match of the first-class season against Gujarat. After the matches got over, I went to Mumbai to show my back to a spine surgeon only to realize that I had an issue with my L4-L5 joint. The doctor asked me to do rehab to live a normal life and give up playing cricket. I felt it was a dead end as far as cricket was concerned. I stayed out of competitive cricket for more than a year. Did my back strengthening. Started bowling again but couldn’t generate the pace that I used to previously. With more back strengthening and a spine supporting belt I played Ranji Trophy again in 2003 as a batting allrounder. After that I was not considered for Ranji Trophy. I played district cricket for 4 more years for Railway team. My last match was Railway vs Jamnagar in which the current Indian cricket star Ravindra Jadeja played from Jamnagar. I made 97 runs in 80 balls in a 3-day match. After that match I hung my kit and never again played any competitive cricket..
Cricket Coach
In the year 2002 when I was injured, I was sent to NCA (National Cricket Academy) by Saurashtra Cricket Association to attend a Level 1 coaching course. The coaches there were impressed by my cricketing as well as coaching skills. I topped the exam in the entire country. In 2005 NCA announced Level 2 coaching course. They suggested Saurashtra Cricket Association to send me only. I was sent to attend the course. I again impressed the coaches there & again topped the exam in the entire country. In 2007 NCA announced Level 3 coaching course (the highest level of coaching in the world and the toughest). The course was conducted by ex-English Fast Bowler Mr. Frank Tyson & an Australian Coach, Mr. Darren Holder along with Mr. Kinjal Suratwala. I secured 87 marks in that exam and again topped the entire nation. There are only a few Level 3 coaches in India even today (less than 100 may be). When Dave Whatmore, a former Australian & Bangladesh National team coach was appointed as director of NCA in 2009, he asked me to join NCA to conduct Level 1 & Level 1 refresher courses for NCA. I conducted around 4 to 5 such courses for NCA after which I had no association with cricket. My story as a cricketer ends here.
Rise as a Physics Teacher
I started teaching Physics in the year 2000. I used to teach Physics to 9th and 10th standard students of ICSE board. Till I completed my Bachelors in Engineering, I was teaching only to earn money and didn’t consider it as a career option. After completing my Bachelors in 2002, I wished to go to UK for pursuing my Masters in Science. I preferred to go to UK so that I could play club cricket over there as well. But as destiny had it, my UK visa got rejected twice even though I got admission at 7 different Universities of UK. The year 2002 was a major set back for me as I was out of cricket due to severe back injury and due to my visa rejection. I felt I didn’t have any career option left for me. I didn’t want to leave Rajkot as I thought I had some cricket left in me and also didn’t wish to leave my family. This is when I took my teaching profession seriously. I decided to teach 11th and 12th standard students now. My elder brother Brijesh Mehta was already an established Teacher in Rajkot for Chemistry and I was admired as a Physics teacher by 9th and 10th standard students. I devoted my next two years for intensive preparation of the subject. I became a student and solved many 11th & 12th Standard books of Physics by myself. I made useful worksheets for my students and solved each question personally. My nearest competitor was a Physics teacher who was a PhD in Physics with 15 years of experience to his credit. But I was determined to be the best. I had my own flair of teaching. Being young, I could relate well with students rather easily. In 2005, we built our own medium sized premise (the one where the current Shakti School runs). It was a significant step forward. In 2006, we decided to prepare our students for national level competitive exams like JEE Mains (known as AIEEE in those days), NEET (known as AIPMT in those days) and JEE Advanced (known as IIT in those days). In those days, no teachers or students of Rajkot were aware about these national level competitive exams. It was a challenging task, but decided to take up the challenge. We prepared ourselves and students and got outstanding results in the very first year itself. We are pioneers in preparing students for these exams in Rajkot. By 2007, I was established and today I can proudly say that I am an outstading Physics teacher in Rajkot.
Shakti School
We could produce very good results, from students coming to us 2 hours a day for tuitions. The premise was occupied in the evening, but completely empty in the morning. We thought why not have a school of our own, where we can prepare our school students for board exams as well as national level competitive exams. We felt we would get more time to work on the students and produce better results. So we started our own school in the name of “SHAKTI SCHOOL”. Since there was mad rush for admission at Shakti Classes (our coaching classes) in the evening, we felt, we would have an overwhelming response for Shakti School too. But to our disappointment, we just got 6 admissions in the first year. There were 6 students in class 11 and 6 teachers! As per our nature, we worked with full commitment expecting better admissions next year. To our disappointment, we had 8 admissions in the second year, 19 admission in the 3rd year and 43 in the 4th year. We were never discouraged by less number of admissions, instead we always thought positively that the school was growing slowly but steadily. In 2011, we had 83 admissions. It was an outstanding bunch of students. The Gujarat government introduced semester system, in which, the entire syllabus of standard 11th and 12th was divided in 4 semesters and each semester exam was to be considered as a board exam. We sensed that bright days were just round the corner.
The Rise and Rise of Shakti School
In 2012, the Government of India slightly changed the format and of AIEEE was renamed as JEE Mains. It was to be conducted for the first time in 2013. The students of Shakti School were very eager and more than ready for it. When the results came out everyone in Gujarat was eager to know who got state rank 1. And to which coaching institute did he/she belong. This was the time when many Kota based coaching institutes were already well established at Ahmedabad. The State Rank 1 was Ranveer Rana who belonged to Shakti School. Many people thought that it could be a fluke. But when they came to know that State Rank 2 was also from Shakti School, they accepted our supremacy. State Rank 2 Bhavya Rachchh was also from Shakti School. Apart from these two students, there were many other students who performed exceptionally well. All India Rank of Ranveer Rana was 17. Ranveer Rana & Bhavya Rachchh cleared JEE Advanced with the rank of 19 and 1045 respectively. Ranveer took admission in IIT Mumbai and Bhavya at IIT Madras. This result positively shocked everyone in Rajkot. The very next year Rushi Rokad from Shakti School got State Rank 7 in JEE Mains, he also cleared Jee Advanced and took admission in IIT Madras. Satvik Pasani, from the same batch cleared AIIMS entrance exam with an All India Rank of 17 and JIPMER entrance exam with an All India Rank of 5. He took admission in AIIMS Delhi.
There was a tremendous rush to take admission to Shakti School. We knew we would have to compromise with the quality of teaching and personal care if we took admissions more than our capacity. So, we decided to give a limited no. of admissions based on our entrance test, since people wanted to confirm admission to their wards 6-8 months before their Board’s results. We were the first ones in Rajkot to do this. There was no looking back. Today Shakti School runs at 3 different premises in Rajkot. We started a science school for Gujarati medium students in 2016 as well as a secondary school (9th and 10th standard) for English medium students in the same year. In the same year, we started a CBSE school, which is our joint venture in the name of Rajkot International School.
The Legacy
While you read this (2023), Shakti Classes founded by, Brijesh Mehta in 1998, has completed 25 years. I have been teaching Physics to students for 23 years now. I have taught more than 6000 students in classroom with utmost dedication and personal care. The journey that started with 6 students at Shakti School has now reached to 4000 students. I love this profession as it shapes the lives life of many students. I still teach with same energy and enthusiasm and have no plans to stop as yet.
People I owe to
I love, respect, and admire my father Late Shri A.G. Mehta whom I lost in 2020. I learned a lot from his strict nature and simple life. I love and respect my mother Smt. Prafullaben Mehta because of her selfless love and sacrifice of nature. I owe my emotional nature to her. My elder brother Brijesh is my backbone, he always supports me in whatever I wish to do. My beautiful wife, Vaidarbhi, and my adorable kids Krutarth and Kritika are my support system. They make many sacrifices owing to my hectic work schedule. Without Brijesh and Vaidarbhi’s support, I wouldn’t have gone this far. My lovely sisters Kavita and Jigna are my best well-wishers. My Grandfather Late Shri Girjashanker Kanjibhai Mehta is my inspiration. I sincerely thank Shri Mahenrabhai Rajdev, Shri D. V. Mehta, Shri Sitanshu Kotak & Shri Pintu Gosai as they have played a very important role at different stages of my life.
Thank you for sparing your time to read this. The sole aim behind writing this is that at least a few people might get inspired reading this.