Byju couldn't sleep well this year , his father was fighting late - stage cancer : Wife

Byju couldn't sleep well this year , his father was fighting late - stage cancer : Wife

The last six months were my toughest in the last ten years,” Byju said in his interviews last week. He bared his soul to reveal he has hardly slept in the past six months. Those who know Byju know he never uses the adjective ‘tough’ for any challenge. If he says ‘tough’, it must have been really tough. And it was really, really tough. Not so much on the business side as it was on the personal front. He couldn’t sleep well this year because his father was fighting late-stage cancer. 

Byju was travelling around the world twice, sometimes thrice, a week to be by his father’s side as much as he could. These two teachers fought this tough battle the same way they had fought all the other challenges - together, with positivity and perseverance. Byju is relaxed today because a critical surgery last week went well. Touch wood. Not that Byju sleeps a lot on his non-tough days. His daily routine has not changed in the last ten years. He works hard every day, cares deeply about his family, even more about those who work with him, and the most about the purpose of his existence. What never fails to impress me is that Byju sees good in everyone and everything. Empathy - his greatest strength - comes from where he comes from. Byju is the personification of courage and conviction. He was born in a village to teacher parents, learnt English listening to cricket commentary on the radio, watched his first football game on the only TV in the village sitting on his father’s shoulders, and had as much fun on the playground as he had in the classroom. Years later, 

he walked away from his lucrative job to adopt his parents’ profession and create learners for life. We did not suddenly appear out of nowhere. It has taken a lot of hard work to make learning effective and engaging. We have come a long way but we have a longer way to go. Our fondest memories are of the days when we would travel to six cities across India every week to conduct back-to-back classes. We still pay the rent for our first - small but cosy - office in Koramangala, Bangalore. We are still the passionate 6-member founding team with stars in our eyes and purpose in our souls that we were 11 years ago. Because we never forget where we come from. We have never cared about where we stand in the Forbes rich list. It doesn’t really make any difference to us whether we are worth a few billions or just a few bucks. Whatever Byju has, is for BYJU’S. All we have ever cared about is the dream we once saw together. All we bring to the table is the passion to actionize that dream. What matters to us is to add some value every day to the lives we touch. Valuations can vary, but values are forever. The famous author Elisabeth Kübler-Ross once said, “The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths.”