Amrit Sharma: Paving the Way for Excellence

The Swaha community would be very gratified to know the levels to which some of their children are achieving. We are a humble people, focused on paro-upkaar or service to society, but it is always fulfilling when one of our very own makes his mark on the international scene. Great achievements by great individuals should be firstly recognised and exalted by their home! In the case of this young man, our appreciation for his accomplishments, which has been recognised internationally through a string of international awards, is one of unbounded pride. It was only fitting that Swaha publishes something on the great strides made by one of her sons.

Amrit Sharma, son of Prof. Chandrabhan and Mrs Shanta Sharma, was not always a bright spark. In fact, there were many instances in primary and early secondary school when his teachers and parents would work tirelessly to make him understand the simplest things: one very memorable, recurring incident was the spelling of ‘sugar’. In Amrit’s mind, the word starts with the ‘sh’ sound and should therefore naturally be spelt ‘shugar’. And why not? Seems perfectly logical right? It was phonetically correct. But it was this very persistence on reasoning and logicizing matters of the world that would take him to great heights later on. Thinking out of the box, and not accepting all that is presented to you are essential tools for success in any arena.

Amrit attended Presentation College, Chaguanas, where he attained distinctions in all ten subjects at the O’level. He went on to improve his report card by gaining full distinctions in five subjects at the A’level for which he was awarded an Open Science Scholarship. The world was now open to him as he had the privilege to pursue further studies at any university of his choice. For various reasons, Amrit opted for the premier science university in Europe, Imperial College in London, UK, at which he is currently pursuing a PhD. It should be highlighted that up until his departure to the UK, Amrit was always heavily involved in temple life. He attended and still attends whenever he returns, the Gyaan Deepak Kirtan Mandali where his guru, Pt. Hardeo Persad, is spiritual head. In fact, he still involves himself in temple activities when he returns for holiday – just recently, he penned a number of scripts for Gyaan Deepak’s Ram Leela celebrations.

When interviewed for this article, Amrit was very adamant about his message. He said:

[b]eing involved in the temple helps you to succeed – that should be the message.

There were no doubts in his mind about the benefits of temple life. Amrit religiously participated in Ram Leela, music classes, hindi classes, Sunday morning services and extra-curricular activities. He even played cricket for Gyaan Deepak and everyone fondly recalls when he attempted, without much success, sprint racing at Swaha’s Sports Day. To him, it’s better to try and fail, than to fail to try.

The list of achievements does not end here. At Imperial College, he obtained First Class Honours in the MEng degree programme, obtaining both the IEE Prize and the Terry Whodocoat Memorial Prize for being the top graduate in the course as well as the graduate with the best final year project. He then went on to win the Imperial College Scholarship for PhD research. For his work in the area of dynamical systems, he has been awarded the Royal Academy of Engineering Fellowship and his most recent and outstanding achievement came just last month when he won the gold medal for the Automotive Design pillar at the Young European Arena of Research. According to Alain Sirju, in his Newsday letter to the Editor:

[h]e (Amrit) was the only UK student to win a gold medal in a technical paper and competed against 285 top researchers across the 36 countries in the European Union. He won it for his novel mathematical and optimisation techniques to assess and ensure stability for high performance vehicles.”
- Amrit Sharma excels, Newsday, 02-05-08

For this, Swaha should be very proud because we helped build the man that is Amrit Sharma. The efforts of the numerous Swaha supporters are reaping the rewards expected. Your efforts are not in vain, and life stories like this should serve as an impetus to renew our energies towards motivating the youth at present. We salute this young man and appreciate his very hard work. It is with great pride and honour that we recognise Amrit Sharma as a Swaha son. We hope that his success only deepens so that he will continue to positively and proudly carry the name of Swaha.

Links

Amrit Sharma’s Website