The hardships he endured were “actually a gift from God,” Samanta now believes, because it taught him firsthand the one thing the very poor really needed. “Why am I able to sit across and talk to you on equal terms?” he asks me. “Only because I got an education. That’s all I’m giving these children.”
Samanta also took some hard decisions. He became a confirmed bachelor and shunned personal wealth. “If I had a wife and children,” he says, “it would have been hard not to care for them or have self-interests.” And, despite creating his massive educational empire from scratch, he will tell you that his monthly salary is modest, far less than he pays his senior employees. From this, he says, he keeps just enough for expenses, including rent for the simple house he lives in, away from campus, and donates the rest to the poor. Others who run private universities would treat it as a family business and keep much of the profits. “But reinvesting the income,” Samanta explains, “is how we’re able to keep on buying land and expand the two institutions.”
Samanta takes childlike pleasure in talking about his achievements—which aren’t small by any standards. He’s also media savvy, enjoys the limelight and likes being “Dr Samanta,” which is how everybody addresses him (he has several honorary doctorates). He also talks with pride about the many great personalities—ranging from ambassadors and Nobel laureates to statesmen like former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam—who have come visiting. Yet Samanta’s frugality, too, shows. In his simple white shirts worn casually over jeans even at solemn university functions, he looks more like one of his students than an entrepreneur. He has no office on campus, but pores through official papers, or meets most visitors, under the shade of a kadamba tree. His car is a second-hand 1998 Maruti Zen hatchback while some of his employees, who include expat academics from several countries, zip about in swanky new sedans and SUVs. “They need to be well off to be happy,” he explains. “They have families. I have to pay well to attract and retain the best academic staff.”
Source: Reader's Digest
