She Walks 10 km Every Day Inside Dense Forest To Teach School Kids !!!

Who is she ? She is not celebrity... but a humble teacher with a Passion for her job ! She is Sumitra Koluru... An Inspiration, an Influencer for tiny feet !

It really does take a big heart to help shaping little minds but for Sumitra Koluru it takes more than just a big heart. Sumitra Koluru, a teacher at the Government Higher Primary School in Dhopenahatti village, Dharwad taluka a twin town of Hubli, Karnataka, India has been travelling 19 km every single day for the past 11 years to shoulder her responsibilities as a teacher. Out of the 19 km she covers each day, she walks for 10 km which also includes a dense forest area .

Since 2005, she has been exposing herself to uncertain attacks by wild animals while she travels to reach the school in the village Dhopenahatti which is located in forest area and has a population of about 400. At times, when she is encountered by animals, she hides and wait until they disappear and recently she confronted a leopard.

According to Sumitra, the village has most people as labourers and thus she wants their children to get educated and change the fate of their families as she believes education is the one and only tool for upliftment .

She catches a bus to Dori and then walks the rest. The road from Dori to Dhopenahatti measures to over 5 km and 2km out of which is in good condition.

“Of the 5km stretch from Dori to Dhopenahatti, only 2km is in good condition and the rest of the road is narrow. It is slippery too. The condition is worse in the rainy season as I have to wade through water and slush,” she says  

Whenever her husband is free, Sumitra is dropped at a distance of 2km after crossing Dori. Further, she says, “Most of the people in this village are daily-wage labourers. I want to train and educate their children.”

I’m not a teacher, I’m an awakener – Robert Frost.

She is an epitome of deepest diligence towards one’s work and a valiant example of fearlessness. We often acknowledge our teachers every year on September 5, and teachers like Sumitra encourage us to get yet another reason for celebration each year. It is due to such personalities when we are certain that future of the children of present generation is in safe hands .

A big salute to Sumitra and and pray that God gives her more courage and power to continue the good work and at the same time hope the Karnataka Government in India to looks into the issue and renders all possible efforts at her disposal to help Sumitra travel safely and comfortably and many more like her who are passionate in serving mankind, relentlessly for the future of the country. 

Now lets talk about us. If you want to be successful at your job, you need to be passionate about your work. You need to be motivated and driven to be the best you can be regardless of your job or your work.

Passion, drive, motivation, zeal, call it what you want it is the self-driven attitude about your job and your work that can help lead you in your quest for achieving your hearts desire ie like Sumitra’s ideology of fulfillment in imparting education to the labourers kids...

The famous quote by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

“If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.”

For me this jumped out as examples of both passion and success. Our success comes not so much from what we do (our job), but how well we do it (our passion for our job). It also illustrates that regardless of your job or your position, you can be successful if you have passion for your work.

Passion Is Important

You may ask how can you consider a street sweeper as being successful. I am sure the street sweeper would rather be a CEO, but at this point in time his job is a street sweeper. He is a street sweeper, but each day he goes to work giving it his all to be the best street sweeper he can be. He is passionate about being the best that he can at what he does. This makes him successful at his job.

Regardless of your current job bringing passion to your work can lay a foundation for success. Not just success in your current job, but success for every rung you want to take up the company ladder. You may hate your job now, but the attitude you take towards it can play a pivotal role in your career.

Passion is an emotion that comes from within you. It is your enthusiasm, your zeal, your drive and your motivation. You don’t want to just feel passionate about your job, you want to put passion into it. You want to apply all of your skills and all of your energy into your work.

Passion does not go unnoticed. People will see how well you do your job and your attitude towards it. They will see even if a task is hard you don’t give in, you apply yourself even more to overcome it. They will notice your drive and your motivation and consider how you would do in another position.

Remember passion is an emotion, a state of mind so the first thing you have to do is motivate yourself. Turn to another emotion to find the motivation that you need. Anger. Whether you are mad at yourself, your boss or just your situation take that and turn it into motivation to do whatever it takes to improve your situation.

Once you have the motivation you can apply the passion. Remember it is not about how you feel about your job. It is about putting passion into your work. Maybe you need to learn new skills or you just need to fully engage yourself in your work.

Passion also brings energy to your work. Instead of getting the work done just in time, turn it up and deliver it ahead of schedule. Instead of watching the clock for the time to go home, stay later and use that energy to drive yourself to do more.

Ultimately it is about your attitude. You may have heard if you change your mind you can change your life. This is a perfect example. To be passionate about anything you have to care about it. Change how you look at your job. Remember the street sweeper? He was “oh I hate my lousy job”. He was driven to be the best street sweeper he could be.

This is how you should approach your job and your work. To be passionate about your work you must be motivated to be the best that you can be. Over time people will notice, how you feel about your job will change. Who knows you might even look forward to coming to work on Monday !!!