The Story of a Poor Farmer's Son

Exceptional People Series. Chapter #1

He was born in a poor farmer’s family with less than Rs 2000 as his father’s income. While he always had a knack for Electronics since his childhood, he did not have the money to join Engineering and so he pursued B.Sc. Physics from JSS College, G. Madhagowda Undergraduate Institute. In third year, he was thrown out of hostel because of non-payment of fees. So, he had to sleep on footpaths, bus stand and used to wash his clothes in public toilets. He used to live of money earned on tuition to children. The poor boy used to get up at 2 am daily to finish his daily work and walk 16 km. to his college.

His aim was to build a cost-effective flying machine. He was not aware that this machine is called as drone. He learnt C++, Java, Adobe, cloud computing with his hard-earned money. For building drone, he used to visit scrap yards frequently and procure cheap materials from there. In his 80th attempt he built a drone which was 40% cheaper. To participate in drone competition held by IIT Delhi, he had to travel in an unreserved compartment for 3 days with only one pair of clothes….And he stood 2nd in that competition. His name Prathap NM was first time came in daylight.

Then he wanted to participate in another tournament in Japan. He was not aware that he needed a passport to visit a foreign country. He mortgaged his 10th and 12th mark-sheets and got some money. To get his project vetted by a professor, he went to IIT Chennai but had to wait for 4 days on footpath to meet him. Eventually when he met the professor, he was told that because he was just science graduate it was difficult for him to certify his project. But after rigorous persuasion, professor finally certified him. He had to stay in Chennai for a month with only Rs.300 in his pocket. He used to eat just a roti in a day and only water in the night. How many us can even imagine such a dedication to pursue or dream ?

For his Tokyo trip, his friends and professors pooled in some money. Finally, one Swamiji arranged him a ticket to Tokyo. He needed Rs.60,000 as a minimum for the Tokyo trip. He even mortgaged his mother's Mangal Sutram. After reaching Tokyo airport, he was left with just Rs.1400. To reach the venue of competition, he had to look for the cheapest way of transport even though bullet trains were there, but was very expensive. So, he had to choose normal train and had to change trains in 16 stations. At each station he had to carry his drone and other luggage. After reaching final station he had to walk 8 km to reach the venue.

127 countries participated in that tournament. Participants were from Ivy league colleges from USA, China, Europe, Australia etc. In first round he was at 50th place. In 2nd round he was at 30th place. In 3rd round he was at 20th place. In 4th and in Final round, 2nd place bagged by Stanford university and 1st place was bagged by Prathap. He received a Gold medal and USD10,000 as award money.

Then there was no looking back. After winning the Gold Medal in Japan, Prathap won Albert Einstein Innovation Medal at the International Exhibition in Germany. He also participated in another competition in Germany and won the prestigious Information Technology and Communication Research Medal (CEBIT-Award) 

Recently, when floods ravaged major parts of North Karnataka and people were stranded in different places, Prathap NM used the drone he made to provide food and relief materials to several affected areas. From Hipparagi Barrage to Janwada, a nearby village - he used his drone to help many. Thousands of people gathered to watch if this drone could really reach the right place. And when it did, both police personnel and the public cheered loudly for the 22-year-old. He has also done cryptography to protect Hackins.

Prathap feels happy that his creation saved the life of a little girl in Africa. Narrating the series of events, he says, "Africa is home to many indigenous people and species. There is a dangerously poisonous snake called the black mamba in this country. In one year, around 22,000 people in a particular tribal area had died due to this snake’s bite. When I was in Sudan for a research project, an eight-year-old girl was bitten by this snake and needed urgent medical assistance. Usually, a person can survive for only 15 minutes after being bitten by this snake. I used a drone to send the antivenom to the place where she was, a place so remote that you won’t even be able to find its location on Google Maps. The place was 10 hours by road from where I was, so I used my Eagle 2.8 drone, which can cover 280 km per hour. The antivenom was delivered within eight and a half minutes. It was a very challenging task for me. Later, the child and her mother came all the way to Sudan to meet me and thanked me for saving her life. I was very happy that I could help." 

Prathap has also delivered a few lectures at IIT Bombay and IISC on how drones can be used in time-sensitive situations like transferring of organs during organ donation, blood transfer and other such purposes. Prathap says, "When my lecture was held in these institutes for the first time, only three or four people attended. But these few people told the others about me and my talks, so when the lectures were organized again, the hall was jam-packed." Currently, Prathap is working to establish his own start-up that can involve youngsters to build drones or any other devices. According to him, there are several people out there who have the talent, but don't have the degree. "I will employ such talents and bring out many innovative devices that can help the nation during disasters and wars and in the fields of defence, aviation and beyond. The aim is very simple, it is to use technology in the interest of our nation."

This 22-year-old 'drone scientist' from Mandya has developed over 600 drones. Pratap NM has been invited to over 87 countries to showcase his drones and has worked in over six major projects, including one for defence purposes. He got many offers from French, German & US firms to work for multi-million dollars as salary. But this poor farmer’s son decided to work for Defense Research Development Organization (DRDO) for the development of his country

References :

1) https://www.edexlive.com/people/2019/dec/23/22-year-old-Prathap-nm-has-build-over-600-drones-that-can-be-helpful-in-health-defense-and-aviation-9619.html 2) Https://www.prajavani.net/drone-prathap-595543.htm 3) Https://kansas.gizbot.com/news/drone-Prathap-state-young-scientist-devote-time-on-multi-drone-research/articlecontent-pf106828-019471.html 4) Https://www.deccanherald.com/state/india-s-drone-boy-be-feted-710479.html