LONG AWAITED INTERVIEW OF HARSH RAJPUT (Founder of The Helix Foundation)!!!

What is your name?

My name is Harsh Rajput.

Where are you from?

I’m from Vadodara, Gujarat, India

How old are you?

My birthday is on 3rd December, 2004, so you can count. I guess it will be 16.

What do your parents do?

Well, my dad is a professor in Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. It is considered one of the prestigious ones of Vadodara currently. And my mom is a school principal of Amicus International.

What do you want to do after High School?

Well, I am applying to University of Toronto which gives me a way to create my own degree. They give you three options, we can 1) specialize in something 2) major in something 3) minor in something. So, I can go with one specialization, two majors and three minors. I have two options to apply for. According to the first preference, they will consider the first. And if no seat is available for it, they’ll consider the second preference. So, it’s all preference-wise. I am thinking to specialize in aeronautics. And my second preference would be specializing in economics. And the majors would be computer science or economics. So, that’s the thing.

What is the name of your start-up and what is it’s motto?

My nonprofit's name is The Helix Foundation. And it’s motto is “Love all, serve all”.

When did you start this organization?

I know the specific date. I started on 6th April, 2020.

What inspired you to start this organization?

Well, I don’t come from a very luxurious background. You can say I’m from middle class. And I’ve literally seen my dad, when I was young, how he struggled his way from an economically weaker section of the society and go to the position of a professor. He is now a head professor in one of the most prestigious universities, even though it’s local. But still it’s hard to get a government job and that too as a professor in a reputed university. So, that motivated me to do something for the children belonging to marginalized backgrounds and to take them from that condition, and just bridge the gap between marginalized backgrounds and the mainstream education which we can provide. We help them to connect through the broader feed of people and to the mainstream education which is imparted to us. So, that is something that inspired me. Another reason is that I personally love my plants. I have like 40 kinds of plants at my home, so I just love them. Therefore, I like to plants trees too. I don’t have space around my house but still I make the most of it.

What do you aspire to achieve through this organization?

Well, I just want to achieve that at least nobody does anything that harms the environment, like cutting down the trees and other things like that, for clearing a parking space and all. Secondly I don’t want any child who has high ambitions with potential to just waste his future and his life in doing something random. I don’t want that child, who has the potential to become something greater, to be exploited. He can think that at least he got a chance. That’s the motive which I want to achieve with the organization.

What are some of your achievements with this organization?

We have received about five recognitions. We also got more than 150 projects since 2020. The first award was an award I was felicitated with by the Doctor’s Association of Gujarat. Secondly, we got facilitated with a check of ₹49,101 by the member of Parliament of Vadodara. And we also got a few awards from local institutions like MSU Vadodara.

What are the initiatives started by your organization?

We’ve worked in 50+ projects. One of which was the Gunj project which helps children from poor backgrounds. We just find the potential and we recommend them to major NGOs, who work at the national or state level. So when we recommend them, we obviously provide them with some financial help like getting books, clothes and some basic things. Essentially, we contribute to giving them a better education. The second project was during the second wave of the coronavirus, when India was facing a very tough time, we created a network. We have more than 50 volunteers, and I asked them to just contact their local hospitals and check whether they have enough beds for the covid patients or not. I just shared shared my personal number with everyone, and we helped people out. These are the major two, but we’ve planned so many. We planted 80+ tees till now. That initiative was divided into different projects at different times. Another initiative that we started during Covid-19 was launching a helpline number. People who felt low, demotivated or depressed could contact us and our volunteers would talk to them. Although we didn’t get a good response since we weren’t able to spread it well, but we still got around 1500 calls. We had a specific time when people could call us. There was also another initiative of giving food to some local slums, or just giving our old clothes too since we’re a team of 50 members. It can be called a project because it’s hard to manage everything and make sure that it goes to the right person.

How do you manage your work and study life?

Actually I study for JEE. I am able to catch up with things very early. Personally, I’ve segregated the people with their specific work, so it just lowers the time taken and all. So, everything moves in a smooth manner. Everyone knows what their duties are and things like that. So I don’t get messed up with many things. I just work for 6 hours a week. 4 hours is the minimum. We’ve just segregated it in tiers. I just ask one of my junior subordinates that what is going on, and they say everything’s okay. And we have a separate person who just does the accounting for us and manages our funds. Everything is segregated, so it’s basically like a company. Even though we are just children, we still try doing everything in a specific and organized manner.

Who is your major inspiration?

My major inspiration is one of the trustees of an NGO which helps me with counselling and also provided us with some funds. They don’t help me anymore, but they did when I was in 6th or 7th standard. The trustee of the NGO is a really big motivation for me. He has helped many children in fulfilling their dreams, sending them abroad and things like that. They have their own school which gives education free of cost.

How did your parents help you with the process? Who was your major support?

My major support system was my parents obviously. They helped me a lot during this process. They were always supportive. They’d be like it’s okay, it happens sometimes that you face some minor setbacks. You need to go on if you want to do something for your society. You will face some problems but it doesn’t matter when we just need to go and help people.

What is the secret behind your success?

I just wanna tell you two words - NEVER SETTLE AND NEVER STOP.

Because I just keep trying new things. I just want to explore and experiment with anything. So I just do things like that which I can tell people, that “Oh bro, this is my idea. Would you want to work with me?”. And people initially are like “Yes yes, we will.” And in the middle of that, it just starts being a blunder. But later on I just deal with it and everything goes smooth. I don’t think I have any other secret to my success because I don’t think I’m that successful [chuckles]. Because people like that have many good things. Other than that I’d just say look at Shaurya Sinha. He’s doing a great job providing jobs to the disabled ones so that’s a big thing. I don’t think I have made a very big impact. Society has a larger number of people who have done a very good job at a very young age. So I don’t consider that I’ve done anything successful. I just started an NGO helping some children out. You would be amazed to know that even my dad had done some type of charity when he was young. But the thing was that he didn’t make it public and he didn’t want to show anyone that he did it. I think everyone does some type of charity at their own place and in their own position, but we are just organizing it and taking it to another level. We tried to give to the society, to the people around me.

Just never stop. If you don’t stop, no one can stop you from achieving what you can. Just go and get new ideas. And one more thing that I want to add is that if you want to try new things, there’s nothing wrong with that. But don’t leave the old thing you were doing. What people do and what I did in my previous year was that I kept trying new things and left the old ones.

What was the moment when you were disappointed with the society?

I’d just like to share one moment. We had just gone to plant some trees near my house. So, the person had some space around their house. And the part where we were actually planting these trees belonged to the government. There was a road passing by. So we had a cage to protect the tree too and everything we required. When we plant, we don’t spoil the stones on the footpath around. But the person got so aggressive, he was like “Don’t plant here, you don’t know if the roots will spoil my house.” I was literally disappointed with the person. They were older than me so I didn’t mess up with them, and later fled from the place. I felt like he is of such an old age and has so much experience with life, but still he isn’t protecting the environment. They are not even okay with planting those trees which give them oxygen. So, that was something that hurt me a lot.

How stressful was managing academic, personal and social life?

Well, I think managing academics was never a major thing because I never participated in Olympiads and such competitions. It was not very challenging for me because I was a studious person from childhood, and even my parents were just good at studies so I believe I’ve inherited that in my DNA [laughs]. But managing my personal life with this organization was very hard. I’m not very social, I do have a group of friends I go to school with. But I don't like people coming to my house, going to parties and all of that. I’m usually not interested in that.

And lastly What tip would you give for those who are aspiring to be entrepreneurs?

I just want to give a tip that if you really want to do something for your society, for your people, just go for it. Nothing can stop you. And every problem that you’ll face, in time it will get solved. So don’t think too much on it. Just start it.

Thank you Harsh for giving us your valuable time and for sharing your story. We will continue to cheer you on!!!