{"id":728,"date":"2026-08-13T11:15:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T11:15:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stories.nptel.ac.in\/?p=728"},"modified":"2026-08-13T11:15:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T11:15:17","slug":"the-bitter-gourd-lesson-how-amandeep-thakur-turned-a-delay-into-a-discipline-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stories.nptel.ac.in\/index.php\/2026\/08\/13\/the-bitter-gourd-lesson-how-amandeep-thakur-turned-a-delay-into-a-discipline-star\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bitter Gourd Lesson: How Amandeep Thakur Turned a Delay Into a Discipline Star"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Amandeep Thakur<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2020, when the pandemic arrived and postponed nearly everything, it also postponed the exams Amandeep Thakur had already signed up for. Courses remained unfinished, and certificates were left in limbo for nearly a year. During that time, it would have been simple for him to allow his enrollment to quietly expire, becoming just another item on his to-do list that he never got to. He didn’t. When the opportunity arose in 2021 to take the exams, he successfully passed 6 of them in one sitting and earned a Discipline Star, a recognition that held more significance for what it affirmed about his perseverance than for the title itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amandeep is a double postgraduate in commerce and management, twice NET-qualified, and currently pursuing a doctorate from a Central University. His credentials, on paper, already exceed what most NPTEL learners bring to the platform. Yet in 2019, still a student, he found himself searching for notes on corporate social responsibility and stumbled onto a course offered by IIT Kharagpur. He signed up because he wanted material. He stayed for something else entirely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pandemic, when it arrived in 2020, did what pandemics do to plans: it postponed nearly everything, including the exams for courses he had already enrolled in. When the option came in 2021 to finally sit for them, he cleared 6 in one sitting and earned a Discipline Star, a recognition that mattered less for its name than for what it confirmed about his own capacity to keep going.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than 20 courses later, one still occupies a particular place in his memory: a course on marketing research and analysis offered by IIT Roorkee. He does not recall the instructor’s name. He remembers only the manner of teaching, precise enough that it left him wanting to teach the same way himself. That wanting has visible consequences. He now brings NPTEL into his own classroom, not as a supplement but as a standing recommendation to his students, urging them to register for courses in whatever subject he happens to be teaching that semester.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“NPTEL has given me a lot of confidence, because when you are learning through such vast knowledge, you can easily convey that knowledge to your students.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Recognition, when it came, arrived from an unexpected direction. Last year, a domain certification in marketing led to an invitation to a felicitation ceremony at IIT Kharagpur, an event his college later featured on its social media pages and, briefly, in a local newspaper. His parents, he says, felt proud. His students, watching, felt encouraged in turn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked what he would tell someone still deciding whether to enroll, he reaches for an image from his own kitchen table rather than from any classroom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

“It’s just like a bitter gourd. Initially it is not very sweet, but it gives you very good health. The same happens in education. Every bit of learning gives you a wonderful result at the right time.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

He is, by his own description, still exploring what he calls unexplored phenomena, still researching for his doctorate, still finding time for one more course whenever a semester allows it. Learning, he insists more than once, is unlimited. It does not end with a certificate. It simply continues, however long the wait, however inconvenient the timing, for as long as someone is willing to keep at it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

~written by Elsa Prasad<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Amandeep Thakur In 2020, when the pandemic arrived and postponed nearly everything, it also postponed the exams Amandeep Thakur had already signed up for. Courses remained unfinished, and certificates were left in limbo for nearly a year. During that time, it would have been simple for him to allow his enrollment to quietly expire, becoming … <\/p>\n

Read more “The Bitter Gourd Lesson: How Amandeep Thakur Turned a Delay Into a Discipline Star”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":730,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nptel-star"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stories.nptel.ac.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stories.nptel.ac.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stories.nptel.ac.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stories.nptel.ac.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stories.nptel.ac.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=728"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stories.nptel.ac.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":731,"href":"https:\/\/stories.nptel.ac.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728\/revisions\/731"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stories.nptel.ac.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stories.nptel.ac.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stories.nptel.ac.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stories.nptel.ac.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}