What I love about life is that you don’t have to look too far to find inspiration. As Madhu Kumar BM, my current role model says- Shahrukh said it best in Om Shanti Om “Agar kissi cheez ko dil se chaho tho puri kayanat use tumse milane ki sazish me lag jaati hai” (If you desire something with all your heart, then the whole universe conspires to deliver it to you)

The first time I met Madhu I was very fascinated to know how someone from Mandya, a small town in Karnataka, was now working with a 5-Star Inland Dive centre (Planet Scuba India)

Given how “knowing people” can help get your work done in our country, this is one young man who has come up the hard way-taking one step at a time-and is today the youngest employed PADI dive instructor in India with Planet Scuba India.

Ask him about scuba diving and this international level swimmer will relate how his first experience with diving was at the Santosa islands in Singapore. He saw a poster at the aquarium and his innate love for water told him diving is something he HAD to try!

Since then, there’s been no looking back.

With a smile on his face he’ll recall every hardship- the move from Mandya to the big city-Bangalore- where he had to live on his own and manage college and work as a swimming instructor (the youngest instructor in the city) and his own performance in swimming meets-“There were 2 people who used to always say-what will you do in 5 years?”

Today, Madhu Kumar BM is the youngest gainfully employed PADI certified dive instructor in the country.

He says ever since the trip to Singapore all he wanted to do was dive and then in 2008 he met with Madhava Reddy, CEO Planet Scuba India, the only inland dive centre in India.

Madhava offered Madhu a whole new life- the opportunity to be a a dive instructor at Andaman Diving Academy (the only dive instructor school )and thereafter the option of working with PSI providing him with the flexibility to teach swimming, as teaching has always been a passion for this fighter.

“When the road is tough its not like you stop walking. There’s more satisfaction in overcoming the hurdles” is what he has to say about his journey thus far.