The story of Byju’s
Tags: Education, Humour, Family, Humor, Startup

Before we start reader, I would like to say for those who don’t know what the word “PRICK” in an informal way means? It means being a jerk or stupid. Now don’t think much why I wrote this. Don’t try to be a prick.

“One more second and I will snatch that thing from you”, said Mr Ramesh to his son who was intently watching the mobile. Pratik, who was 18 years old gave the best answer. He ignored Mr Ramesh. This made only Ramesh more angry. He was about to snatch the phone. Pratik knew what was coming. So he quickly flashed an image from his mobile in front of his father’s eyes. Ramesh stared at it for a while. Disbelievingly he spoke, “How did you get our neighbour Mrs Revathi’s photo?”

“ Just care about the money dad, don’t think from where it came.”

“You are saying phrases to me. GREAT!”

Somehow Mrs Revathi had incredibly calmed the atmosphere. Suddenly out of nowhere, Mrs Ramesh barged in. Seeing his wife, Ramesh quickly signaled pratik to hide the image. But pratik started rubbing his thumb on his index finger signalling something. To Ramesh’s shock, his son was asking him money to hide the image. Ramesh knew that there was no time and so he flipped a 500 rupee note into pratik’s hand. Sunita, Ramesh’s wife couldn’t digest this scene and asked in a disgusting manner to Ramesh, “ You came here to shout at prick and…..” pratik cut her in the middle and said, “For God’s sake,call me pratik”. Sunita had nicknamed and shortened his name from pratik to prick. Sunita continued, “…..you give prick ( ah! you thought women listen...) money instead of snatching away the phone”. Dad had been living with mom for 15 years. He knew to play his game. He chuckled and said, “ Yeah!…I gave him money because….”, he stopped during mid sentence and stared at Sunita for a second and said,” Wait. This saree is looking great on you” He glanced at pratik, who didn’t understand initially ( Trust me. He was really a prick). After some seconds, he understood and looked towards his mom and said, “Yes mom…you look gorgeous in this saree”. Sunita blushed. Changing the topic further Ramesh said, “ Why you came rushing here?”. Sunita replied, “ Mrs Revathi has come home to give us Prasad( Sweet). This time Ramesh blushed.( For him, Revathi was the real prasad). Sunita understood his blush and eyed him suspiciously. Ranesh knew her suspicion and he replied calmly, “ Oh! Don’t doubt me. I am a one woman man and besides, Revathi looks like an old woman.” Sunita chuckled and said, “ Is that so? You say like you are very young.” Ramesh laughingly said, “ Hey I am very young. I am just sixteen.” Saying this, Ramesh and Sunita went out of their room to take their respective prasad.

The next morning Pratik was searching something vigorously in the home. When his parents inquired, Pratik said he had lost his mobile and found a note under his pillow. He showed the note to his parents, on which was written

“ THE THEF"

Pratik thought somebody would have misspelled the word THIEF

And underneath the note in tiny letters were written

“Somebody younger than you”

In such detective situations, women’s brain work at an amazing speed. She quickly said, “ That notorious Rick in our neighborhood has done this. He is just 2 years younger than Prick.” Pratik started to interrupt for his name when Ramesh said, “ You are really a prick. You can’t even keep your mobile safely”. Sunita said, “ I will right away bring your mobile Prick and will complain his mother ( 2 seconds of complain and then…..gossiping) You just wait here and I’ll be back”. She quickly went into her room and applied makeup(Obviously, Mobile was the last priority)and went away.

Then Ramesh saw the grief stricken face of Pratik and said, “Its okay. What was so important in that mobile to worry?”

“ Dad….its not about phone. I will just miss my Byju’s for few days.”

“Byju’s. What is that? Is that any juice ordering app?”

“No dad. Then pratik started telling about Byju’s

1.What is Byju’s app?

Byju’s is an online platform to educate the students. It teaches subjects of classes from 4 to 12. It also trains students for preparing various entrance exams like JEE, NEET, CAT etc.

( If anybody from China out there thinks who keeps the name of an exam as CAT, then I just want to say to them, “ Who the hell eats the meat of a CAT")

2. Who founded Byju’s?

Now this is a really interesting story. Byju Raveendran was an Engineer and one day some of his friends came to him to prepare for CAT exam. Byju was an intelligent man and he knew all the shortcuts to pass the entrance. He made them prepare and also he too gave the exam. He got 100% in the exam. And here comes the interesting part. Byju refused to go to IIM because he was passionate about teaching. ( Like who rejects IIM man!). But Passion is Passion dear reader. He started taking offline classes. This was going well for him. Then he got an idea and made an app(BYJU’S) with the help of his friends who had now been graduated from IIM and then the rest is history. This is the story of the teacher Byju Raveendran.

Every parent wants for their child a great teacher. But no parent wants to make their child a teacher.

3. What is the business model of Byju’s?

Byju’s is based on freemium model. A freemium model is something in which some features are free and some features are paid. Talking about the income of Byju’s, it makes its net income from the annual subscription it takes from its user. Byju’s also sells variety of courses.

( Byju’s gives online platform for all courses like physics, mathematics etc. But long before the arrival of Byju’s, people had already found an online platform for biological courses)

Of course, pratik didn’t recited the content in the brackets. Suddenly out of nowhere Sunita came in. (Throughout the whole story, she has been coming in every scene suddenly only. I really think Sunita has some peace issues). Her makeup face looked sad. She then anxiously said, “ Rick doesn’t have your phone Prick. I gave him a third degree torture but he kept denying.” Pratik had a smile on his face and then he sighed and said, “ I have found the culprit”. Both Sunita and Ramesh asked in unison, “who”. Pratik turned towards his dad and said, “Its you dad”. Ramesh was shocked and then said, “How can you say its me?”

“oh! common dad. This note clearly says that it is done by somebody younger than me.”

“ Do you think I am younger than you?”

Pratik chuckled and said, “ Of course dad. You are young. You are just 16. Don’t you keep saying it?”

Ramesh knew Pratik had a point but still he countered by saying, “ But that really does not prove anything.”

Pratik made a grim face and said, “ Okay dad. Just spell the word THIEF”

Ramesh cleared his throat as though he was about to sing and spelled, “ T, H,E,F”. Pratik then laughed loudly and said, “ Its wrong dad. Its T,H,I,E,F. I do know that your English sucks.” Ramesh knew that the game was over. He then said, “ I really had to do this son for 2 reasons. The first reason is that I was really fed up by the way you were using your mobile. But when I heard about this Byju’s thing, I am very proud of you that you spend your time on such things.” Pratik smiled and said, “Thank You Dad” and then he added, “What is the second reason Dad?”. Ramesh turned towards Sunita and said, “I think I heard the doorbell ring. Can you please go and check?” Sunita at once went away because she knew that his husband would not say words like “please” to her everyday. Ramesh then towards Pratik and said, “ The second reason is that you had the photo of Revati in your ………..” to which Pratik said, “ You can’t be serious dad.”