Barua earns a meagre Rs 5,000 per month and recently completed his post-graduation degree in mathematics from Jabalpur’s Rani Durgavati University. In 1996, he graduated with a Master’s degree in Archaeology but he always wanted to study Maths and earn a master’s degree in the subject.

He was very passionate about completing the course. It took him 23 failed attempts over a period of 25 years to finally crack the exam. But his focus and dedication were unshakeable. For 25 years, he worked as a security guard by the night and as a house help by the day to earn a living for himself and pay for his education.

In an interview with NDTV, Barua said, “Earlier, I studied a lot from books in English. I studied with the help of a dictionary. Except for one subject, I kept failing in the rest. But in 2021, I finally passed. For the finals, I studied from a book written by an Indian author and passed in one go.”