The 2011 winner of the ₹5 crore jackpot in the popular television programme Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) season-V will soon be working as a government school teacher.
Sushil Kumar is among those who cleared the Bihar’s Teachers Eligibility Test (TET), the results of which were announced on Thursday.
“I only got ₹3.6 crore of the prize money after taxes,” he told The Hindu over the phone from his home in Hanuman Gadhi area of Motihari in East Champaran district.
But what did he do with all that money?
“Let me be clear... I have never been after money,” he said. “I want a peaceful life... a quiet life, reading good books, doing a little social work and playing music, all of which I continued to do even after winning the KBC jackpot,” he said.
He had used a part of the prize money to build a double storied house, where 19 members of his family live together. Mr. Kumar has five brothers. He is married to Kumari Seema Patel and has a four-year-old daughter, Aadya.
“I also bought a plot of land in Motihari in my mother’s name and helped my brothers and a few other relatives to set up their own businesses,” he said. He himself started a cabs business in partnership with a friend in Delhi and bought some shops in Motihari town. The remaining amount he put in bank accounts, on which he earns a decent interest.
Helping hand
Mr. Kumar has been teaching around 40 poor dalit students at Machargawa Panchayat in Kotowa block, a few kilometres from his home, for free. “I enjoy teaching them,” he said.
“It was my wife who convinced me to take the TET examination, as I could then pursue my interest in teaching as a profession. He sat for the test with over 2 lakh examinees, only 17% of whom managed to pass.
And now as a government school teacher, this crorepati will be earning a princely ₹18,000 as monthly salary.
