A Real hero and Iron Man Mr. Praveen showed courage and grit in facing the situation as a Frontline Pointsman and neutralized the terrorist, saving the lives of over 150 hotel guests including foreign nationals during the 26/11 siege at Hotel Taj, Mumbai. He got four bullets one teared off his ear and other three his chest and abdomen damaging part of his lungs permanently . After this attack his capability as commando got compromised due to hearing impairment and damaged lungs , Navy relieved him from his role . Government gave him “Shaurya Chakra”on Republic day parade. Not withstanding his loss of job and pride he took upon himself to develop his fitness to overcome this shock . Gradually he developed his stamina to run Half marathon then 12 full marathons in different cities. World took his notice when in September 2017 he completed 72 Kms. Run at Khardungala pass at height of 18380 feet in 12.5 hours , where even a fit person faces challenge of even normal walking . Later he completed Iron man competition in South Africa which consists of 3.8 kms. Swimming, 180 Kms. of cycling , and 42.2 kms of running all back to back . Rotary club of Pune Karvenagar presented him “Vocational Excellence Award “ on 15 October 2018 for his exemplary courage and later his resilience and hard work in becoming an Iron man. He addressed students and guests at Garware College, Pune on this occasion , here are excerpts of his original Hindi speech translated for students and seekers. His thoughts have churned out of his own struggle in becoming Iron man , facing near death situation and loss of pride at tender age of 23 . 1. A certificate is just a piece of paper with black ink , it does not define what you are and what you shall become in life . 2. Like we inflate air in a balloon , it expands and gets capability to go upwards , similarly hard work or the attitude is the air which we can inflate in life to lift ourselves up. 3. Choose a trustworthy Mentor in life from the same field where you wish to excel . In fact Good people are waiting to meet a deserving candidate to give their guidance and see someone do better than them . It is the intensity of your wish which will make you meet a Good mentor . 4. Leave five bad friends who criticize and mock at you and Choose five better friends who are equal or better than you who will support and guide you . 5. Everyone attempts to do good or better in life but very few succeed because it is all about “ sustaining” ( not just attempting) which comes out of hard work . 6. Comparison is dangerous , by comparing you take others with you , not yourself , Important is to learn new things each day and better your performance . 7. Strength and weakness are two sides of the same coin , one side gets exposed to light and shines, the dark side is weakness which internally you have to identify, accept and work towards removing it . 8. Whenever we do not do well or fail immediately we find a scapegoat like parents, teachers, friends, resources to shy away from the responsibility . This will never solve a problem only introspection and correction will take you ahead, never blame any one , take things in your hands and face . Allegations inhibit your scope of improvement as you have already declared the verdict , there is no Option for hard work , the day you start doing less hard work , you are losing and chances are that your competitor who is consistent , is going ahead by another day or weeks . 9. Once a student got 74 marks out of 100 , the cutoff on the admission was 76 marks, he kept telling all that he fell short just by two marks . Conventionally everyone shall agree. But matter of fact is that the examination was for 100 marks and he fell short by 26 marks not two . That is the way to look at life , do not limit your performance by variable targets and cutoffs but focus on 100% always , that is the simple way to reach your goal in anything you do. Those succeed , who look at gap of 26 not 2 . 10. What is success? Passing out, getting admission, getting job ??? fulfilling dreams ?? Many say dreams are very important , once we achieve something we say my dream came true . But dreams never come true by dreaming alone , it is only the hard work , training and commitment that brings results . If you Dream it drives your Brain and Brain in turn will drive and divert you at many places, don’t know where all. But if you keep a Goal , You will drive the Brain to act towards fulfilling goal , it will fine tune your body , provide it with required chemicals to help perform your body and mind in resonance towards the Goal . Every time during my running , my brain gives signals of fatigue, rest and all physical problems and asks body to take rest , but if mindfulness is strong enough then I can instruct my brain to stop controlling me instead I can ask Brain to drive my body to complete the undertaken task . In short, Do not let the brain control your actions, But your Goal should control the brain and ask its strength to provide support and make mind , body in resonance to meet the targets . By practice and willpower you can do that . 11. Life is not a straight-line, ups and downs shall be there . Pain is a partner of life , cannot avoid it , solution is to “stay Put” stay around . 12. Difference between Success and failure is difference between 99.9% and 100% , overdo the efforts sincerely ,success will be at your feet . In this program we have our channel partner 95 Big Fm and even MES college. we had a great publicity on Big Fm , there was 3 hours interview of EX Marcos Commando Praveen Kumar Teotia and our PP Shirish Mandsorwale and President Shirish Puranik on 95 Big Fm , with this we could reach to each and every citizen of Pune district and its suburbs areas ,After Listening to this publicity on Radio city chief of Pune BJP Ajay Gogawale came to meet him and facilitate him. there was huge crowed for this function ,MES auditorium was full of people no place to sit , so many student were listening to him from doors of the auditorium.