A teacher illuminates the path to success through the light of knowledge, yet some teachers extend that light to society through their contributions and research. Known as the architect of the modern M3 electronic voting machine (EVM) and the voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) that transformed India’s democratic process, Prof. (Dr) Rajat Moona’s journey began in the modest town of Bareilly. Here is his story, as recounted to and written by EFY’s Yashasvini Razdan.
This tale traces its roots back to 1934 in the small town of Wardha, then home to the prominent Jamnalal Bajaj. Ram Gopal Moona, a sub-editor at Nava Bharat, worked closely with Editor-in-chief Ramgopal Maheshwari, a Gandhian freedom fighter, journalist, and advocate of Hindi. A man of learning with a deep love for books, Ram Gopal Moona eventually moved to Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, with his wife and children to establish a printing press and stationery business.
The Moona household prided itself over education and learning. All of Ram Gopal Moona’s children were highly educated, some handled the family business while others became doctors. It was in this household that our protagonist Rajat Moona was born and raised.
The first guru
As the eldest of the third generation of the Moona family, young Rajat was cherished by everyone, especially his grandfather Ram Gopal, his grandmother, and his father. “As the eldest sibling in a joint family, I naturally took on the responsibility of caring for my younger brothers—three siblings and three cousins. I would teach them mathematics, play with them, and look after them. The age gap between us stretched up to 10-12 years,” he recalls.
With his father often busy at the printing press and his mother tending to the household, his grandfather became a significant influence on Rajat’s intellectual and personal development. “He spent a lot of time writing or reading, and I was often by his side, absorbing his love for knowledge. We got up at 4 am every morning and then he would spend the next two hours teaching me languages, mathematics, science, civics, and social studies. His constant guidance and involvement in my life made my childhood very happy and intellectually enriching,” he smiles, recalling his childhood.
A natural reader, Rajat devoured all kinds of material, from comics to storybooks, extending his interests to textbooks, novels, and literature on a wide array of subjects. His family recognised and encouraged his voracious appetite for gaining knowledge. “My grandfather bought me three volumes of the Britannica Encyclopedia which were available at that time. This broadened my knowledge tremendously, far beyond what I could learn in school, on subjects which I had not even studied—biology, engineering, etc. My habit of reading truly shaped my understanding of the world by the time I was in Class 10,” he shares.
Growing up in a house with seven children, Rajat learned early the value of sharing—be it books, toys, or clothes. This sense of tolerance served him well when he later moved into a hostel at IIT Kanpur to pursue electrical engineering.
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