Born in Kolkata, Sandeep Tibrewal belonged to a middle-class family. He was the youngest of three children and had an elder brother and sister. He had a problem of stammering. Sandeep completed his schooling in Kolkata and then took the admission for B. Com in a college in Bangalore. After his 10th results, his father advised him to start going to his cousin’s office to learn office work.
Following his father’s advice, he started managing both studies and work from a young age. He attended his college from 6 am to 10 am, and from 10 am to 5 pm, he attended the office. His cousin owned a silk exporting business and a paper business. Sandeep worked there as a learner. Sandeep also started a trading business of supplying safety hand gloves to Birla Tyres Ltd in Odisha.
He was an introvert in school, and his constant fear of being mocked by his classmates made him more reserved. He felt shy to ask questions or get his doubt cleared by the teachers, often got tensed about his future, and had grown a fear of not getting a proper job.
Many people made fun of him throughout his school life. But Sandeep Tibrewal learned to be patient and eventually started ignoring people. Then he had to shift to Bangalore due to his father’s business. Sandeep completed his graduation from Bangalore. He used to attend college from 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm, and from 8:00 to 10:00 am, he used to go to the computer center to improve his IT skills.
Soon after completing his B. Com, Sandeep appeared for interviews. His fear of rejection made him scared to appear for interviews. Eventually, he did attend a couple of interviews but was rejected. Finally, his uncle’s friend liked his work and gave him a job. He started with a modest income. He also had worked for an NGO team. After completing his B. Com, he had already changed his job three times. Currently, he is working as Deputy General Manager – Purchase & Contracts in a construction company.
To get rid of his stammering problem, Sandeep Tibrewal also enrolled in a Stammering Cure Centre course, and that worked for him. They taught him to speak slowly, sit in a room, speak in front of the mirror, stop when he felt that he was about to stammer, and start talking again, but this was challenging for him.
Sandeep Tibrewal’s Collection
Sandeep Tibrewal’s heart was somewhere else. He often remembered how his grandmother used to show him different kinds of coins when he was young. When he was in Kolkata, there was a shop near his school which sold coins and notes. Sandeep took an instant liking to it and started collecting coins from there. He also spoke to foreigners and exchanged coins with them. Whenever any of his relatives went to a foreign country, he requested them to bring the country’s currency for him.
Gradually his coin collection became huge. He divided them into one rupee, five rupee, and ten-rupee coins. He was proud of his collection and took a significant step one day. He posted about his coin collection to the Times of India and other prominent newspapers.
In 2009, The Times of India published Sandeep’s story on page 3 of their newspaper, covering almost 1/4th of the entire page with the title ‘Passion for Money.’ The same year, the Deccan Herald also published his story. My Nation & News9 news channels took his interview, and stories were published in many Hindi newspapers. Sandeep had regained his lost confidence. He now wanted to apply to the Limca Book of Records and the India Book of Records. And guess what?
The “Limca Book of Records” published his ten-rupee coin collection, and “India Book of Records” published his five-rupee coin collection. Sandeep has 39 types of one-rupee coins and 55 types of five-rupee coins, of which 53 are still usable, and 29 types of 10-rupee coins. He has also been published on a world record for his five-rupee coin collection.
Seeing how people appreciated his efforts, Sandeep Tibrewal began collecting Indian coins of 20 rupees, 75 rupees, 100 rupees, 200 rupees, 500 rupees, and 1000 rupees too. Sandeep aims to open a museum. He is connected with an NGO called ‘All India Marwari Yuva Manch,’ which has 650 branches across India. Sandeep was the Vice President of its branch in Bangalore. He attended many programs like cancer detection camp, blood donation camp, etc.
With consistent hard work and effort, he also became the President of ‘Marwari Yuva Manch Central Bangalore’ in 2018. It boosted his spirit, and he decided to take the initiative of Swachh Bharat ahead.
He was putting some trash in his car’s mini dustbin one day. He immediately thought that people litter the roads by throwing rubbish from their car’s window, which eventually clogs and overflows the drains. Why not install a mini car dustbin in every car so that people don’t litter and maintain cleanliness on the roads?
Now Sandeep started looking for a handy car dustbin. He saw the price online for one, and it was almost 210 INR. It was a lot, so he got a colleague to illustrate the kind of dustbin he wanted to build for cars. Accompanied by the illustration, Sandeep marched to his uncle’s office, which owned a plastic manufacturing company. On seeing the illustration, his uncle said that this would be too costly and not a viable plan and asked him to drop the plan.
But Sandeep Tibrewal was hell-bent on trying out this idea. He approached many manufacturers from India and China, too, but none responded positively. He did not give up. He finally found a manufacturer, and despite having limited funds, he ordered 10,000 pieces of the car dustbin. The manufacturer gave him a quotation of 60 rupees. Sandeep was good at negotiation, so he locked the price at 40 rupees. He started buying from that manufacturer a mug with a lid in which one can throw the waste in it while driving and clean it up once home.
Even after collecting funds from sponsors and family, he didn’t have enough funds to promote this initiative. But Sandeep Tibrewal, when hell-bent, always found a way! He painted a poster and glued it on his car so that he, himself, could promote it! He would promote it whenever traveling, give free samples out of his car, and named it ‘Car Swachh Bin.’
Soon, some corporates and NGOs contacted him for this mini car dustbin, saying that they liked the idea. He had also got permission for the campaign. On 26th May 2018, he and his team Marwari Yuva Manch Central Bangalore, went ahead with his first campaign. He was very conscious of himself and was nervous at the same time because he had the problem of stammering. He had to face a massive crowd and LIVE media coverage for the first time.
He overcame his fear and spoke passionately about the cause. The campaign was a massive success as people appreciated and supported him. Sandeep was appreciated and applauded for his initiative, and that was just the beginning, and he became the National Convenor for this Car Swachh Bin Project! AIMYM has covered 19 states and has almost done 557 campaigns, distributed close to 1,11,000 pcs at traffic signals and public events. He has also requested the car companies and manufacturers to give a car dustbin by default, just like bottle holders whenever selling a new car, and written a letter to PMO to implement such rules and received an acknowledgment letter from PMO OFFICE.
On the 2nd October 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had appointed nine celebrities as brand ambassadors. One among them was the Late Governor of Goa Smt. Mridula Sinha. She had appointed All India Marwari Yuva Manch as the ambassador of the Swachh Bharat mission. Then he started promoting his mission on social media platforms also! He also met many celebrities like Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Honourable Kiran Bedi, MP Bangalore, South Sri Tejasvi Surya, Cricketer Ishant Sharma, and others who appreciated his initiative.
Sandeep Tibrewal has had the problem of stammering for almost 30 years now. But he overcame his fear of speaking up in public and achieved success on a considerable scale. And not just personally, he has gained recognition as a numismatic and as a prominent face of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan across India.
This quote can summarise the beautiful story of Sandeep Tibrewal – “Good ideas are common – what’s uncommon are people who’ll work hard enough to bring them about.”
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loved it
Very inspirational. Nicely written.