MIDDLE BUT CLASS

Middle But Class: From Fields to Fortune
by Prashant Thokal

A memoir about what it really means to rise, quietly, honestly, and without shortcuts.

Prashant Thokal was born to a farmer whose hands never stopped working and a mother whose modest, fixed salary held the household together. Neither poor nor privileged, his family occupied that quiet, in-between space so many know but so few write about: middle class. In Middle But Class, he shows that this space is not a limitation to escape, it is a school that teaches discipline, dignity, and resilience long before life ever asks for them.

Across twenty personal, reflective chapters, Thokal traces his journey from a childhood shaped by his father's silent endurance in the fields and his mother's careful budgeting of every rupee, through an education pursued as both escape and responsibility, to the decision to chase an MBA against the odds. He writes candidly about failure and the humility it forced on him, about guilt that became motivation instead of shame, about the quiet trap of comparing his life to others', and about walking into corporate boardrooms as a farmer's son who refused to leave his roots at the door.

This is not a story of overnight success or easy formulas. There are no shortcuts here, only the slow, deliberate work of turning limited resources into unlimited values. Thokal writes honestly about the role education played in his family's history, drawing on Dr. B. R. Ambedkar's belief that education is not just opportunity but protection and dignity, and about what it meant to carry that responsibility forward.

Each chapter closes with distilled "Learnings," turning memory into practical wisdom on patience, integrity, humility, and self-respect. The book ends with a letter to his parents, a message to middle-class youth walking a similar path, and a reflection on why "Middle But Class" is not a compromise, but an identity to be worn with pride.

Read this book if you:

• Grew up counting both pennies and possibilities
• Want a memoir that treats an ordinary, hardworking upbringing as a source of real strength
• Are navigating career pressure, self-doubt, or the gap between ambition and resources
• Believe character and consistency matter more than privilege and shortcuts
• Are looking for honest, grounded encouragement rather than motivational clichés

Middle But Class is for anyone who has ever felt the quiet weight of responsibility early in life, and for anyone who needs reminding that where you start does not decide how far you can go.