Kochi: A house in Kerala has been in talks recently, and for all the right reasons! Selected as an assistant professor at IIM-Ranchi last Monday, Ranjith Ramachandran, 28, has traversed a long, amazing journey of hardship and endurance in life.
On Saturday, he shared on social media the picture of his un-plastered hut at his village Panathur in Kasaragod district and wrote: “an IIM assistant professor is born in this house.’
Ranjith was assistant professor at Christ College, Bengaluru for two months when the new opportunity came calling. The Facebook image that has gone viral is home to five, his dad, mom and two younger siblings apart from him. The dad is a tailor and mother a daily-wage worker, who moved from pillar to post to fund their studies.
There was a point when Ranjith gave serious thought to quitting his studies to support the family. Instead of giving up, he picked a temporary job at the nearest BSNL telephone exchange as night watchman. He was paid Rs 4,000 every month. Ranjith joined the BA Economics course in Pious tenth College in Rajapuram. He spent nights on end at the telephone exchange, to ensure there is no power outage. Ranjith kept at it for five years until finishing his post-graduation from Central University of Kerala in Kasargod.
A meritorious student that he is, Ranjith, who belongs to the Marathi-speaking community with reservation under Scheduled Tribe, never took the vantage point for his academics.
He went on to pursue PhD from IIT-Madras, where he described himself as someone who barely knew how to speak English. “At IIT, I could not speak English. I even contemplated quitting PhD. My guide, professor Subhash, reminded me of how unwise it would be to leave. I started nurturing the dream of becoming a teacher at IIM, ” he said during an interview with News 18.
Now, Ranjith aims to be a good teacher at IIM and wind up his career at Christ university.