New Delhi: Ranjith Ramachandran's hard work and dedication has has turned into an role model today, he is an Assistant Professor at IIM Ranchi.
Ranjith lived in a dilapidated single room mud hut and worked as a night watchman for survival. His father is a tailor and mother a daily wage earner under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).
In a recent Facebook post he talks about his journey has garned over 40K likes, the picture is of the house he lives and grew up in. He writes "An IIM professor was born here". He did his graduation at St Pious College, Kanhangad in northern most Kerala and worked as a night watchman at the BSNL exchange in Panathur, Kasargod district. He graduated in Economics honours and went on to study a doctoral degree at IIT Madras, one of the premier institutes of the country.
Ranjith, who writes himself as Ranjith K. Panathur, said that he was totally desperate after getting into IIT Madras as he knew no other language other than Malayalam. As communication was difficult, he wanted to quit, said Ranjith. However Dr Subhash, his professor at IIT Madras encouraged him to continue, and now Ranjith has got a posting as Assistant Professor in the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ranchi.
"I decided to fight and realise my dream," he wrote.
In the post he talked about how he almost gave up on his dream due to financial difficulties. "I attended college during day time and worked at the telephone exchange at night," he posted.
While speaking to IANS he said, "I never thought that my Facebook post would go this viral, I had posted it to be an inspiration for each and everyone who are fighting with their backs to the wall and I wanted to be an inspiration, nothing more."
Kerala Finance Minister and a Doctorate in Economics from the Centre For Development Studies, Dr. Thomas Issac while speaking to IANS said, "Ranjith is an inspiration and from the moment he felt he was defeated, he turned his life and achieved success. He is an inspiration and role model, we have seen the likes of former President Late K.R. Naryananan who had defeated his circumstances with extraordinary will power and attained success."
He adds, "Ranjith has used education as a tool to overcome the social and economic backwardness and climbed up the ladder of success and he is an inspiration, enabler and a role model for all the young children who seeks to attain success in life and they must understand that education is a major tool for success and to open newer pastures."