From a night watchman earning a pittance to graduating from the hallowed portals of IIT and now an Assistant Professor at IIM, Ranchi, it has been a remarkable journey for 28-year-old Ranjith Ramachandran, inspiring many to fight adverse circumstances in their lives.
Ramachandran uploaded a post on Facebook which reads “An IIM professor was born here”, along with a picture of his dilapidated tiled hut covered with a tarpaulin sheet to prevent rainwater from seeping in.
Ranjith, in his Facebook post, talked about the struggle of managing his college and job together “Due to some luck, I got the job as a night security officer at the Telephone exchange in Panathur. During the day times, I would study. The doors opened in front of me for the academic career that I thought I had lost once…” he said.
“I decided to fight and realise my dream,” he wrote.
Fight he did and earned his doctorate last year. For the last two months, he was an Assistant Professor at Christ University, Bengaluru.
“I never thought the post would go viral. I posted my life story, hoping that it would inspire a few others. I want everyone to dream good and fight for their dreams. I want other people to get inspired from this and find success,” he told reporters.
Ramachandran recalled in his post that he nearly gave up his school education due to financial hardships. His father is a tailor and mother, a daily wage worker under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.
I attended college during day time and worked at the telephone exchange at night,” he posted.
Graduating with honours, he got into IIT, Madras, where he found it difficult to study as he knew only Malayalam. Despondent, he decided to quit the PhD programme, but was persuaded by his guide Dr Subhash not to do so.