From working as a night watchman to being employed as professor at the prestigious Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ranchi, it has been a remarkable journey for 28-year-old Ranjith Ramachandran.
On Saturday, he shared a picture of his un-plastered hut at his village with a caption, “an IIM professor was born here.” on his social media handle.
After his inspirational post on April 9, in which he shared his story of hardwork and determination, his story went viral garnering over 37000 likes.
Finance Minister of Kerala, T. M. Thomas Isaac also praised Ranjith, who goes by the name ‘Ranjith R. Panathoor’ on social media.
Ranjith used to work as a night watchman at a BSNL telephone exchange at Panathur in Kasaragod. While working as a night watchman, he persued his Economics degree from Pious Xth College in the district. After graduating with honors, he got into IIT, Madras. But it was difficult for him to study there as he only knew Malayalam.
Disappointed Ranjith decided to quit the PhD programme, but was convinced by his guide Dr. Subhash not to do so. After this Ranjith decided to fight and the fight he did earned his doctorate last year. For the past two months, he was an Assistant Professor at Christ University, Bengaluru.
Ranjith retraced in his post that how he nearly gave up his education due to financial hardahips. His father is a tailor and mother is a daily wage worker under tha Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.
“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,” said Ranjith.
The Finance Minister of Kerala praised Ranjith, saying “From the moment he felt he was defeated, he turned his life and achieved success and it’s an inspiration to everyone. We have before us the life stories of great personalities, including K.R. Narayanan, who attained success with extraordinary willpower and became the first citizen of the country,” he posted and shared Ranjith’s post.
“The lives of people like Ranjith, who refuse to get discouraged due to various crisis and use education as a weapon to overcome social and economic backwardness, are an inspiration to all,” he further said.
