Kochi, Kerala (CU)_A journey from a night watchman to IIM Professor has been exceptional and inspiring to many others to overcome adversity in their lives. A 28-year-old inspirer graduated from IIT and currently working as Assistant Professor at IIM Ranchi. A Facebook post says, “An IIM professor was born here”, which also shows a photo of his battered tiled hut covered with a tarpaulin sheet to keep rainwater out.
Ranjith Ramachandran shared his inspirational story in Facebook recently, which received over 37,000 likes. T M Thomas Isaac, the Finance Minister, also appreciated Ranjith in Facebook for his hard work and continued efforts. Indicating that he is an inspiration to everyone, Ranjith’s Facebook name goes by “Ranjith R Panathoor”.
Ramachandran worked as a night watchman at a BSNL telephone exchange in Panathur, Kasaragod, while continuing his Economics degree at the district’s Pious Xth College. He said, “I attended college during day time and worked at the telephone exchange at night”. He graduated from Pious Xth College with honors and got into IIT, Madras, where he struggled to learn because he only knew Malayalam and felt hard to cope with English medium syllabus.
Depressed with the situation, he considered dropping out of the PhD program, but was convinced not to do by his advisor, Dr. Subhash. Finally, he managed to complete his course and overcame all the troubles he faced. He confidently said, “I decided to fight and realize my dream”. He toiled and made his way to a doctorate last year. He worked as an Assistant Professor at Christ University in Bengaluru for the past two months.
He responded to the media saying, “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”. Ramachandran stated in his post that he was on the verge of dropping out of school due to financial difficulties. He said that his father was a tailor, and his mother was a Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme regular wage worker.
The Finance Minister T M Thomas Isaac shared Ranjith’s post and congratulated him for his success. He wrote, “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 added saying that education is a powerful weapon to fight poverty. He wrote, “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”.
