PhD holder auto driver set to become a teacher
From working in pineapple farms and stone quarries to selling fish by the roadside and even driving an autorickshaw, Ajith overcame several challenges to earn a doctorate in Malayalam, finds Anand Raj OK
I have no qualms driving an autorickshaw, selling fish or doing odd jobs to earn a living. Every job has its own dignity and I have great respect for all professions.
Ajith answers my phone call after the eighth or ninth ring just as I’m wondering whether the number I had dialled was the correct one. ‘I’m sorry,’ he says, breathless. ‘I was busy cleaning my autorickshaw and didn’t hear the phone.’
Busy he has been, not just now but over the past few months. The 29-year-old has been answering calls from scores of friends and well-wishers since news of his success appeared in local newspapers.
Ajith, you see, is an autorickshaw driver and also a guest lecturer in a college in the southern Indian state of Kerala. But that is not the reason he is in the news. The well-spoken, confident young man is the first and only autorickshaw driver in his state to have received a PhD degree in Malayalam from the prestigious Thunchath Ezhuthachan University in Tirur.
Although he can afford to smile now, Ajith’s path to academic success was not one without potholes. He still remembers the time when as a teen he used to sell fish at a makeshift market that stood by the main road in the small town of Anchalpetty, in Kerala’s Muvattupuzha, some 40km from the major port city Kochi.
Hailing from a poor family that included his mother, Santha, and grandmother (his father had left the family when he was a kid), the then barely 16-year-old would do odd jobs to help his mother, a daily wage earner on a pineapple farm who struggled to make ends meet.
‘That wasn’t the only job I did,’ he says. ‘From the age of 13 I’ve been doing sundry jobs including working as a painter, a store assistant, a peanut hawker, a rubber tapper, a helper in a flour mill, in a pineapple farm… I’ve even worked in road construction.’
But it was while selling fish one day that Ajith experienced an epiphany of sorts. The market was close to a bus stop where students of a nearby high school would gather in the evening on their way back home. ‘Every day, I’d see boys and girls, books in their arms, laughing and talking while waiting for their buses back home. Envious, I too wanted to be like them – to go to school, to study, to have friends my age, to make something more of my life,’ says Ajith.
That night, he told his mother that he planned to resume his studies. ‘I’ll fund my education,’ he told her.
Apart from selling fish in the evening, he also earned some money working in a local quarry loading stones in trucks. Quite literally burning the midnight oil, Ajith passed grade 10, then grade 12, albeit with modest marks. ‘I was just happy to complete my schooling,’ he says.
He may have been happy but not contented; he now wanted to go to college and earn a degree. To that end, he enrolled for an undergraduate course in Malayalam, and three years later stepped out with a BA degree.
Bitten by the education bug he then signed up for a B Ed (Bachelor’s in Education) course, keen to qualify to become a teacher. Realising that the annual fees – around Rs35,000 (Dh1,694) – was a princely sum, he took a gamble purchasing an autorickshaw on loan, confident it could help fund his education. He was not wrong. Attending college during the day, he plied his auto for hire in the evenings, earning around Rs600 on average daily – enough for his college fees and to help his family a bit.
After the B Ed, Ajith’s mentor and good friend, Joby Thomas, a college lecturer, advised him to pursue a Master’s degree. Why settle for a school teacher post when you can become a professor, Joby goaded Ajith. ‘He perhaps knew I had it in me to study well and encouraged me to continue,’ says Ajith. In 2013, he enrolled for a Master’s in Malayalam. And upon graduating, enrolled for a PhD.
A passionate lover of theatre and theatre songs since his childhood, he rarely missed plays that used to be staged in and around his home town. So when it came to choosing a subject for his doctoral research, he did not have to think too much. ‘I decided to explore the enduring quality of drama songs and their relevance in popular culture,’ he says.
Fortunately for him, an extremely helpful faculty that included his guide and supervisor Professor Anita Kumari offered him all help. ‘Anita Kumari madam was a pillar of support,’ he says. Ajith admits that pursuing research was no easy task. There were several moments when he felt like giving up but his mentors Joby and Anita would encourage him to continue.
In June last year, Ajith’s dream materialised. ‘Receiving the certificate confirming my doctorate was a great moment for me; all the hard work finally paid off,’ he says.
So, what is your dream now, I ask.
‘To become a full-time teacher,’ he says. ‘I’d never dreamt that I could become a teacher and now that the path has been cleared for that, I want to achieve my dream.
‘That said, I have no qualms driving an autorickshaw or selling fish or doing odd jobs to earn a living. Every job has its own dignity and I have the greatest respect for all professions.
‘But to me, teaching is a noble profession – one that can help carve a new generation.’