From night watchman to IIM Asst Professor- the remarkable journey of Ranjith Ramachandran
Kasaragod, Apr 11: 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.
"An IIM professor was born here," reads his post on Facebook, along with a picture of his dilapidated tiled hut covered with a tarpaulin sheet to prevent rainwater from seeping in.
His inspirational April 9 post in which he shared his story, went viral, garnering over 37,000 likes.
Finance Minister T M Thomas Isaac also took to Facebook to congratulate Ramachandran, who goes by the name 'Ranjith R Panathoor' in the social media, saying he is a source of inspiration to everyone.
Ramachandran was working as a night watchman at a BSNL telephone exchange at Panathur in Kasaragod, while he pursued his Economics degree from Pious Xth College in the district.
"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.
"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.
The Finance Minister in his post, praised Ramachandran, saying "From the moment he felt he was defeated, he turned his life and achieved success and it's an inspiration toeveryone.
We have before us the life storiesof great personalities,including K R Narayanan, who attained success with extraordinary willpower and became the first citizen of the country," he posted and shared Ramachandran's post.
"The lives of people like Ranjith, who refuse to get discouraged due to various crisisand use education as a weapon to overcome social and economic backwardness, are an inspiration to all," he said.
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MP cruise boat tragedy: Search ops expanded to trace four missing passengers
Jabalpur (PTI): Army divers and disaster response teams on Saturday expanded their search at Bargi Dam in Madhya Pradesh to locate a man and three children still missing after the cruise boat tragedy that claimed nine lives two days ago, officials said.
With 28 of the 41 identified passengers onboard the ill-fated cruise boat rescued safely, police are preparing to register an FIR in connection with the accident that occurred at the reservoir in Jabalpur district on Thursday evening, they said.
The search radius has been expanded to 5 km in the backwaters of the Bargi Dam, located downstream of the Narmada River, area sub-divisional officer of police (SDOP) Anjul Ayank Mishra told PTI.
Nine people drowned in the incident, while 28 were rescued, and efforts are ongoing to trace the missing persons, he said.
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According to the police, more than 200 rescuers, including around 20 Army divers airlifted from Agra, began the search operation at 5 am on Saturday to trace Kamraj, an employee of the Ordnance Factory in Khamaria, his son Tamil (5), Vijay Soni (6) and Mayuram (5).
Mishra said that an inquest case has been registered and the post-mortem of nine deceased persons has been completed.
"Our priority is to search for the missing persons. We will soon register an FIR," he said.
Investigators have said that CCTV footage near the boarding point showed 43 people heading towards the ill-fated boat, and the names of 41 persons, who boarded the vessel, have been ascertained so far.
Collector Raghvendra Singh confirmed that a search is underway for four missing persons.
The rescue operation, being carried out by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and local divers, was briefly affected around 9 am due to strong winds.
The state government on Friday ordered a probe into the incident and dismissed three crew members after survivors alleged negligence and safety lapses, including failure to provide life jackets.
The government also banned the operation of similar vessels in the state.
The boat, operated by the state tourism department, sank during a sudden storm around 6 pm on Thursday, and the wreckage was retrieved from the dam water on Friday, after the rescuers confirmed that there were no more bodies inside.
Eyewitnesses have said that strong winds made the water choppy, prompting passengers to raise an alarm and ask the crew to steer the vessel towards the riverbank.
A survivor alleged negligence by the crew and described a last-minute scramble for life jackets.
