Night Watchman to IIM Professor: Kerala Man’s Exceptional Journey

The story of Ranjith, who comes from a remote village in Kerala, is being hailed as an inspiring one.

Night watchman turned IIM professor, Ranjith Ramachandran

(Image Courtesy : Facebook )

Ranjith Ramachandran, an Assistant Professor at IIM Ranchi, is a role model today. His struggle to get good education and the fight to sustain himself to realise his dream is being hailed as an inspiration to the society.

Ranjith lived in a dilapidated single-room mud hut and worked as a night watchman for survival. His father is a tailor and mother a daily-wage earner under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).

He graduated in Economics honours from St Pious College, Kanhangad, in northernmost part of Kerala, and worked as a night watchman at the BSNL exchange in Panathur, Kasargod district. He went on to study at IIT Madras – one of the premier institutes of the country – for a doctoral degree.

Ranjith said that he was desperate to get into IIT Madras as he knew no other language other than Malayalam.

As communicating was difficult, he wanted to quit, Ranjith added. However, Dr Subhash, his professor at IIT Madras, encouraged him to continue.

After his doctoral degree from IIT Madras, Ranjith joined Christ University, Bengaluru, for two months. Thereafter, he got posted to IIM Ranchi as Assistant Professor. In between, he was also named in the merit list for the selection of professors at the Calicut University but could not make it.

In a Facebook post, Ranjith wrote extensively on the trauma and the tough life he had faced to make ends meet and dedicates his success to his poor parents, who had provided for everything to make him what he is now.

His Facebook post went viral, garnering more than 37,000 likes. Ranjith, while speaking to IANS, said, "I had never thought that my Facebook post would go this viral, I had posted it to be an inspiration for each and everyone who are fighting with their backs to the wall and I wanted to be an inspiration, nothing more."

The story of Ranjith is being appreciated as a hugely inspiring one, and he is being projected as a role model.

Kerala Finance Minister and a Doctorate in Economics from the Centre for Development Studies, Dr Thomas Issac, while speaking to IANS, said, "Ranjith is an inspiration and from the moment he felt he was defeated, he turned his life and achieved success. He is an inspiration and a role model. We have seen the likes of former President Late KR Naryananan who had defeated his circumstances with extraordinary will power and attained success."

He added, "Ranjith has used education as a tool to overcome the social and economic backwardness and climbed up the ladder of success and he is an inspiration, enabler and a role model for all the young children who seek to attain success in life and they must understand that education is a major tool for success and to open newer pastures."