Ram Chandra did his IIT coaching from Kota.
In India, it is a tradition that when grown up, kids are entitled to look after their parent and those of who fail to do this are seen less successful in life as their parents still toil for a living
In the case of Tejaram, who hails from Rajasthan, the age-old maxim is not going to stop him from going to work even though his eldest son is working in Google and earning more than what he needs to make the two ends meet.
Twenty-six-year-old Ramchandra Sankhla, the eldest son of Tejaram and Rami Devi, is a software engineer with Google in Seattle but his father is still a laborer in Rajasthan’s Sojat two, almost 265 KM from the capital of Jaipur.
Ramchandra’s mother Rami Devi, was also a laborer but decided to take care of their 1.5-acre farm land that her son bought after getting the lucrative job in Google. But her husband is determined and still earns Rs. 100 to Rs. 400 daily by loading henna on trucks in Sojat, which is renowned for the export of plant used for dyeing.
Rami Devi is proud of her eldest son. “He was bright since childhood. We knew that he will improve the family’s fortunes someday,” she said.
Even though his son is now capable of looking after the family Tejaram is not ready to call it a day as he says he can’t sit in the home after working all these years. “I feel useless if I don’t work,” he said.
Ram who came on Facebook live to do an interactive session with students of a Kota coaching institute was quoted by Hindustan Times saying that his father goes to work despite him disapproving it. Ram who doesn’t want to disclose his salary said: “I keep telling him not to work but he doesn’t listen to me.”
Kota in Rajasthan is famous for coaching centers that give students of ALLEN Career Institute training to crack the IIT entrance examination.
Ram, who is also the product of the same institute in Kota passed out in the year 2008 after attending Class 12 in a government school that had Hindi medium. He had loaded money for his education from a judicial officer posted in Kota sessions court.
Ram enrolled in IIT -Roorkee in 2009 and got financial aid from his family in Sojat who helped him pay the counseling and first-semester fee.
“They even bought me a suitcase and some clothes to wear in college,” he said. “Later, some people from the community raised Rs 30,000 to buy a laptop for me. My father took a loan to pay the second-semester fee. I got education loan in the second year to fund the remaining course,” he added.
Recalling the days when he used to cook dinner on an earthen stove for the family Ram said the first thing that he did for his parents was to build a kitchen for Rs. 70,000 that he got from scholarship. Ram used to get Rs. 30,000 as scholarship during his three years at the IIT.
When Ram got his job in Google India in 2013, his priority was to repay the loans that his father took from a bank and from other individuals. A total amount of 8.5 lakh was cleared and the family moved to a better concrete house and bought farmland.