"What doesn't kill you makes you stronger," they say. This cannot be more true than in the case of a Kerala student who recently completed her doctoral degree from Lund University in Sweden.
Bindhu Kumar Karingannoor took to Facebook on Monday to share her journey from a poverty-stricken family in Kerala's Kollam district to being a student in a foreign university.
For someone who began working as a daily wage labourer at the age of 15, receiving her doctorate degree from a prominent university, was a moment to remember, she writes. It was a moment to remember all those who helped in her journey.
"I should thank my illiterate parents, who sent their daughter to school, only because other people persuaded them to do so. My gratitude to the gods, the many people who are gods to me. Firstly, I want to remember those teachers who never hurt me with their words, despite my name consistently figuring in the list of students who defaulted on fees," Bindhu writes in Malayalam.
Recollecting an encounter with her teacher after completing class 10, Bindhu writes,
"To Johnson sir, to whose house I went on my first day as a daily wage worker. While he helped load bags of cow dung on my head, I tried hard to avert eye contact. After the day’s work, when he gave me the wages, I understood what his eyes were telling me- that he never wanted to see me that way,” she wrote.
Bindhu goes on to write about her college mates who never made her feel inadequate and a bus conductor who let her travel despite not having the money to pay for the tickets.
In the post that has widely been shared on social media, Bindhu says,
“To my mother’s employer, who gave her an extra Rs 200 for my higher education, when my mother proudly shared the news of her daughter scoring first class in tenth standard. To the shop owner who refused to take the few coins I had to spare and gave me a new pair of slippers for free to go to college.”
“To my college mates who had the good mind to pool in Rs 50 each so that I could also join them for the college tour. Saliyannan, who insisted that I keep some extra money when I go to the tour… because I was to go with girls from well-off families.”
Along with the post, Bindhu also shared a few photographs from the university.