Tribal girl from Kalvarayan Hills makes it to IIT, realises late father's dream

WHEN A Rajeshwari, a Malayali tribal girl, walks on the hallowed corridors of Indian Institute of Technology soon, she will be living her own dream, and one her father held close to his heart till he succumbed to cancer a year ago.

- SUBASHINI VIJAYAKUMAR @ Chennai

A Aundi, her dad who belonged to the Scheduled Tribe community of Karumandurai, a village located 65km from Salem in the Kalvarayan Hills with a 90% tribal population, could study only up to Class 8 due to poverty and seasonal migration in search of work.

Determined that his four children should have a different future, Aundi took up tailoring and toiled hard to provide them with a stable education, ably supported by his wife Kavitha. He succeeded in making his first two children undergraduates, which in itself is no mean feat.

If he had not died in 2024, Aundi would have not only witnessed the proudest moment of his life but also the beginning of a transformation in the lives of his family as his third child Rajeshwari will make history by becoming the first tribal student from a Government Tribal Residential School run by the state government to enter into an IIT, most likely IIT-Madras.