A RIDE THROUGH HILLS TO CHANGES LIVES

ULAGAnAThAn Vellimuthu is no Che Guevara, and his twowheeler is no La Poderosa II, but the motorcycle plays a vital role in both their lives.

- RAJALAKSHMI SAMPATH

If the bike trip through the length and breadth of South America had transformed the Argentine into a Marxist revolutionary, the short trips taken by 23-yearold Vellimuthu on his humble hero honda to and from the government school at Yelandhapur, with students riding pillion, is transforming the lives of many tribal children.

The pain of struggle, depravation, sacrifice and the value of education; Vellimuthu, an engineering graduate hailing from Malayali tribal community, knows everything, for he had been through them all. Born in Thoni Oor, Jharthankollai on Jawadhu hills in Anaicut taluk of Vellore district, the first blow in his life came at the tender age of two when he lost his father to illness, plunging the entire family into financial darkness.

Later, his brother had to drop out of school as they were unable to make ends meet with the meagre wage his mother received working as a daily wage labourer. Though the financial distress was severe, the mother-brother duo ensured Vellimuthu, who was enrolled in a government school in Pernampet and residing in a hostel for Scheduled Tribe students, continued his studies.