Monday,April13,2009
03
“I
don’t want to savemoney for my future. Iam ready to spendeach and every paisa ofmy salary for the uplift of myvillage,” says 27-year-old TCSemployee J.M. Karthikeyan.And true to his words, hetakes care of the educationalneeds of about 3,000 studentsfrom the poor and downtrod-den families of Valangaimanvillage in Thiruvarur district,and provides free training incomputers, technical and tai-loring courses for widowed,poor, destitute and adolescentwomen through Annai Rajesh-wari Ammal Memorial (ARAM)Trust.
Grandma shows the way
Karthikeyan, along with hisfather J. Manoharan, runs thetrust started in memory of hispaternal grandmother, who hesays is the saviour of his family.“My grandfather died earlyand it was my grandmotherwho struggled hard to bringup her kids. Though illiterate,she provided basic educationto my father and his siblings bydoing menial jobs. And if I am asoftware engineer today, it’sbecause of her. She partedwith her pension amount formy Engineering studies,” hesays. “And even during thosedays of hardships she adoptedtwo orphans and broughtthem up with her kids. So wethought it’s apt to start a trustin her name,” says Karthi-keyan, adding that the fundingfor the trust is from his salaryand contribution from hisfriends, colleagues and rela-tives.Karthikeyan’s father J. Ma-noharan, who works with thepolice department, and moth-er Malarvizhi, a housewife, arethe people who take care ofthe trust in their son’s absence.Manoharan says he is happyto serve others. “I want my sonto follow me. Let him not saveeverything in a bank and callhimself a rich man. I want himto share knowledge and mon-ey with others and lead a sim-ple and normal life. If he doesthat, I will be the world’sproudest father.”
Taught process
The trust provides free eve-ning tuitions to about 3,000students, from Class I to XII,everyday in 14 centres, out ofwhich 13 are handled on theschool premises itself and onein the corridor of Karthikeyan’ssmall tiled house. “We can’t af-ford separate buildings for theclasses. So we sought permis-sion from the school author-ities to conduct classes there inthe evening. The students aretaught by staff we haverecruited. Through this weaimed at giving employmentto educated girls whose par-ents are not interested in send-ing them out of the village fora job. We provide the studentssnacks before class starts, sincewe know that kids can’t con-centrate in hunger,” says Kar-thikeyan, who was a schooltopper in both the class X andXII Board exams.“I never had proper guid-ance during my school days.When I opted for ComputerScience group in Plus One, myfamily was not in a position tobuy a computer. So I made a listof my classmates who had PCsand befriended them so that Icould learn computers. Now Idon’t want that to happen tothese kids,” he says. “There area couple of computers in myhouse, which the children canuse. Every weekend I go homeand teach them computers fortwo days.” Karthikeyan’s basicaim is help these students com-plete their basic education andlearn technical education.The trust also provided foodto villagers for more than fivedays when the village was hitby cyclone ‘Nisha’ last Novem-ber.
Praiseworthy
When we spoke to P.Guna-vathi, deputy educational offi-cer of Valangaiman, she was allpraise for Karthikeyan. “Withthe job that he has, Karthi-keyan could have built a pala-tial house and bought a car.But instead, he uses it for thewelfare of his village. I am ableto witness a steady growth inthe education of the studentsafter the commencement oftuition centres. If each villagehas a person like Karthikeyan,rural empowerment is not faraway.”S. Kubendran, director, JanShikshan Samsthan (MakkalKalvi Niruvanam), Thiruvarur,also had the same words to de-scribe Karthikeyan. “Villagersare migrating to cities in searchof better jobs. They are not uti-lising the services provided bythe government. ThroughARAM Trust, Karthikeyanmakes them aware of the ser-vices provided and also encour-ages them to take up technicaltraining. We are now certifyingthe technical courses conduct-ed by ARAM Trust. When ayoungster like Karthikeyandoes so many welfare mea-sures for the villagers, this isour small gesture towardshim.”For more information onARAM Trust, you can visitwww.aramtrust.org
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To teach is
to change
A TCS employee is catering to the educational needs of 3,000 students in Valangaiman village inThiruvarur district. And the village is responding
J.M. Karthikeyan (extremeright) and his father J.Manoharan with the kids.
PHOTO: M. SRINATH
V. HARIPRIYA
haripriya@goergo.in
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