The trade union camp here is upbeat, celebrating a rare achievement of a co-worker.
K.K. Ajayakumar, a headload worker and joint secretary of the Headload and General Workers Union (CITU), at Kumbazha-North, near here, has secured PhD in Sanskrit.
Talking to The Hindu , Mr. Ajyakumar said his passion to learn Sanskrit began in his childhood when he used to accompany his mother E.K. Kalyani, a retired schoolteacher, to Bhagatha Saptaham venues at village temples. The little boy’s curiosity in Srimad Bhagavathom gradually made him a fairly good reader of religious texts.
After completing his pre-degree course at Catholicate College in Pathanamthitta, Mr. Ajayakumar joined the regional centre of the the Sri Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit at Vanchiyoor in Thiruvananthapuram to secure BA and MA degrees in Sanskrit.
After completing his MA, Mr. Ajayakumar returned to his home village of Kumbazha to continue his previous vocation as headload worker. Being the local leader of the Headload and General Workers Union (CITU), Mr. Ajayakumar believed in the dignity of labour and hence considered no job menial. Loading and unloading logs of wood was his main vocation there.
Mr. Ajayakumar did his registration for PhD under G. Ramamurthy in Thiruvananthapuram in 2003. However, he could start serious research work only after a few years owing to the prolonged illness of his son. Mr. Ajayakumar decided to take a break from the vocation and spend more time on his research work later.
And the university awarded PhD to the Dalit headload worker in August for his thesis on `Kiranavali’ written by Udayanacharya.
Now, he is back to the CITU camp at Kumbazha to continue his role as joint secretary of the union’s local unit.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) district unit has felicitated Mr. Ajayakumar.
‘‘At this age of 48, despite being a Dalit, I am unable to get a government job. I will be happy to work as a guest lecturer at a college,’’ said Mr. Ajayakumar, who at present takes tuition at a village centre at Kumbazha.
