The grin on K. Ramesh’s face is wider than any the Cheshire cat ever managed. Midway through the interview, I announce to him that the photographer will arrive anytime and we should head out into the sunlight for a shoot, and he begins to grin.
“No photographs of me,” he says in a tone that lies somewhere between politeness and firmness, and thrusts a magazine, which carries an article about his work of shepherding youngsters who battle financial difficulties in their pursuit of higher education.
The writer of that piece had also come up against Ramesh’s obdurate, cast-in-iron no-photos policy and recorded it for his readers. “He is not alone. Every time I give an interview, I say ‘no’ to photographs. On every occasion, I have had my way,” says Ramesh.
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With anybody else, this would come across as arrogance. With a cladding of childlike simplicity and self-effacing honesty, Ramesh however escapes being judged harshly for this. “I get people to sponsor these youngsters for their higher education. They are doing the job. I cannot take credit for it. I am just an instrument. At events related to my work, I avoid the dais and also getting photographed. I am not always successful: sometimes, I am in the wrong place and the camera catches me,” says the 35-year-old founder of Mugavari Foundation, which has helped 210 students get higher education since its informal inception in 2003.
“Out of them, 22 are medical students. Twenty are from Anna University. There are students in many other major colleges of Chennai, including SRM, Loyola, MCC and Queen Mary’s,” says Ramesh.
Having found jobs, some of the beneficiaries have returned to the Foundation with thankful hearts and made a commitment to contribute 7 percent of their salaries to it. They constitute a group called Vaanavil (rainbow).
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Ramesh has brought along A. Ragupathi, the Foundation’s first Vaanavil member. “It will be apt if he is photographed. He epitomises the success of the initiative,” says Ramesh.
Ragupathi hails from the same village as Ramesh – Arathi Agaraharam, Athur taluk in Salem. He had scored 1010 marks in his twelfth board exams, and Ramesh took him under his wing, finding sponsors to help him through a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in chemistry. At present, Ragupathi is into doctoral studies in chemistry at National Tsing Hua University (NTHU) in Taiwan.
The majority of the beneficiaries had performed well at school, some finishing with a flourish, scoring heavily in the 12th Board exams.
The very first student Ramesh helped to find a sponsor, Kasthuri, also from Arathi agraharam, scored 1136 marks in her board exams. When Ramesh discovered that lack of money had forced her to relinquish her dream of becoming a doctor, he began to frantically look for a sponsor. He approached film director A.R. Murugadoss, who heartily agreed to provide financial support to the medical student. Through the five years, he met the costs of education.
This was back in 2003, and seeing that he had helped a student study medicine, many others from his village sought his help to find sponsors for their education. With the word spreading about Ramesh’s kindly service, more people flocked to him.
In an irony, he got sidetracked from his pursuit of chartered accountancy (CA) by the growing commitment to find sponsors for others’ higher education. He had completed CA Intermediate and with that qualification, he found a job. In 2006 he named his initiative Mugavari and was supporting a few students for whom he had found admission in colleges across Chennai. The going was not good and Ramesh found himself entertaining thoughts of giving up on the mission. It took an impassioned talk by one of the beneficiaries of the Foundation’s work for Ramesh to change his mind.
Ramesh says, “Vetrivel, who studied at Loyola college and subsequently passed Group 2 of TNPSC, told Ramesh, ‘There are many who can do CA, only a few have a heart to serve others. You have to continue doing this.’ The talk gave me a lot of confidence.”
Ramesh changed his mind and things began to fall in place. In 2007, Ramesh’s work caught the attention of ‘Sadai’ Duraisamy. “He provided me and the students food and a place to stay, in Velachery. These are students who could not afford hostel fees or independent accommodation. I continue to stay here with a set of students.”
Over the years, Ramesh has built of body of supporters who sustain Mugavari Foundation. He says, “There are around 100 people who offer financial support, around 40 per cent of them regularly and the rest off and on.”
For details, go to>mugavarifoundation.org