When Ramjal Meena first stepped into Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) as a security guard in 2014, he had no clue he will enrol in the same university as a student some day. Last week, the 34-year-old first-generation learner from Rajasthan’s Karauli cracked the JNU entrance examination for admission into BA Russian (Hons).
“What makes JNU different is that people here do not believe in social hierarchy. Everyone — teachers and students — encouraged me; now they congratulate me. I feel like I have become famous overnight,” Meena said.
Son of a daily wager, Meena attended a government school in his village Bhajera. However, he had to discontinue his education later. “The nearest college was 28-30 km away. Moreover, I had to work to help my father too,” he said.
But the grit to learn never left him. Last year, he graduated in Political Science, History and Hindi through distance learning from Rajasthan University.
Read more of this story of determination in a report by Fareeha Iftikhar published in Hindustan Times... (Link given below)
