Milk of mom's hard work: Girl hits new heights
CHENNAI: In a modest home in Attur, Salem, nestled under a rusted corrugated sheet roof, Santhi's day begins before the daybreak, at 4 am. The 55-year-old walks to the shed, pats her two milch cows gently, and the day has been just the same for the past 33 years.
'My only dream was to see my daughter study and make it big in life.' That dream has now taken her daughter, R Rajapriya, across the world to Brazil and soon to Finland. At 35, Rajapriya is now a post-doctoral researcher in cement chemistry, supported by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) in Brazil. Another leap came when she was recently awarded the prestigious Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Fellowship 2024 with a perfect evaluation score of 100%. The fellowship, valued at Rs 2.8 crore, will see her researching sustainable construction technologies at the University of Oulu in Finland, with a six-month stint at C2CA Technology in Netherlands.
Rajapriya was just a toddler when her father, a farmer, died of jaundice. Left with no income and a child to raise, Santhi started selling milk to local cooperative societies. She recalled, 'We had four cows then, now only two remain.' With meagre earnings from selling, private schooling was out of reach. Hence, Santhi enrolled Rajapriya at Attur Government Girls' Higher Secondary School. Her brilliance soon spoke for her. By Class 8, a private school offered her free admission, impressed by her exam scores.
After scoring 1,096 out of 1,200 in Class 12, she chose civil engineering on the advice of a relative's friend during the Anna University counselling session.
Rajapriya said, 'Back then, we had no idea about higher studies. Based on his suggestion, I chose engineering at a college in Chennai.'
To cover her college and hostel expenses, the family had to take out an educational loan. After completing her BE, she took up teaching briefly before pursuing her ME in Construction Engineering and Management. Upon completing ME, she resumed teaching, this time at a private engineering college in Chennai, where she worked for two years.
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