Chennai: Save some tears for Anitha’s father Shanmugam, who must now spend the rest of his miserable life lonelier than how felt when his wife died 10 years ago leaving their little girl in his care. The poor farm coolie weathered not just his poverty but also the pressures and taunts of relatives who had initially wondered why he tagged along the girl’s doctor dream instead of opting for the easier and commoner choice getting her quickly married away.
“Can you imagine how much of pain and pressure that poor coolie in backward Kuzhumoor (Ariyalur) must have gone through all these years from his relatives and the society to push himself through his dear daughter’s big dream? And he did that only because he had great confidence his girl will make it. The question now is why didn’t Anitha have that kind of confidence in her future and pursue some other line when Neet denied her the medical seat? Being an intelligent and hardworking student, she could have become a scientist or a district collector”, said Radhamani Krishnan, a farmwoman of Erode and mother of five, stunned by the TV visuals of the Kuzhumoor tragedy.
Shanmugam may be an illiterate coolie but he is also a progressive Dalit who strongly believed in the academic capabilities of his children and nurtured their campus lives with all that he could give. Of the four children born to his first wife Ananda, the elder son Maniratnam did MBA and another son Satishkumar passed M.Com. Both are employed in private firms. The next two sons are studying engineering and their sister Anitha scored big in the Plus-two hoping to become a doctor.
