Teja Ram Sankhla and his wife Rami Devi used to sell vegetables in a small town called Sojat in Pali district of Rajasthan. Teja Ram working in a henna-making factory, where he would load and unload cartons full of henna products. His wife too took up a job at a construction site. One of their primary goals in life was to build a house of their own. Hence they borrowed funds from a moneylender and bought a parcel of land.
Ram Chandra was the eldest of their three children and at an age when he was able to understand the hardships that his parents were going through.Ram was a bright child but his parents could afford to send him only to the local Hindi medium government school.Ram scored a merit position in class 10.However, when he scored above 90% in his Class X examination, the family could see a ray of hope.He then moved to Pali, which was 40 km from his town Sojat, to continue his studies., he got a good exposure staying at Pali and knew what he was going to do further. He now decided to prepare for the IIT entrance test by enrolling for coaching at Kota.
“All I can say is that it was all a miracle. There was a childhood friend I used to play with. I had never been to his place or met his parents. But on hearing the news of me getting into IIT, his parents came to our place and gave us a cheque of a certain amount which was enough to pay the fees of the counseling and the first semester,” Ram informs.
When Ram returned home for his first Diwali vacation after joining the IIT, there was another surprise waiting for him. One of his neighbors insisted that he accompany him to their community gathering.
“I saw unknown faces at this gathering and yet strangely enough, they had collected Rs 30,000 for me to buy a laptop,”I was a computer science engineering student. A laptop was necessary to complete all our assignments but I could not afford one. This was a pleasant surprise. I am so thankful that I came across such wonderful people in my life,” adds Ram.
“My father never begged of anyone. Whenever he needed money, he took a loan and paid it with interest. Unfortunately, our system is such that it discourages financially weak students to get ahead in life. Getting an education loan was a nightmare,” says Ram.
He finally got an education loan when he entered the second year. He also excelled in studies and won a scholarship of Rs 30,000 per year. The first thing he did with his scholarship amount was to get a moped for his father, which his father rides proudly even today. The next thing he did was to get the kitchen and toilet constructed with his next two years’ scholarship.In 2013, Ram completed his BTech degree in Computer Science from IIT and got a job as a software engineer in Google India’s Bengaluru office.
He moved to Google’s Seattle office in USA in April this year. Incidentally, his father continues to work as a loader in the henna factory by choice and his mother looks after their home.
“I am really proud of my son. He keeps telling me to relax at home but I like to work. It keeps me healthy,” says Teja Ram Sankhla, the proud father of Ram.