The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Making her mentor proud

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Tuesday, Mar 18, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Making her mentor proud

G. Nagaraja

Pali Lakshmi Soujanya attributes her success to her teacher’s benevolence

Top of the world: P. Lakshmi Soujanya with her teacher Paladugu Vijayalakshmi.

ELURU: It’s a triumph over poverty for Pali Lakshmi Soujanya, who came off with flying colours in the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE)-2008. Soujanya did the town proud by securing 164th rank in the GATE exam, thanks to a benevolent teacher. “I never imagined in my wildest dreams that I would launch myself into an Indian Institute of Technology of my choice given my poor social and economic background”, says Lakshmi who owed her success her school teacher Paladugu Vijayalakshmi. “Madam (Ms Vijayalakshmi) stood by me at all times extending her moral and material support”, she recalls with a sense of gratitude.

Lakshmi could have ended up as a school dropout in spite of her being school topper in the 10th standard but for her teacher. When Pali Ramamohan Rao, a small-time employee in a grocery shop with a monthly pay of Rs 1,000, failed to support his two brilliant daughters, Lakshmi being the younger one, it was Ms. Vijayalakshmi who volunteered to adopt both of them from 9th standard. “Madam paid fees, gave us books and clothes until my sister and I completed our post-graduation.

Elated teacher

“The elation that I feel now with the success of my student is more than what I felt when my son got a seat in a premier engineering college”, was Ms. Vijayalakshmi’s response. When Lakshmi and her elder sister Madhavi Latha, were studying in Kasturba Municipal High School where I was a science teacher then, I spotted a spark in the two and offered a little help with which they reached this position now”, Ms. Vijayalakshmi recalls. Lakshmi Soujanya, who completed her B.Sc. with mathematics did her post-graduation in M.Sc, said she wanted to do her Ph.D in nano technology by securing a seat in any of the IITs. “We are fast approaching an age which is posed to see materials in minimised forms and nano technology got a lot of relevance in the days to come”, a beaming Lakshmi said.

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