A doctorate of honour: Preethi Madambi

Last Friday, in seminar hall of the the Commerce and Management Studies at the University of Calicut, amid loud applause after a PhD open defense, the adjudication committee chairman spoke these words: “From this date onwards, Preethi Madambi will be known as Dr. Preethi Madambi.” That is a moment Preethi can’t forget. “Never ever,” she stresses. The young woman has become an icon of determination and inspiration for fighters after the casual note posted on her Facebook wall went viral. The emotional post depicting the struggles of her father Madambi, a daily wage labourer, to educate his daughters ignoring the taunting relatives and saving every penny, ended with the sentence: Go acha, tell everyone that your girl has earned a doctorate (sic).

Preethi’s father is no more, but he would have been very proud of his little girl if he was here. “I miss him badly. I was very close to him,” says the girl who hails from Anjur, a village in Kunnamkulam. She hadn’t expected the post to go viral. “I’m not yet awarded the doctoral degree. It was just a recommendation, but that was a memorable moment for me,” she says. Her mother and sister are happy about her achievement, but Preethi says she has a long way to go. Recalling her days as a little girl who rushed home from school to show the full marks on her slate, she says, “Achan was happy that we studied well, but was worried if he could afford to educate us. That was when I cleared the entrance test to the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Thrissur, where I learned till Class XII for free. All my needs – from food, essential supplies to books – were taken care of.” Back home, her sister Silpa studied well and secured admission to an engineering college.

On every monthly parents’ meeting, her dad visited Preethi and they spent time together as he combed her hair and folded her clothes as other kids had their whole family huddled around. “He never brought amma and chechi with him so that he could save the travel expense. Among all those, we were very happy.” She was doing her post-graduation when her dad fell ill, but Preethi looked after her family by working at a parallel college. Her Junior Research Fellowship came then, as a boon. “More than academics, it was monetary benefits that prompted me to grab it. Which job could have brought me Rs 16,000 a month? It was difficult to stay away from home when achan was bed-ridden. But every weekend, I came home and the three of us used to bathe him. He loved it when we washed his hair,” remembers Preethi. All she spoke was about her dad, but the story was about a family of fighters.

Research too has been tough. She sold off her gold earrings to buy a laptop. Her friends too helped her a lot. People sneered at the girls who preferred education to marriage. She just ignored them, like her dad did, and strode forwards gracefully. She has always been like that – a motivation guru for her friends and students. Now a  guest lecturer at TMG College, Tirur, her dream is to teach. “Beyond the subject,” adds Preethi, who wants to become a professor at a government college who motivates, inspires and radiates energy. Pointing at the sad state of affairs, she says, “People say casteism is an old tale. But no, it still exists. As a Dalit, I won’t be accepted as a teacher in any aided college even if I have lakhs to pay. My name will be far down the list even if I can pay Rs 60 lakhs for a teacher’s post in a Devaswom Board-run college. Sadly, I can’t afford such huge money. So, all I can do is to write PSC tests and wait. I am waiting,” she smiles. Confidently, she voices that doctorate is not her greatest achievement. Before writing her off as arrogant, she surprises by saying, “The best is yet to come. I am working towards it.”