ALAPPUZHA: Sourav Suresh is a model for other students. The new chairman of Alappuzha Sanatana Dharma (SD) College also works to help supplement his family income. After college, the MA Malayalam student spends around six to eight hours daily at a wayside eatery (thattukada) in Alappuzha town. “My parents are daily wagers who have been working for many years. We reside in a rented house in the Municipal Stadium ward of Alappuzha municipality. I started working when I was a plus-two student of Tirumala Devaswom (TD) school to help make ends meet,” recounts Sourav.
He also makes it a point to attend all the lectures in college. After 6pm, Sourav shifts base to the ‘Sullappante Thattukada’, owned by Sunil Koya, next to the Passport Seva Kendra near the Collectorate. He is the shop’s mainstay: cleaning tables, serving food, and collecting money from customers.
He goes home to get some sleep – and that too not more than three to four hours a day – after the shop closes, around 3am. The son of Suresh Kumar and Krishnamma, of Ummaparambil, Sourav has been working at the shop for five years. He was elected college chairman last Friday by a margin of 140 votes. SFI won all the seats in the college union election. In 2019, he was elected university union councillor of the college while pursuing his BA.
“I joined the SFI as a class X student of Alappuzha Government Muhammadens Boys HSS. I was also a volunteer of Balasangam, the children’s organisation of the CPM,” he said. Sourav also holds other responsibilities as SFI district secretariat member and DYFI regional secretary at Kuthirapanthi. His dream is to become a teacher, after clearing the National Eligibility Test (NET) and Junior Research Fellowship (JRF), and build a house for his parents.