Koppal: Ramesh Chalavadi, who worked as a watchman in the night to fund his studies, passed out in flying colours. He completed his Master of Arts (MA) not just with a first rank, but with a gold medal too.

Ramesh Chalavadi is a native of Gundur taluk in Koppal, Karnataka. Despite acute poverty, he never stopped dreaming of pursuing higher education. To realise his dream, he worked as a watchman at the ATM centre of Syndicate Bank in Gangavathi and would attend college during the day.

He pursued post graduation (Master of Arts) from Ballari Krishnadevaraya University in Kannada.

When parents, who are daily wage labourers, said they cannot support his studies, Ramesh started working as a daily wage labourer too.

Despite many hardships, Ramesh secured first rank in Kannada MA for the year 2017-18. He scored 1734 marks out of 2,200 with 78.08%.

In fact, he also completed BEd course while working as a daily wage worker.

Though he worked as a security guard at night, he was punctual with respect to classes in college. He is equally interested in extra-curricular activities. He is also a budding poet.

Ramesh is the first son to his parents and he has four siblings.