Chennai: In a modest home in Attur, Salem, embedded under a rusted corrugated roof, Santhi's day begins at 4 a.m. before the day before. The 55-year-old goes to the dandruff, knocks her two milk cows gently and the day has been the same in the past 33 years.
“My only dream was to see my daughter and make it big in life.” This dream has now brought her daughter, Rajapriya, to Brazil all over the world and soon to Finland. At 35, Rajapriya is now a post -doctoral researcher in cement chemistry, which is supported by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPQ) in Brazil. Another jump came when she was recently awarded a perfect rating assessment of 100%with the prestigious Marie Skłodowska-Kurie action (MSCA) Fellowship 2024. The scholarship worth 2.8 billion rupees is researched with a six-month activity in C2CA technology in the Netherlands according to sustainable construction technologies at the University of Oulu in Finland.
Rajapriya was only a toddler when her father, a farmer, died of jaundice. Santhi was without income and a child to open up and started selling milk to the local cooperative societies. She remembered: “At that time we had four cows, now two left.” The private school was unreachable with lean income from the sale. Therefore, Santhi Rajapriya wrote down the government government's higher secondary school. Her brilliance soon spoke for her. In class 8, a private school offered free admission, which was impressed by their exam values.
After achieving 1,096 of 1,200 in class 12, she decided on advice from a relative during Anna University Counseling meeting.
Rajapriya said: “At that time we had no idea about higher studies. Due to his proposal, I decided to engineering at a college in Chennai.”
In order to cover their expenses for college and hostel, the family had to take up an educational loan. After completing her, she taught briefly before watching her in construction and management. After completing me, this time she took up on a private engineer College in Chennai, where she worked for two years.