By: Nazrul Rapail
Student of Bachelor of Arts (Malay Language and Linguistics)
SERDANG, March 23 - Piragathiswaran a/l Sashi Kumar, 25, has successfully completed a Bachelor of Communication from the Faculty of Modern Languages ​​and Communication (FBMK) through the executive programme (part-time) at the last session of the Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) Convocation Ceremony today.
The eldest of the two siblings managed to complete his studies despite facing financial difficulties.
Hailing from Raub, Pahang, he lives with his grandparents and his sister, S. Suwajhoti, 22. His parents had separated, causing him to start living independently and generating his own income while at UPM.
Piragathiswaran spent a lot of time doing various part-time jobs to sustain his life during his studies.
“The hardest thing to forget was when I was working on installing the canopy at noon, where the iron was quite hot, and I was inexperienced in doing work like this. I cried during the first time working because it was very challenging for me,” he said.
Piraghatiswaran also used to work as a shop assistant and in customer service around Raub. Apart from that, he also worked in an iron factory and lasted for a year while studying.
Then, at the end of 2019, his grandfather died of colon cancer. The situation made it even more difficult for him, and he almost gave up on studying.
Her grandmother also had to sell nasi lemak and send them to several shops every day.
"In the morning, I would go to several shops to deliver nasi lemak that my grandmother made, and then in the evening, I would help my grandmother buy business necessities," he said.
Previously, his mother worked as a security guard and did help in giving money to Piragathiswaran. Now his mother had moved to Singapore due to difficulty finding a job during the pandemic time, and she also wanted to earn a higher income.
Piraghathiswaran admitted that there were some challenges he had to face before attaining a degree today.
“Every day, I will get up at four in the morning to complete the assignments given by the lecturers. Similarly, at night I will spend a bit of time doing the overdue tasks, and the rest of the time, I will go out to work. "
"For me, we can have what we desire, but we need to put in efforts and work harder to achieve that,” he said. - UPM
