PUDUCHERRY: S Saravanakumar and his brother S Palaniraj started selling chickpeas (channa) on the beach in the evenings in 1999. They needed to fund their education and to feed a family of eight after their father S Subramanian quit his job as a salesman in a textile showroom due to poor health.

Eleven years down the line, Saravanakumar had completed MA, MPhil and BEd, and joined a government college as a trained graduate teacher. Palaniraj, who continues to sell chickpeas, is pursuing a PhD in Tamil from Pondicherry University.

The PhD scholar, who receives university stipend of 8,000 per month since he joined the programme in 2010, completed his junior research fellowship last year. He will shortly receive a stipend of 16,000 per month but he’s reluctant to stop selling chickpeas.

“We have to repay huge loans that we took to get our three sisters married,” Palaniraj said. “We use most of my brother’s salary and whatever profit I make to pay installments for the loans. And why should I stop selling chickpeas? I believe that if a person takes up any occupation with genuine interest, he is bound to be doing service to society.”

Unlike many research scholars, he has to devote part of each day to purchasing peas, oil and flour and other condiments.

“Whoever is free at home prepares chickpeas. Sometimes I do myself when I get home early,” Palaniraj said. “I go down to the beach road and start selling chickpeas by 5.30pm. I usually wind up before 11pm.” He earns around 200 a day.

After completing a BA in Tamil, Palaniraj joined MA in Pondicherry University, where he completed MPhil and enrolled in the PhD programme in 2010. Palaniraj is researching Sittrilakkiyam (minor literary genres) on 12 Alvars (Vaishnavite sages of the 6th to 12th century AD). His MPhil thesis was on the use of similes in Kurunthogai, a classical Tamil poetic work by numerous authors written between 5th and 7th century AD.