A whole campus comes together to build his dream home

Thiruvananthapuram: The entire Kerala University Kariavattom campus fraternity, including syndicate members, university officials, teaching and non-teaching staff, students and alumni, have joined hands to accomplish the dream of research scholar Ajith Kumar, who was killed in a road accident last year.
Ajith, who was fondly known as Mammootty in the campus, was just days away from submitting his demography research thesis when he met with the fatal accident that happened near the campus.

Constructing a house after completing his PhD course was a lifelong dream of Ajith and he had often shared that with his close friends. A year after his untimely demise, 75% of the works of his house at Vandiperiyar has been complete, thanks to the efforts of his friends and teachers. In a bid to crowd-source more fund to help complete the project, Ajith Kumar Sahaya Samithi, departments’ union, research union and men’s and ladies’ hostels of Kariavattom campus have jointly decided to organize a three-day 3s football tournament from Saturday onwards.

The tournament for Ajith Kumar Memorial Trophy is open to public. According to department’s union chairperson Athul S, this is the second time a football tournament is being organized to raise funds for the housing project. “The tournament will have matches beginning at 4pm on all three days and will go on into the night. Registration has begun and interested teams of five people including three players and two substitutes can register by paying Rs 500 at the campus or via phone. One time re-entry option will also be available for interested teams by paying an additional amount of Rs 500. Winners of the tournament will be felicitated with Rs 10,000 cash prize and trophy, Rs 5,000 for second place and Rs 2,500 for the two teams making it to the semi-finals. In addition to the football tournament, plans are also on the cards to organize food festivals and similar events to raise funds,” he said.

According to joint convener of Ajith Kumar Sahaya Samithi, Akhiljith Bhaskaran, around 75% of the house has been successfully completed. “We will hopefully handover the keys of his dream home by January 17. He comes from an economically weak family. His father Paneerselvam passed away long back and his elder brother Rejini Kumar succumbed to kidney failure and associated ailments. His mother Akhilandam is yet to recover from the shock and only his younger brother Siju Kumar, who is a tea plantation worker, is there to take care of the family. Kumar’s friends collectively raised around Rs6 lakh and brought a 3-cent plot along the Vandiperiyar –Kumili road. The samithi managed to raise around Rs 3.5 lakh from the campus community. The housing project was initially estimated at Rs 6.30 lakh. Knowing the struggle, the contractor agreed to complete the project at Rs 5.80 lakh. We aim to crowd-source the remaining Rs 2.30 lakh that is required to complete the project,” said Bhaskaran.