On either side of that lane sit vendors who sold threads of cotton and vegetables and flowers straight out of the garden. To its extreme end stood a building which once saw hundreds of people go in and come out of it every day five years ago. It is Tirupur's old collectorate. After years of past glory disappeared, it remained abandoned, turning lively only during occasional government events.
But today, the building is lit right from 4 am, with around a hundred young people walking in and out, with books and pens in their hands. All of them aspire to crack the TNPSC examinations and secure a safe job. For the past couple of years, these aspirants gather in the old collectorate, where they indulge in group discussions and help each other prepare to ace the examinations. This has, in fact, created new hope to the students in Tirupur, a city that has very few coaching institutes.
It all began two years ago, when M Srinivasan, who is now a surveyor in Department of Survey in Dharapuram started a study circle with his friends. The word spread and the study circle saw more students coming in every day. There are no teachers and all the teaching here happens for free. Remember how the group study sessions on the night before the exams helped you grasp the lessons better? What happens here is something similar. "This study circle helped me ace the examinations last year. Old students also make regular visits to help us with the subjects," says Om Shakti, who works as a Village Administrative Officer in Tirupur.
The initiative is supported by the district's employment department and the collector, Dr KS Palanisamy IAS, is more than excited about it. "We are trying our best to provide more study materials to these enthusiastic students," he says, adding, "We also organise lectures for these students." He expects to see more aspirants from the district occupy positions in the state government soon. Right now, 50 members of the Old Collectorate study circle have cleared the Group-IV exam and are awaiting counselling. This year, a total of 6,26,726 appeared for the TNPSC Group II examinations that were held recently.
(With inputs from Deepak Sathish)