Mizoram's 78-year-old man enrols as class 9 student

A 78-year-old man has enrolled as a student at a local school in a remote village in Champai district along the Mizoram-Myanmar border. If that doesn’t pique your interest, here’s a fact that just might -- he walks three kilometres to school every day even at this age!

According to a report in The Times of India, Lalringthara after passing Class 8 joined Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan High School in Hruaikawn this April.

“Age will not stop me from pursuing knowledge,” says Lalringthara.

Lalringthara, now a Class 9 student who also works as a guard at a church, was born in 1945 in Champai district’s Khuangleng village. His family hailed from a poor background and struggled to make a living from a meagre income. He lost his father at a very young age and was forced to take up farming to help out his mother.

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He studied in Khuangleng till Class 2 and was forced to take a break in 1995 when his mother relocated to the village of New Hruaikawn. He had to take repeated breaks during his school days but he resumed his studies whenever he could. He enrolled in Class 5 after three years only to drop out after a while with his life’s hardships stomping on his dream of going to school.

Things were no different when he moved to his aunt’s place later on as they never bothered to enrol him in a school. He was made to work in paddy fields instead. However, Lalringthara somehow managed to pick up the Mizo language during this time.

Lalringthara’s aspirations are quite simple. He wants to learn English well enough so that he can read and write which will help him draft applications in the language. He also wants to be able to understand the news on television.