According to a report published in The Times Of India, If you wish to know about someone who is shining a light upon others through moonlighting, then he is none other than Nagesh Patro. Nagesh belongs to the Ganjam district in Odisha. Thirty-one-year-old Nagesh works as a guest lecturer at a private college during the day and at night, works as a porter in a railway station. And in between all these, he makes some time to teach the poor students of his locality in the coaching center that he has set up.
Since 2011, Patro is working in this railway station as one of their registered porters. But the outbreak of the pandemic had changed his life. The lockdowns had halted the services of the railway and that had put a challenge on his living. Patro states that during that phase instead of remaining idle that time, he took up tuition teaching the students of the tenth standard. Patro also happens to hold a post-graduation degree in Odia.
Later on, Patro went on to start up his coaching center where kids from financially challenged backgrounds go to learn. In his coaching center, he teaches students right from class eight up to class twelve. Talking about his struggles Patro also went on to share that all that he earns as a porter he spends most of that amount behind others too. He also uses it for paying the salary of four of the teachers who teach at his coaching center.
Patro shared that in his coaching center he teaches Odia and Hindi while the rest of the remaining four teachers take care of the remaining subjects. Working as a porter, Patro earns a sum of an amount ranging between rupees ten thousand to twelve thousand each month, from the railways. From these earnings, Patro pays a salary between two thousand to three thousand to each of the teachers in his coaching center. From college, Patro earns around rupees eight thousand each month. Breaking that further Patro shares that for each of his class lectures being a guest lecturer, he gets rupees two hundred. He is allowed to take seven classes per week.
In a village in Berhampur named Manohar, Patro stays with his father and mother. His father Rama Patro is 65 years of age and his mother Kari is fifty-eight years old are both farmers. They have a small farming business of goats and sheep.
Patro stated that he wishes to continue to teach because he loves his job and also wants the poor children to get educated and later on do well in life. He said that in 2006 he was unable to appear for his high school examinations as his parents could not pay the fees. Later he completed his high school education through correspondence. After pursuing his post-graduation degree from the University of Berhampur he took up a day job in the college and at night he works as a porter.