Kerala school dropout becomes a US judge, remembers difficult days

Kasaragod: 51-year-old Surendran K Pattel rolled beedis and was a housekeeper at a hotel in Ksaragod in Kerala.

Anybody in his shoes would not have gone beyond school but Surendran rose to become a judge in the US, a rare feat for a lawyer in India.

Nothing out there was favourable for this ambitious man on his journey to learn and become somebody in life.

Born and raised here in Kasaragod, Surendran dropped out of school, NDTV reported, before becoming a daily wager.

But there was still a burning ambition in him to study and strive to become something in life.

Surendran, recently made it swearing as a district judge in Texas, reportedly said that works he had done back home helped him complete education.

“I dropped out of school after Class 10 because my family had no financial means to continue. I rolled beedis for a year as a daily wager and that changed my perspective on life,” Pattel reportedly said.

As he decided to study despite hardships, people in the village supported him through it, paying his fees. Alongside he worked in a local hotel.

Though the American part of his life was not without troubles, the law practice he had in India helped him survive in the US.

Surendran added that he received comments on his accent when he ran for the position in Texas, making his own party less confident of his success in the Democratic Primary.

He said that no one believed that he would make it and added that his message for everybody was that not allow others to decide somebody’s future.