By: Mike Ransdell

The life of Rajee Ramachandran was a parallel of opposites with the life of Prabhu Goel. One had a life of opportunity that included a PhD at Carnegie Mellon. The other had a life of limitations, including no money for college tuition. Yet, the lives of two strangers, 9,000 miles apart, would intertwine.

The bangles are much more than expensive Indian jewelry. In traditional Hindu culture, the bracelets are treasured symbols of marriage, often passed on from generation to generation. Inexplicably, though, one particular wife and mother has stopped wearing her 12K gold bangles. Family and friends notice almost immediately and ask why. She explains that she realized she is allergic to gold and can't wear them anymore. But her 17-year-old daughter, Rajee Ramachandran, knows better—the bangles are gathering dust in a pawn shop in Chennai, India, collateral on a loan.

Rajee's mom has done the unthinkable to try and keep alive her three daughters' chance at a better life—a chance that realistically they could only get with a college education, something she wasn't able to get when she was growing up. Rajee is astute enough to understand the sacrifice her mother has made. She vows to herself that someday, somehow, she'll find a way to return the bangles to her mom.

Until 1994, just two years ago, there was no hint that she would need to make such a vow. She lived a relatively comfortable life with her parents, two sisters, and grandmother in a one-bedroom apartment in Chennai. It was just 600-square-feet, plus a balcony—not much bigger than most hotel rooms—but in a city of more than 4,000,000 people, located in a country racing toward a population of one billion, the living conditions for the Ramachandran family weren't unusual. And because Rajee's dad had a steady job, the family could afford the necessities: rice and yogurt to eat each day; brightly colored saris to wear on festive occasions; insulin for Rajee's mom, who has type 2 diabetes; and tuition for Rajee and her sisters so they could attend high schools that, unlike the public schools—attended only by the poorest in India—offered an education that prepared students for college.

The modest, typical life ended abruptly when Rajee's dad came home with some news. After 14 years with the Western Transport Agency, after rising up through the ranks to become a regional manager despite no college degree, he was unexpectedly laid off. In the months that followed, he struggled to find work, always competing with younger, more educated candidates.

To pay down the family's mounting debt, he sold the family's apartment and they moved into an even tinier place—just 400-square-feet and no balcony. He couldn't tap into his retirement savings to fill the income gap. Unscrupulous money market fund managers picked it clean, along with the savings of thousands of other duped investors in India. The scandal eventually sparked the government to enact India's first depositor-protection law. But that was of little consolation to the Ramachandran family. Their money was gone.

To pay the bills, including her daughters' high school tuition, Rajee's mom took her first job outside of the household, teaching Hindi at a nearby grade school. To earn more money, she cooked meals for a family friend. But all her hard work wasn't enough. That's when she decided to pawn her beloved bangles, as well as the necklaces and earrings she had received as wedding gifts.

Rajee had been doing her best to chip in by tutoring Hindi, math, and science to area school children. The rest of the time she studied. "I didn't know what I would be doing [in the future], but I thought the only way to get off of the place that we were in was to study, and study hard. So I used to put in all my efforts into making sure I had good grades."

By the time Rajee graduates from high school, her hard work has paid off. She is accepted into Regional Engineering College in Rourkela, about 700 miles north of Chennai, to study metallurgical engineering. She knows she will find a good job after graduating from there because all of the top companies extensively recruit REC graduates.

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