Dr. PJ Sudhakar : A Child Labourer To World's Most Educated Person

EOI

Port Blair : While taking a normal school test may figure like a can of worms to many of the commoners, here's a gentleman who revels in taking exams, endlessly amassing loads of degrees to his credit, on the trot. Meet the Additional Director General of the Press Information Bureau (PIB), Bhopal, Dr. PJ Sudhakar, who at 56, has set up a World Record of being the world's most qualified person with more than 110 academic degrees under his belt. Having started his career as a child labourer, waiter in a hotel and as a cattle boy in the fields in Pedagadi, a remote village in the Vishakhapatnam district of Andhra Pradesh, Dr. Sudhakar has 15 Ph.Ds - Doctorates, two M. Phils in Journalism and Political Science, 40 Degrees in Law, 15 in Journalism & Mass Communications, 5 Degrees in Psychology, 5 Degrees in Environmental Sciences, 5 Degrees in human Rights, 5 more in Management Studies, besides 5 M.Sc. Degrees. He holds 6 professional Degrees, is a Sanskrit scholar and a Botanist, who is presently pursuing a Post Doctoral Degree in Law on the topic, "Right To Information Law" (Doctor of Laws - LL.D). 

Coming across virtually as a living encyclopedia, a multi-faceted personality, Dr. Sudhakar says he is a Professor, social scientist, political thinker, social reformer and an effective communicator, a public relations manager, researcher, journalist, dancer, singer, educationist, economist, author, poet, psychologist, lawyer, mimicry artist, human rights activist, HRD Trainer, psycho therapist, a historian and the list is eternal. He is also a qualified Hindi and English typist. "Learning has no side effects, it is a lifelong process. I will be the only person in the world as a qualified lawyer, doctor and engineer. None on this planet holds three professional qualifications simultaneously," he says. His love for learning is peerless as he says he would not retire till he secures 200 degrees. He has never experienced anxiety nor panicked before exams and says, "No tension only attention, no confusion only fusion are part of my strategy to face exams. Every problem is a challenge and an opportunity to become stronger to achieve bigger goals. I want to be an eternal student and keep learning till my last breath."

The man who has acquired all his degrees through distance education, says, "You need not go to a regular school or college. All you need is a strong will power and determination which helps reach heights." Speaking his heart out to his fellow journalists of the Isles at the PIB office, here, this evening, Dr. Sudhakar said, "I've written more than 250 books and aspire to write more than 2000. I've drawn inspiration from my mother, Smt. Patnala Kanthamma for all my achievements. After working as an agricultural labourer and a rod bender in a construction company, I evolved from a child labourer to a civil servant clearing Civil Services exams in 1987 and joined the Indian Information Service." Having rendered more than 37 years of service in his distinguished career, he is a guest faculty and a visiting professor in many of the Indian Universities and a Resource Person in UGC Academic Staff Colleges and national institutions like NIRD, NIMSME etc.

And has worked as ADG (News), NSD, All India Radio, Prasar Bharati, New Delhi, as well. Currently, on his maiden visit to the Isles, the prodigy, who has won several prestigious national and international awards like the Mother Teresa Award, Dr. BR Ambedkar Award, International Ambassador for Peace Award and International Human Rights Award from UNO agency to name a few, says, "This maiden visit to these wonderful Islands is a childhood dream come true for me. These islands are nothing but heaven on earth. Tomorrow is the International Biodiversity Day and on this occasion, I think that the govt must take all the necessary steps to protect this strategically important nature's paradise, its aboriginal tribes, the flora and the fauna, the mangroves and the rich greenery, which is the lifeline of the Andamans." "I'm concerned a lot about the welfare of my media fraternity, here, who world day in and day out in difficult situations so as to make important information available to the masses. The govt must make necessary arrangements for helping small and budding newspapers right here in the islands, so that they don't have to go all the way to the mainland for every professional need," said Dr. Sudhakar, the mercurial and sensitive personality, who has his name registered in the prestigious Guinness Book of World Records, adding a thoughtful bit for the Isles' journalists, at length.