Teacher become fruit-seller after losing job, former students help him by raising ₹86,300

June 15: The outbreak of coronavirus pandemic and subsequent nationwide lockdown to contain the further spread of the deadly virus has brought life to a standstill. Many in the country became jobless. The new urban phenomenon which characterised this phase was a shift in the livelihood of people. One such incident in Andhra Pradesh found place in news headlines when a teacher lost his job and turned into a fruit seller to earn his livelihood.

 P. Venkata Subbaiah, a 43-year-old man was teaching Telugu at Narayana School, a leading corporate school in Andhra Pradesh’s Nellore town, but after losing his job he had to resort to selling bananas to make a living. Venkata Subbaiah was teaching students for nearly fifteen years. When some of his ex-students heard about his situation, they started raising funds for him. “If so many former students wanted to help me, I must have made an impact as a teacher,” Subbaiah said.

He is a Bachelor in Education (B.Ed) and also holds two master’s degrees in Public Administration and Telugu. As soon as the lockdown was imposed, He was getting paid only 50% of salary, And was told by management to bring in at least 6 candidates for admission in order to be paid his salary for the next month and has been told to continue the same even post lockdown.

However, on May 14, school administration told Venkata Subbaiah and five of his colleagues that their “performance had been unsatisfactory.” The school was not talking about their teaching abilities but their ability to bring new admission. “We tried to explain that it had been difficult to go canvassing for admissions during the pandemic as people wouldn’t let us into their houses. But they called us incompetent,” said Venkata Subbaiah. So how much does he earn now? As a teacher, his salary was around Rs.16,000, but now selling bananas, he could just manage to earn Rs.200 to Rs.300 per day.

However, his haplessness was not hidden for long from his former students who decide to take matters into their own hands to help their distraught teacher. Around 150 students whom Venkatasubbaiah had taught five to six years ago raised Rs 86,300 for their teacher. Being overwhelemd by the kind gesture of his former students Subbaiah told, “”Selling bananas is a temporary job. If so many former students from years back wanted to help me, I must have made an impact as a teacher. I want to go back to teaching eventually, even if it pays less.”