Age proved no bar for various senior citizens who took away their doctorate degrees at the 90th Annual Convocation of the Delhi University (DU) on Tuesday. The university handed over degrees to postgraduate, undergraduate and PhD scholars, amongst whom various retired and non-retired senior educationists celebrated their achievements.
Usha Saraswat (71), the eldest among all who were conferred degrees, termed it a ‘lifetime achievement award’. She has spent more than 30 years in teaching and about 11 years in studying and researching on Sindhi language after retirement from the Sadhu Vaswani International School.
“It is great honour to have received the degree at such a senior stage of life. I enrolled myself after retirement as I would sit free at home. I have grandchildren. They were fascinated seeing me study 18 hours a day. They have taken lessons for this and often helped me with notes from the internet. I feel great about it. During my research work, I travelled to Pune, Bombay and several States,” said Saraswat. Another doctorate, 64-year-old Dolly Menon, an Economics professor from lady Shri Ram (lSR) College, said it was her love for education and the competition with young upcoming teachers that made her take up research.
“I complete 42 years in lSR this year and I am headed for retirement. But it’s certain that there is no age limit. love and passion for education keeps one going in the direction of this light. I will take education beyond and impart it to every individual I meet. We should all become teachers and seek to be taught for the better of human civilisation,” said Menon, happily flashing her certificate.