This IIT Madras mom, 45, graduated the same day as her son, 21

At a recent convocation held by IIT Madras, Jigisha Tailor walked onto the stage to collect her degree, followed shortly after by her son, Aditya Kapadia. Jigisha is 45. Aditya is 21. Neither had planned to finish the programme at the same time, and neither had expected to be called up together.

Jigisha had spent 16 years teaching electronics at an engineering college in Bharuch, Gujarat, before family responsibilities pulled her out of the classroom in 2019. Three years later, she returned to a classroom, this time as a student, enrolling toward the end of 2022 in a course her son had introduced her to: IIT Madras’s online Bachelor of Science in Data Science and Applications.

Aditya had enrolled in the same programme in 2021 at age 18, after the Covid-19 pandemic shut down campuses across the country. He initially also pursued a diploma at a college in Ahmedabad, since online students were required to be enrolled in an in-person institution as well, but dropped it once the IIT Madras senate declared the online BS degree equivalent to a regular four-year course.

Restarting academic life after years away from formal study was not immediate for Jigisha. She needed time to relearn mathematics and statistics, leaning on the institute’s live doubt-clearing sessions, some of which ran past midnight, and a WhatsApp group formed by her batchmates. She kept her course load light, taking one or two subjects a semester compared to Aditya’s four, and her daily routine began around 4:30 am, with studying finished by seven, followed by household chores and further coursework through the early afternoon.

Not everyone around her understood the decision, with extended family members questioning why she was studying again at this stage of life. At home, however, her husband, also a college professor, supported her through difficult phases, her father-in-law tracked her project deadlines, and her mother-in-law, who uses a wheelchair, also stayed involved in her progress. Over time, the relationship between mother and son shifted from parent and child helping each other to something closer to peers, with a friendly sense of competition developing around scoring an ‘S’ grade, the programme’s highest distinction.

Aditya completed his degree in 2024 and interned as a data science intern at Syngenta before being offered a full-time position with the company. Jigisha finished around the same time but chose to pause before searching for a job, since her younger son is currently in Class 12 and she wanted to be available through this period. The two had not even sat together during the convocation ceremony, since BS and diploma students were seated in separate sections — their joint appearance on stage was arranged only after a batchmate mentioned their story at a pre-convocation dinner.

Wikimedia Commons/by Tester051005