“I am not only thinking about just what is happening in my yard.”By Leon SuseranYou will not find a more caring and thoughtful person than Dr. Veerasammy Ramayya. His name resounds positively across numerous circles in Guyana and overseas. His humanitarian work, care and concern for people and their welfare and his staunch love for children has found favour in the hearts of many. His fiery, tell-it-like-it-is attitude and the fact that he is now representing people’s interests on a national stage has renewed his vigour for his quest for social justice amidst the many issues that he is bothered by on a daily basis, issues regarding humanity that he so passionately takes up every so often. For this, even the United States Government has recognized this good man. The White House, recently, gave a commendation to the good doctor for his service.Humble beginningsBorn to Venkaya Ramayya and fish vendor, Sitama Venkaya, the Whim-born boy spent most of his childhood with his grandmother,Cheap NFL Jerseys co, Rangama Kistama, in the same home with his mother. He idolised his grandmother, “so I actually was adopted by her and she cherished me like a little prince”.Dr. Veerasammy RamayyaHe attended Auchlyne Scots School up to age 16. He subsequently went to Corentyne Comprehensive High School.“Quite honestly, I devoted so much time to cricket than my books and did not see the importance of a good education then, but after high school, I used to attend Whim Magistrate’s Court.” He related that he used to sit and watch his idol, Attorney-at-Law Marcel Crawford ‘fighting’ cases “and I thought that one day I would like to be like him”.Ramayya stated that it was his grandmother’s wish that he never work in the sugar industry or on the high seas “…so she made a lot of sacrifices and sent me to school and she always believed that I can be a person different from the family”. The dream of young Veerasammy then was one whereby he could have migrated overseas to further his education and that the doors of the US, not for him alone but for others, would open for the many uneducated people in Guyana.Quest for educationHis grandmother borrowed money and sent him off to the U.S. But before he left, she insisted that he get married here first. Subsequently, a match wedding ensued, joining Dr. Ramayya with Seerojinie Ramayya. “I saw my wife on Sunday night and Monday morning, I went to the marriage office, in less than 24 hours in 1969”. “That marriage became something to hold me down—anchored in that sense”. They were married for 44 years, before the passing of Mrs. Ramayya on Friday last.He left these shores in 1969 for the U.S with a student visa. In 1970, his daughter, Anita, was born in New York, a daughter he would lose a few years later, and this would take a great toll on him. In 1972, he, as a Non- Matriculated student,Iowa Hawkeyes Jerseys, decided to pursue his High School Diploma at Manhattan Community College. Within 18 months, he obtained an Associate Degree in Liberal Arts.“My thirst was always there for higher learning and I decided I will not stop…I remembered Mr. Crawford…I wanted to become a lawyer, so I pursued my studies at the City University of New York Hunter College and graduated”.He simultaneously obtained two Bachelor’s Degrees in Sociology and Political Science in 1977. He minored in Economics and Psychology, prerequisites to go and study Law. He later applied to the University of the West Indies (UWI) Cave Hill Campus in Barbados to purse Law studies, but applying as a Guyanese, and that campus being subsidised by the then Guyana government, he was told that he had to enlist in the National Service for two years and one year studies at University of Guyana.“I said to myself that this three years would be a wasted period—I could have gone in any direction, because I had one year Pre-Med during my Bachelor Degree, and I could have gone and studied medicine,”This situation discouraged him with his dream to become a lawyer and he felt that he let down his prot?g?, Mr. Crawford “so I was actually distracted”.Our ‘Special Person’ and his wife hosted 1,500 persons at a yajna at their home in 1986But when one door closes,NFL Jerseys Outlet, another opens. He attended evening classes at the New School of Social Research in New York where he spent two years. He graduated with a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies Degree in 1986. But he was not finished. He obtained his Doctorate Degree in Psychology from Pacific Western University in 1987 and yet another Doctorate Degree in Sociology later, using the Guyanese population in New York as his thesis. It involved social problems there.“I found myself within that community because if they had a religious work I was there…I used to be all over the place singing, helping, begging money—people go illegal in