At IIT Madras’s recent convocation, one of the biggest cheers wasn’t for a gold medallist. It was for a mother and son who walked onto the stage together to receive their degrees. 45-year-old Jigisha Tailor and her 21-year-old son Aditya Kapadia graduated from IIT Madras’s online Data Science and Applications programme. Aditya received his Bachelor of Science (BS) degree, while Jigisha earned her diploma. As per an Indian Express report, they had enrolled at different times, however a classmate who heard their story during a pre-convocation dinner requested that they be called to the stage together, making it one of the most memorable moments of the ceremony.But the story behind that applause is even more inspiring.
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Her son inspired her to become a student again
Jigisha had to leave her job in 2019 because of family responsibilities.
According to the Indian Express, Jigisha had taught electronics at an engineering college in Bharuch, Gujarat, for 16 years before leaving her job in 2019 because of family responsibilities. Three years later, it was her son who encouraged her to return to academics.Aditya had enrolled in IIT Madras’s online BS in Data Science and Applications programme in 2021 during the Covid-19 pandemic. Explaining why he chose the course, he told The Indian Express, “It was Covid time when I was entering college. So if I did a regular course from any IIT, or even MIT or Stanford, it would have been online only.”Interested in data science and artificial intelligence, he began attending online classes from home. Watching him study every day sparked Jigisha’s curiosity. With her background in electronics, she found herself drawn to subjects like statistics and computer systems.By the end of 2022, she had enrolled in the same programme.
Studying before sunrise and after finishing household work
Returning to studies after several years wasn’t easy. Jigisha balanced assignments, exams and online classes with household responsibilities. She studied from around 4.30 AM to 7 AM before beginning her day and returned to her books in the afternoon after completing her chores.She also attended IIT Madras’s live doubt-clearing sessions and stayed connected with classmates through a WhatsApp study group. Not everyone understood why she had decided to study again.“Many of our relatives would say, ‘Why are you studying now? Why do you want a job?'” she told The Indian Express. “I would tell them that I want to do something different.”Her husband, who is also a college professor, remained one of her biggest supporters throughout the journey. “There was a phase when I started feeling the pressure,” she says. “If I failed or dropped the course, what impact would that have on my children? But my husband used to motivate me and back me up,” she told The Indian Express.
Mother and son became classmates, and competitors
Studying together soon turned into a healthy competition. “There was a sense of competition, like who would score an A or an S,” Aditya told.Whenever one of them performed better, the other felt motivated to work harder. Since Aditya had joined the programme earlier, he often helped his mother prepare for difficult subjects, viva examinations and online proctored tests. Their relationship slowly evolved beyond that of a parent and child: they became study partners.
The moment neither of them expected came at convocation
They were called up together to collect their degrees.
When they were suddenly called up together to collect their degrees, that moment hadn’t been planned. They hadn’t even been sitting together that morning, since BS and diploma students were placed in separate sections. It only happened because a batchmate had heard their story at a pre-convocation dinner and quietly arranged it. “It felt like a miracle,” Jigisha says.For Aditya, watching his mother study was its own kind of eye-opener. “I saw her routine, and I was inspired. This is how you study, this is how you work hard,” he told the Indian Express. “We spent a lot more time together,” he says. “I got to see a younger version of my mother, the one who was still learning.”
Where they are today
Aditya completed his BS degree in 2024 and later joined Syngenta, first as a data science intern and then as a full-time employee. Jigisha has completed her diploma but has chosen to postpone returning to work while helping her younger son prepare for his Class 12 examinations. She is also considering going back to teaching by taking guest lectures at her husband’s college. “I now have a different background with me,” she says. “I think I can teach even better now.”
The parenting lesson this story leaves behind
Parents spend years telling their children to study hard, stay curious and never stop learning. But sometimes, the most powerful lesson comes when children see their parents living by those very words. Maybe the biggest parenting lesson isn’t just about teaching children, it’s about learning with them.Jigisha going back to studying showed her kids that learning doesn’t come with an age limit. And Aditya’s role in it flips the usual script a bit: support in a family doesn’t only flow from parents to children. Sometimes it’s the kids cheering their parents on.Looking back, Aditya told The Indian Express that studying alongside his mother brought them closer, and let him see a side of her he’d never really seen before. And maybe that’s the real takeaway here. A degree is just a degree. But for this family, it turned into something more, a journey they went through together, one that brought them closer, built a new kind of respect between mother and son, and proved that it’s genuinely never too late to start over.
