Kochi: Girl climbs rooftop for better connectivity

Kochi: For hours, Fifth year BA English student Namitha Narayanan sat on the tilted roof of her two-storey house, attending online classes. She was almost oblivious to the curious gaze of bystanders.

Since the coronavirus forced colleges to shut down, students have been resorting to online classes to cover the syllabus. Namitha found the rooftop of her house at Areekkal the only place with a signal good enough to attend online lectures.

"We tried all places in my house, including verandas and roofs. And finally I got fairly good signal strength on the top of our two-storey house," she was quoted as saying by The Hindu.

Namitha is a student of KMCT Arts and Science College, Kuttippuram.

Namitha's father, an employee at Kottakkal Arya Vaidya Sala and her mother, a teacher at GMLP school, Malappuram, supported her decision to climb to the rooftop to attend online classes, even if it meant breaking a few tiles.

"Rain is not an issue, but thunder and lightning are. Like me, there are many students without good connectivity. Several of them are trying out different alternatives," Namitha told The Hindu.

Namitha's father said they had approached several mobile phone operators to provide better connectivity but lack of cable availability couldn't make it possible.