I kept my word for my dad. Dad, I made you feel proud."
In Summary
- More than two decades later, he's now Dr Raya, having completed a doctorate in social policy at the age of 69 at Middlesex University.
- When asked how he felt about it? "Well, nothing much. It's just an achievement of a lifetime."
Needyanand Raya arrived in London from Mauritius in 1999 to complete his master's degree. He was bearing a promise he made his father - to continue his studies "until there will be no examination beyond that to take".
More than two decades later, he's now Dr Raya, having completed a doctorate in social policy at the age of 69 at Middlesex University.
When asked how he felt about it?
"Well, nothing much. It's just an achievement of a lifetime."
Now a resident of Enfield, Dr Raya came to the UK as a mature student, leaving the Indian Ocean nation of Mauritius where, he said, opportunities were limited.
'Quest for learning'
"I come from quite a downtrodden family," he told BBC Radio London's Eddie Nestor.
"My father was a barber and my mother worked as a maidservant. I worked collecting wood from the forest and picking fruit and had to drop out of school because my parents couldn't afford the fees.
"It all triggered the discipline and the quest for knowledge and learning."
He said he viewed Britain as "a land of opportunities" and "a place where you can make dreams come true."
After completing his masters degree, he was offered a PhD at Swansea University but was unable to work on it while also helping his wife Lacksoomi, who was a schoolteacher, support their family.
He said: "I had to find a job, I had to settle, I had to do everything.
"I came and started as a domestic to begin with, and I worked as a carer.
"My first day I walked into the building; a senior staff member opened the door for me and said [to another staff member], 'Under the stairs, give him the mop and the bucket, and ask him to start from top floor.'
"That's where I started."
Dr Raya met many other immigrants whose skills and qualifications were hidden behind low-paid jobs.
"Somebody who was a top specialist in cardiology in his country is still changing pads at night. He's waiting for his time to jump into the [UK] system," he said.
Dr Raya later began working in his chosen field of forensic mental health but said he held ambitions of returning to academia - which he did when his sons grew up.
"It had come to a point when you turn back, when you feel you've finished everything and say, whatever age we are, 'I'm going to start to do what I've always wanted to do in life'.
"And this is what I did."
For his PhD, Dr Raya studied focused on the post-colonial experiences of the Mauritian Creole French-speaking community.
Mauritius gained its independence from the UK in 1968 but it had previously been a French colony before the Napoleonic wars in the early nineteenth century.
"Colonisation is the same process everywhere, but the experiences in different parts of the world are always different which I find fascinating," he said.
The academic said he is continuing his research, focusing on identity and culture. By BBC NEWS
