KOTTAYAM: Sindhu and her daughter Nandana are great friends not only at home but also at college. This mother and daughter, who are studying together in the same class, are stars of Thalayolaparambu Devaswom Board College. They both are first-year Malayalam students of the college.

48-year-old Sindhu is happy to have joined the same college she attended three decades ago. She is thrilled to resume her studies which got interrupted after her predegree class. She is enjoying studying with children who are of her daughter's age. Some classmates call her mother, while some call her 'chechi' (elder sister). Some even fondly call her 'Sindhoos'. The teachers are of the opinion that the 48-year-old student, who is older than them, is smart in her studies. Sindhu is the wife of Ernakulam Maneedu native Jayachandran.

The second coming of IV Sindhu to the college was coincidental. When Jayachandran and Sindhu decided to send Nandana to Thalayolaparambu for higher studies, they found the travel woes as a major challenge. Sending her only daughter to a distant college made Sindhu very unhappy. She subsequently resolved the matter by choosing to join the same college as a student. Her family and husband supported her choice as well.

The college quickly recognized the mother and daughter studying together in the same class. No generation gap affected Sindhu. She is a mother, sister and friend to all her classmates. Sindhu says that she now has 30 children apart from Nandana.