Watch: US Vlogger Meets Chennai PhD Student Selling Street Food

The internet is filled with inspiring stories of young Indians winning everyone’s hearts with their perseverance and determination. Despite being at odds with things in life, these men, women and at times even kids continue to work hard and struggle but never refuse to give up on their dreams.

A PhD student, who is running a food stall on the streets of Chennai while also managing his studies at the same time, has caught everyone’s attention.

US vlogger Christopher Lewis shared a video of the student, Tarul Rayan, whom he met in Chennai while exploring local food. Lewis discovered the food cart on Google Maps and went to try out some Chicken 65. In the video, he could be seen ordering the dish and getting into a conversation with Rayan.

Intrigued by the decent serving of Chicken 65, Lewis asked the food vendor about his stall and was eventually stunned to learn that he was pursuing his PhD in biotechnology from SRM University. “Google my name; you’ll find my research articles online," Rayan says in the video. During this while, they googled his name and college and came across a number of his research articles.

Throughout their heartwarming conversation, the two also spoke about a lot of things as Rayan shared little details about the local culture and the food items at the stall.

As the video went viral, social media users were left impressed by the student’s business venture as well as his academic goals. A user wrote, “Another video of evidence for education is of great significance," while another commented, “The best part about this video is a small-time guy who speaks amazing English and can understand an American accent. That smile of his made the whole video colourful. God bless."

“He is quite inspirational. He runs a stall, is doing a PhD, and is publishing articles also! Fantastic work," a comment read.

A user, while reacting to the video, wrote, “The same YouTuber went to Marina Beach and ate corn in a shop. A girl was there helping her mom and doing college. In Tamil Nadu, you can see many students doing part-time jobs and helping their parents. "

The video has been widely shared across other platforms. It has amassed over 23,000 likes and nearly 1 lakh views on Facebook.