Ph.Ds for former LS Speaker, Cong leader, and an ex-dabbawala

Mumbai, Feb 5 (PTI) Former Lok Sabha Speaker ManoharJoshi, Chairman of Maharashtra Housing and Area DevelopmentAuthority (MHADA) Amarjit Singh Manhas, and a one-timedabbawala'' Bijay Kumar were among those who received theirPh.Ds at the annual convocation of University of Mumbai today.

Joshi (74) got his doctorate for the study of his ownparty: Shiv Sena. The rather long title of his thesis wasAnalytical study of the birth, growth, nature and structure,successes and failures and future of the Shiv Sena''.

Manhas, who is also a treasurer of Mumbai Congress, gotthe Ph.D. for his thesis Study of voting behaviour inMumbai''s northeast constituency election from 1984 to 2004''.

But the most inspiring story is that of Bijay KumarMaharana (40), a graduate from Utkal University in Orissa, whoworked as Dabbawala'' (tiffin carrier) for a couple of yearsafter coming to Mumbai in 1995.

He got doctorate for the thesis Yoga, a hiddenmedicine''.

Maharana said it was the confidence and the will-powerwhich his father instilled in him that helped him achieve thissuccess.

Since 2007, he is giving yoga lessons to the cancerpatients at the Tata Memorial Hospital here.