Today is the opening ceremony of my first venture - the first of its kind - and first link of the chain - a unique kind of educational chain - that I have planned to start all across the country. This is what I think is the main purpose of my life. I think the life is full of delivering hidden messages and enabling us to dream.
Nobody would have ever imagined that I would be landing into this venture 20 years back when I was just a 10 years old boy belonging to one of the poorest families in one of the remotest villages. I was born with a soil spoon in my mouth. There was no celebration when I was born. Thinking about any celebration was beyond the reach and thoughts of my family members. My father - an ad-hoc worker - mostly free - sometimes earning a very low amount in lieu of temporary kind of jobs. My mother - a lady who never became young, she had to mature up very fast the moment she was married to my father and hence crossed the youth very fast - probably she became a middle aged lady very early in her life. She had a dream of at least educate her only son - me - who was born after my 3 sister. Mother used to work as a domestic worker then and now - non-stop - tirelessly.
She used to tell me when I was 5, that I must get education - but was never sure about the how part? We seldom had enough money to have one meal a day, so thinking about such a luxury was not more than an impossible dream only. She was a little educated - up to 8th as compared to my father - who was totally uneducated. She taught me alphabets, simple grammar and inculcated reading habit in me. Books, she used to get from the houses where she used to go for work. She used to beg for old books of their children.
I remember when I was 7, I was beaten up very badly by my father, when I was reading a picture book about animals and birds. He told me one thing very clearly - "Education is useless, even if you get educated, ultimately you have to perform this kind of lower level work only, the way I do." I never believed in these words. Though I stopped reading in front of my father, but used to spend 2-3 hours every night in my teacher-less studies - on my own - after my father used to go to bed.
And then a light came into my life - the darkest of dark life. A local school teacher noticed my passion about reading books. He started calling me to his house everyday - late evening - and used to teach me. He started teaching me various subjects - maths, english, science... He brought an open school form for me - to enroll for senior school exams. And then there was no looking back. I did my graduation and with the help of teacher I applied for a loan from the bank where he was holding his account - to start this project. He helped me in preparing project report papers - to be submitted to bank - for loan.
After getting loan, execution was not a problem as the things to be done were very clear. I have only one mission now - these schools of mine will deliver education to only children like me - eager to learn but are not able to join schools due to parents / circumstances pressures. One candle now will burn a million of candles before it melts down completely, that is my promise to myself.
Nobody would have ever imagined that I would be landing into this venture 20 years back when I was just a 10 years old boy belonging to one of the poorest families in one of the remotest villages. I was born with a soil spoon in my mouth. There was no celebration when I was born. Thinking about any celebration was beyond the reach and thoughts of my family members. My father - an ad-hoc worker - mostly free - sometimes earning a very low amount in lieu of temporary kind of jobs. My mother - a lady who never became young, she had to mature up very fast the moment she was married to my father and hence crossed the youth very fast - probably she became a middle aged lady very early in her life. She had a dream of at least educate her only son - me - who was born after my 3 sister. Mother used to work as a domestic worker then and now - non-stop - tirelessly.
She used to tell me when I was 5, that I must get education - but was never sure about the how part? We seldom had enough money to have one meal a day, so thinking about such a luxury was not more than an impossible dream only. She was a little educated - up to 8th as compared to my father - who was totally uneducated. She taught me alphabets, simple grammar and inculcated reading habit in me. Books, she used to get from the houses where she used to go for work. She used to beg for old books of their children.
I remember when I was 7, I was beaten up very badly by my father, when I was reading a picture book about animals and birds. He told me one thing very clearly - "Education is useless, even if you get educated, ultimately you have to perform this kind of lower level work only, the way I do." I never believed in these words. Though I stopped reading in front of my father, but used to spend 2-3 hours every night in my teacher-less studies - on my own - after my father used to go to bed.
And then a light came into my life - the darkest of dark life. A local school teacher noticed my passion about reading books. He started calling me to his house everyday - late evening - and used to teach me. He started teaching me various subjects - maths, english, science... He brought an open school form for me - to enroll for senior school exams. And then there was no looking back. I did my graduation and with the help of teacher I applied for a loan from the bank where he was holding his account - to start this project. He helped me in preparing project report papers - to be submitted to bank - for loan.
After getting loan, execution was not a problem as the things to be done were very clear. I have only one mission now - these schools of mine will deliver education to only children like me - eager to learn but are not able to join schools due to parents / circumstances pressures. One candle now will burn a million of candles before it melts down completely, that is my promise to myself.
- I am going to #BlogToFeedAChild with Akshaya Patra and BlogAdda.
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