I was born in a small village in India, so small that you need to travel to another village if you want to buy a matchstick-box. So small that I used to walk 2 miles every day to attend school in a nearby village. No, I am not complaining, those are the most jubilant days of my life, because every day I enjoyed walking down to the school in that early sunshine. But you know what the best thing about my village is? It’s the people, who might have earnings of less than $5 a day but have hearts bigger than the biggest cities in the world. They care not only for their family but for the whole village. For example, if a member dies in this village, nobody goes to work that day and everybody pays for the cremation to ease off the burden from the
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He always sought to provide me a decent education and rise above our poverty level. Looking at the shiny cars in the city we used to visit to sell the crop, he used to say “you too can buy it for yourself if you study well my love”. But as destiny would have it, he was diagnosed with kidney stone in 2002, and his dreams of educating me almost collapsed. Unable to earn enough to pay for his own medical treatment, family maintenance and my education, he spent sleepless nights worrying about money. To ease off this encumbrance, I studied for a government school entrance exam and cleared it. The school covered my education and boarding costs, so my father didn’t need to worry anymore. Although sending me to a boarding school at the age of 11 was difficult, but it was the best decision he has made until …show more content…
As a major part of the fee was paid through loans and scholarship, a feeling of gratitude made me join ‘Prayaas’, a social club in my college. Being a proactive member, I used to visit an orphanage nearby to tutor the children. During my visits, I noticed that the orphanage lacked the basic resources for study: Children used to sit on mats for their homework, only one notebook was provided for all the subjects. I talked to the headmaster of the trust and found out that the funds granted to orphanage were insufficient to cater these resources. Being through the same situation years back, I fathomed that for these children, education was not a luxury, but the only way out to a better world. In that context, I remember partially disagreeing with what Bill Gates once said, “If you are born poor it’s not your mistake, but if you die poor it’s your mistake”. There is a great difference between missing an opportunity to study and not having one at all. To alleviate the situation, I highlighted this issue to my club members and we decided to set up donation camps. We accepted anything, from used table-chairs to books and clothes. I still remember the grinning faces of the children when we delivered those resources to the orphanage. That day I truly felt the “joy of
He always sought to provide me a decent education and rise above our poverty level. Looking at the shiny cars in the city we used to visit to sell the crop, he used to say “you too can buy it for yourself if you study well my love”. But as destiny would have it, he was diagnosed with kidney stone in 2002, and his dreams of educating me almost collapsed. Unable to earn enough to pay for his own medical treatment, family maintenance and my education, he spent sleepless nights worrying about money. To ease off this encumbrance, I studied for a government school entrance exam and cleared it. The school covered my education and boarding costs, so my father didn’t need to worry anymore. Although sending me to a boarding school at the age of 11 was difficult, but it was the best decision he has made until …show more content…
As a major part of the fee was paid through loans and scholarship, a feeling of gratitude made me join ‘Prayaas’, a social club in my college. Being a proactive member, I used to visit an orphanage nearby to tutor the children. During my visits, I noticed that the orphanage lacked the basic resources for study: Children used to sit on mats for their homework, only one notebook was provided for all the subjects. I talked to the headmaster of the trust and found out that the funds granted to orphanage were insufficient to cater these resources. Being through the same situation years back, I fathomed that for these children, education was not a luxury, but the only way out to a better world. In that context, I remember partially disagreeing with what Bill Gates once said, “If you are born poor it’s not your mistake, but if you die poor it’s your mistake”. There is a great difference between missing an opportunity to study and not having one at all. To alleviate the situation, I highlighted this issue to my club members and we decided to set up donation camps. We accepted anything, from used table-chairs to books and clothes. I still remember the grinning faces of the children when we delivered those resources to the orphanage. That day I truly felt the “joy of