Source : Anand Kumar
- The Humble background:
Father of Hanjala Shafi, a boy from Begusaray district of Bihar, used to work at a shoe shop. Often he used to think if his life would go in the struggle for daily bread and butter. Would his children have any better future?
Although his son Hanjala was a bright student, his condition was a big hurdle in making it big.
- A ray of hope and despair:
His father admitted him to a government school but the teachers were irregular and the school got shut down. To help in the family’s finances his Bua (paternal aunt) started working in a private school. After her persistent request she got him admitted to her school. Now things went smoothly as he did not have to worry about the school fee too.
But she got married after 3-4 years, leaving the school and the situation was bad again. He was asked to submit his fees and he couldn’t . On this, the school expelled him.
- The guardian Angel and a dream:
Luckily, a teacher named Javed noticed this bright boy and assured him of fees, stating that he need not worry. Instead he should do something for which the world would look up to him.
Hanjala was relieved and immersed himself in books.
His one room home for everybody was too crowed for study, so he used to go out and study. He cleared his 10th exams and came to Patna with his mother with the dream of becoming an engineer in his eyes. He had heard much about super-30, so he wanted to get in to it. But the time was not on his side. The innocent mother and son got fooled by a similar sounding institute which asked them for fee.
His mother Yasmin sold the only jewellery she had for the fee. Soon they realized that it was not the Super-30 they were looking for. He passed 12th but could not get into engineering.
Now the bright Hanjala wished for another chance.
- The second chance:
One day they reached me. With tears in her eyes her mother told the entire story. His father was earning 2800 a month and that wasn’t good enough for the family, leaving no choice for Hanjala. It melted my heart to hear his story.
I looked at the boy. He was sitting there with his head down. I felt that this bright kid needed a chance. And he was in our team. He was hard working and bright, he used to solve maths questions by different methods.
- Our bond and beautiful memories:
In my batch there were only two Muslim kids. Considering them I declared holiday on Eid, and asked them to go home and celebrate it with family. Both the boys refused and said that when they had celebrated Holi, Diwali with me, we want to celebrate Eid as well. And we made ‘Sewai’ together, and enjoyed the festival.
That was a memorable ‘Eid’.
- And the dream comes true:
Now came the time of test the 2013 IIT entrance exam. There was a spark in Hanjala’s eyes. Everybody was assured of his success. Hajala and his mother Yasmin had high hope in their eyes. And yes the result proved them right and he got a very good rank in the exam. Yasmin’s eyes were filled with tears when she came to me this time too, but for a very different and good reason.
- A mother’s heart :
Today Hanjala is a second year student in IIT Delhi. Yasmin sometime visits us with her husband. They talk about many things, and help students here in cooking food. This mother says one Hanjala has got his dream come true and others are studying hard for the same. Hence, she never misses to take care of kitchen on their time of meal.
