The successful engineer

20 Nov 2008

Sarwar, resident of Vijay Nagar Chandbad, a dingy colony of old Bhopal city, has seen it all during his 19 years of existence on earth. He was not old enough to know the immediate world when his parents separated, his father vanished for good and his mother remarried, abandoning him only to be brought up by his nani (maternal grandmother) Zehrabi, now 75 years old. When all this happened Sarwar was only a year old! He now lives with his nani Zehrabi and his younger maternal uncle Salim, 28 years old and mentally unstable, who occasionally works as a daily labourer in a local factory. Zehrabi, who has been receiving a widow's pension from the state government for the last 25 years, still struggles in spite of having lost one eye to blindness because of want of money to go for timely cataract operation which could have saved her from half-blindness!

Sarwar says "I do not remember how I spent my early years in the care of my nani Zehrabi. But I certainly remember starting my working life when I was in class IV in a local private school." Sarwar started working in a local teashop twice or thrice a week and used to earn a little amount to be able to continue his studies. He also used to work for a local newspaper trader by supplying newspapers to customers early in the morning. From both of these sources he used to earn INR 600,- (roughly 16 USD now) about ten years ago. This was very crucial for his survival. His nani has three daughters and two sons. All the daughters including Sarwar's own mother were married off at the time of his parents' separation. His elder maternal uncle also got married and has been living independently since. Sarwar, his nani Zehrabi and uncle Salim have been living together for the last 18 years and are struggling for everything in life together. Salim has been working since he was seven or eight years old and earns some money every month to support his study expenses and also the family to a marginal extent.

Childhood memories

About his childhood he remembers clearly that he couldn't play unlike other children of his age although he wanted to; he didn't have enough food at home for two square meals a day. Sometimes neighbours used to give them chapattis out of sympathy. He always hated to work but fate had something harsh for him in store; when in class V he left working for the teashop and newspaper trader and started working as a mechanic in a local garage, and when he was in class VI he worked as a labourer on daily wages in a local bottle-making factory. He used to work two weeks a month in shifts in this factory so that he did not have to leave school; he used to earn INR 650,- (roughly 17 USD now) per month to aid his studies; He continued working in this factory up to class IX; he resumed working for the paper trader which he does till today; When he was in class XI he worked for a food processing factory for one year where he used to do a lot of physical labour like lifting sacks of wheat weighing up to 60 kg and transferring it into the machine for processing; that caused a lot of trouble which resulted in severe headaches in class XII when he was appearing for crucial examinations; now he collects newspapers from the transport and also distributes 250 newspapers daily by 7 a.m.; his day begins at 4.30 a.m. when most of his friends are still in the comfortable lap of sleep! He then goes to school, of course now to the Engineering College, where he is in his first semester.

He says "when I was in the initial stages of my youth I used to play occasionally but could not play enough, which I craved for; festivals were also not colourful because of lack of money; but my friends, teachers and neighbours always helped in a variety of ways and always understood my problems; friends used to provide stationery; my elder uncle provided me with clothing; my maths teacher Krishna Matanker has always been there to guide me and provide extra coaching without charging any fee; he continues to guide me even now; he taught me to always dream big and not give up education at any cost; he used to say to me that if you continue your studies, just lack of money will never hinder your progress."

Learning opportunities

Sarwar has always been among the best. He won first prizes in painting, scientific modelling and singing; while studying in twelfth grade, he appeared for his Pre Engineering Test (PET) Examination and cracked it successfully and secured a seat in Computer Engineering in the Bansal College of Engineering in Bhopal; but he could not gather any resources to pay the fees of Rs. 22.000,- (about 565 USD) for the first semester. The local WAKF Board (an Islamic institution) which had provided him assistance to sit for the PET expressed its helplessness. Sarwar ran from pillar to post to get some sponsorship. He finally lost all hope and mentally prepared himself for a less expensive course in Diploma Engineering in the local Industrial Training Institute (ITI); but a local mobile recharge coupon shop provided him the lead to SOS Children's Village Bhopal where a family strengthening co-worker used to purchase his mobile recharge coupons. The village director interviewed him and scrutinised all his documents and certificates and agreed to sponsor his fees for the Bachelor in Computer Engineering Course. The fee was deposited on the last day of admission.

Although his hopes have risen high, he still faces difficulties. "The newspaper distribution work in the early mornings disturbs my studies and sometimes I miss the college bus to reach in time for classes; I am hopeful that SOS Children's Villages will help me further so that I am able to complete my studies without any trouble" he says.

Sarwar does not get food to take to college because his nani is very old to prepare food early in the morning before he leaves for college; his maternal uncle is also not of much help in this respect; he still gets help from his friends and seniors in the form of college uniform, shoes, etc.; study equipment like scientific calculator, books, etc. One of his friends carries food from his own home so that Sarwar can eat good food and concentrate well on his studies. He does not have a computer at home to practice and takes his friend's help to practice outside college hours. Sarwar wants SOS Children's Villages to help other poor children like him so that they also get opportunities to study and do courses that they deserve.

Sarwar's school maths teacher still guides him; he is the one who always taught him not to lose hope but keep going. Sarwar says that "I faced very difficult times on many occasions but overcame them with a lot of willpower." Sarwar wanted to play cricket; he wanted to go to the movies; he wanted to buy new dresses on festivals; but always had to quell the desire for want of money; but all these haven't deterred him from inching ahead in life. He is quite confident that he will engineer his way to success one day!

SOS Children has been working in India since 1963 and has 32 SOS Children's Villages in the country. Over 60,000 children are cared for at the unique children's villages while nearly half this number are treated at SOS Medical Centres.

To enable more children like Sarwar achieve their goals you can sponsor a child in India.

Relevant Countries: India.