I was sobbing. I had given up on a maths question. I was throwing a tantrum, had broken a pencil and was lying on the bed. My father was very disturbed by observing my behavior. He came and sat beside me. He tried to reason out with me that I should not give up and if I will not treat the problems as challenges to overcome and get bogged down like this, then how will I face bigger problems later in my life. But his pep talk wasn’t going anywhere. Already in a bad mood, I started crying. My father didn’t know how to inspire or motivate me. My father is a very good storyteller and he always either narrates me stories from mythology or his personal experiences.
This was a perfect time to listen to yet another incident from his life. As soon as he started the story, “ When I was very young…”, I snapped at him, “I do not want to hear another story about how you solved another life crisis and why should I learn from you?”. “Oh no! no! this story isn’t about me but today I will tell you about a person whom I admire a lot, a boy whose name was Raju, our car washer”, said my father. This got my attention. Then he started continuing his story “When I was very young, a boy named Raju used to come to our house every morning to clean our cars. His father died long back and his mother used to work in homes as a cleaning maid. But his zeal for learning never got diminished in spite of his extremely poor background. He always wanted to go to school, but he didn’t have money so he came up with a perfect job as a bell boy in a local school. He had no money to buy a uniform so the school gave him a very, old and long uniform. Some kids used to tease him, especially about his uniform but he didn’t care as long as he could study. He would sit near a class with a pencil and a notebook and note down what all the teacher taught in class. There was no electricity in his home so he had to sit under a street light to study and complete his homework. Every morning he used to wake up early in the morning, got ready for school, came to our house to clean our cars and then went to school for his job as a bell boy and to study. He was exceptionally brilliant in studies, very meticulous in his work, very polite and punctual and always had a smiling face. It always seemed that he was really enjoying his life and he never complained about anything. He was very good at drawing and I always asked him to draw sketches for my project works. He enrolled his younger brother also in a different school and never let him do the work. He paid all the expenses for his brother’s education. Finally, he appeared for his board examinations and even during his exams he came daily to clean our cars. We told him repeatedly not to come and study hard but he used to smile and say, “It helps me in de-stressing myself”. When the results came he got good marks but not as expected out of him. But he didn’t get disheartened. He took science and this time he worked really hard for two years and kept on working too. Since he needed more money as he wasn’t getting any support from the school, he started cleaning the cars of our neighbors also. This put an extra burden on him and he had to come early to finish his work before going to school. Again, he appeared for board examinations of Class 12 and this time also he kept on coming to clean cars as usual. There was absolutely no change in his routine and demeanor. This time when results were out, his name appeared at serial number 11 on the merit list. He went to Delhi College of Engineering on scholarship. He had to give one-fourth of his scholarship to support his family and brother’s education. Before going to college he came and met us all to take the blessings. After that day I didn’t meet him. After 15-16 years I was taking a morning walk and I saw a very smart and handsome young boy wearing a costly branded jogging suit and shoes, a smartwatch and sunglasses approaching me. He came near to me and bent down to touch my feet. I was startled. The boy was none other than Raju. He told me that after his engineering he got a job at Infosys and then the company sponsored him to pursue his higher education from the US and now he was heading the Delhi center of Infosys. I was really happy to see him and was feeling very proud too. He told me that before coming to us he asked for a job at multiple places but since he was too young so no one gave him a job and he was thanking my family for believing him and supporting him. I assured him that it was his hard work, his honesty, his never give up attitude made him what he is today.” Then my father asked me what do I think of Raju. I didn’t reply. I just got up and started to solve my maths problem and this time I was smiling.
https://www.freepik.com/free-photo/paper-planes-blue-sky_1007482.htm#page=1&query=inspiring&position=16
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