Education and life...Today's Story

🌸Today's Story🌸

Sharma Ji said to a 14-15-year-old boy running a street food cart,

"I’ve been noticing you for a few days. You’re here every day with your cart selling snacks. Why don’t you go to school?"

The boy replied, "It’s just the way things are, Uncle."

"There’s an organization I run where classes are held for poor children. You can join too," Sharma Ji suggested.

The boy smiled faintly and said, "But who will sell these snacks then? How will my family survive?"

"Don’t you have parents?"

"I do. I also have a brother and a sister, but I’m the one responsible for the household. And honestly, what good would studying do for me?"

"If you study, you can become a successful man someday," Sharma Ji reasoned.

The boy laughed heartily, *"A successful man? Like those in suits who abandon their poor parents? Let me tell you something, Uncle. My father was a peon, earning a modest salary. He worked tirelessly to educate my brother and sister. He even took loans to do so. My brother became an officer, got married to a girl of his choice in college, and moved to the city with her. He hasn’t looked back since.

My sister is a principal at a big school. For her and her husband, our peon father, illiterate mother, and a sixth-grade pass brother are stains on their reputation. They never visit us.

Their big education makes us look like patchwork to them.

Now, my father is jobless, and my mother is unwell. Should I run the house or pursue my studies?

Anyway, a person is great because of their thoughts, not their degrees. I want to study too, but responsibilities won’t let me. So I’ve decided that if I can give the parents who raised me with such hardship a comfortable life, I’ll consider myself a great man."*

"Now, Uncle, please have some snacks. I need to earn something; my mother’s medicines ran out yesterday," the boy said.

Sharma Ji thought for a while and said, "You make great snacks. Pack some worth 100 rupees for my family too."

After paying, Sharma Ji walked away slowly, lowering his head. He lives alone; his children are settled abroad...

There are countless such children who lose their childhood and can’t study. And those who study too much often never return home.