A Slum Boy

Sarankul is a famous place for Ladukesh Mahadeb Temple. While we are on a visit to Sarankul,Nayagarh we stopped at a Dhaaba (roadside restaurant) at Bolagarh on the highway to eat. While all the other members of the group got busy in ordering food I saw a guy standing right in front of dhabaa and doing something with a cloth in his hand and seemed more like a dance, so out of curiosity I went to see what was happening and this is the conversation I had with the guy(referred as X) .

Me:- What are you trying to do?

X:- There are a lot of dhaabas around so am trying to woo the attention of the drivers to stop at ours.

Me:- Is it really helpful?

X:- Obviously it is. Cars drive so quick on highways that if we won't tell them we exist then they won't even notice.

Me:- aare badhiya ( Great )

X:- Look at the adjacent dhaaba, he's also trying to do the same.

Me:- Ohh I see. Well my name is Sujit and what's yours?

X:- Jaga.

Me:- How much money do you make via doing this?

X:- 4k and plus I get all the meals (with a huge smile on his face )

Me :- You seem so young, Don't you go to school?

X:- I do. My school is till 2 and then I come here to work.

Me:- It must be hard and tiring.

X:- No I love it and plus my mom feels proud of me too.

Me:- Sure they do. What class are you in ?

X:- 10th. I'll leave this work next month as my board exams are approaching. I want to be an IAS.

Me:- Its one of the toughest exams.

X:- Am one of the brightest in my school. My headmaster says that I'll do something great with my life.

Me:- Why IAS?

X:- There's no electricity in my village and no irrigation facilities. Sometimes I stay here only in night so that I can study as there's no electricity back home. My dad once went to poop in the fields in the morning and never came back. He was bitten by a poisonous snake. He could have been saved but the  hospital is in adjacent village so by the time we got there he was already dead. And as I grew up I could observe how hard it was for mother to take care of me and my sister. Making us sleep with a full stomach and paying our school fees became her only motive in life .What happened with my family should not happen with any other in the village so I'll be an IAS and change every bit of it .

Even though the guy was just 14 or 15 but he still had dreams, that too for the collective good for all his village mates. I often feel so scared of dreaming. What if am never able to achieve it? What If i don't turn out to be the best at it.

But the courage I saw in his eyes was something truly unique. I haven't found the same again till now in anyone.