This weeks PAU is about Raju, a milkman at the milk booth opposite Shaan
restaurant and adjacent to Venagola in Marol. He is polio affected and hence
has restricted mobility. His spirit to educate his children has made him
the subject of this week’s PAU.
He earns about Rs.3500 a month. This, we all know, is very difficult to manage
with, in a city like Mumbai. His two daughters Jeyasundari (Sixth standard)
and Isaiveni (Fourth standard) study at the Marol Educational Academy. Raju
pays a fee of about Rs.800 per month for the education of his children. In
addition to that he has to pay extra fee for computer facilities. All this
come at quite a premium for this genial looking, ever smiling, frail fellow,
but he is quietly determined to educate his daughters well and is prepare
to make huge sacrifices for that.
He opens shop at 4.30 in the morning and closes by around 1.00 p.m. for lunch,
post lunch he opens by 4.00 p.m. and ends the day at 10.30 p.m. Unlike many
people in such a situation he does not have the habits of smoking or drinking.
He could have easily fallen prey to these age old temptations. But his teetotalling
just shows the commitment of this man to his noble cause. He is even prepared
to sacrifice his day’s lunch for his daughter’s education. We are sure that
these daughters, who have secured a 4 month fee waiver due to their good
results in school, will not disappoint him and go on to achieve good heights
and make him proud of them.
We urge people frequenting his shop to have a chat with this very affable
person. This will make you realize his efforts and how deserving his family
is to get all help that we can muster. We, at TeamIndia2020, have decided
to sponsor a year’s education of his daughters. You also can play a valuable
part by providing books and other stationery material for his children. Consider
it as your obligation to our society. Mind you, it is not very often that
we can find such a well deserving family that needs our help. We together
can easily help them out so that Raju’s daughters will not face any problem
in continuing their education. There cannot be a situation more embarrassing
in our life if such people don’t receive our aid. Let us take a pledge and
declare proudly that “Our duty is to make sure that not only my kith and
kin remain happy but also my poor neighbors’”.
All of us know that we have lot many Raju’s around in the country. At this
juncture we at Team India 2020 request you to just look around the place
you live. There are lot many Padmalakshmi’s, Tara Bai’s and Raju’s.
We might think that our contributions might be insignificant but together
each and every one of our contributions makes up a considerable impact. There
might be many such people in your society in similar situations. Please let
us know about them and we will make sure that they get the desired assistance.
