By birth, I was a very healthy lively kid.My father used to train and motivate to make me a stone head kid. I was loved by many people in the village and neighbours (told by parents and others). I remember a man Shri Ram Nagina Mishra. I used to call him Baba, who used to give me guava almost every week and his blessings all the time.
Struggle:
I am the fourth son of my father from top amongst five. As we grew up, we were handed over the legacy of running behind buffalos. After Sharwan bhaiya, I took over the charge along with him from 2nd standard onwards. When I was in 8th standard, I asked my younger brother to come with me. For around 3 years Sharwan Bhaiya, Puttu and I were behind buffalos. When Sharwan Bhaiya went for his college study, it was on me and Puttu. Our day schedule from 2nd standard onwards was to get up early in the morning around 6 AM , take Buffalo’s out for grazing, come back by 8:30 AM, take bath, take chapattis in hand , start eating and walking towards the school. Again returning from the school, someone with these buffalos would see us outside the village. We took out our school clothes, put into the school bag, gave it to the person who was already there with buffalos and then we would be there till around 6:30-7PM. After returning to home at 7 PM we had our food. Then by 8 PM, we started doing homework as given by teachers. We used to get tired and feeling sleepy while studying. It was quite difficult to study inside the home with the light of diya but somehow we managed to read and then slept there only. An advantage of the summer season was that the parents used to sit on the roof so they could not see whether we were studying or sleeping. Most of the time, we used to sleep only. This went on till my 10th standard. Then I was considered the responsible person at home and opened one (Kirana store) small shop at home. Now, the previous schedule was continued but when I come back at 7 PM, I also had to take care of shop till 9-10PM. This was a happy moment because you could eat whatever you wanted and also did not have to read. This continued till B.Sc. first year. Later in the second year, there were days when I took sugar potato on my cycle along with Sharwan bhaiya and went to village to village shouting, “Lelo ganji Dhane dedhi and panch rupya killo” ( in English: buy the sugar potato which is 5Rs/Kg or one-half of paddy for 1Kg/sugar potato).
Experience:
When I passed 12th standard, I applied for a course Diploma in Pharmacy to get admission in polytechnic school. The form cost was Rs 300. I prepared for this exam from my 10+2 books and went with Pawan Bhaiya to write the exam at Faizabad. In the bus, we met one Govt. teacher and spoke to him. He took us in the college and gave accommodation in the hostel (free of cost).Around 9 PM, one guy came to our room and asked some translation. I could not make that translation then that guy said, “If you don’t know this, then why did you apply to the diploma in pharmacy exam? You are just wasting your money”. My brother was there when I heard this from that guy. Brother got pissed off with me and kept on taunting throughout the way. When the result came, I could not qualify. Then my brothers one by one beat me with full of their energy for a week. It was not only because I could not qualify, also because I had argued with them ever before and this was the best time for them to take revenge. Well, this was a very bad experience, now I was scared of dreaming big and taking chance. Hence, I did not apply to any medical entrance exam.
At the time of my B.Sc. admission, one of the brilliant students of my village name Padum Nath Tiwari got failed in his B.Sc. first year. So my father started doubting on me, saying, “If Padum Nath has failed then you will never pass B.Sc. .Therefore, it would be better to go for B.A.” But I cried and requested mom to convince him that I wanted to do B.Sc. only. Finally, I took admission in B.Sc. and did really hard work and just tried remembering everything came on my way right from class to book. Days went on like this. During these days, some of the students (later became good friends) Like Pawan Y. , Sandeep S., Yeshwant P. and most annoying fellow Jitendra M. were used to scare with their dada Giri( Showoff, I politely handled all of them. Later, in the second year of my B.Sc, almost all of them (guess) gave true respect from my humbleness. That’s when I learnt politeness can always win over others, if not today certainly tomorrow. One very fine day I was appearing for my Botany practical viva-voice, the external examiner A Reader of Botany at KDC Baharaich, asked me so many questions, I still remember around 28 questions and at last, he said, “if you answer the last question I will give you 60 out of 65”. Well, I answered…. done……I came back to home. As result declared I was passed, one moment to smile openly. Later when I went back to college, I heard from some friends that Dr.Rekha Sharma (Faculty in Botany Dept. in L.B.S.P.G.college, Gonda) was looking for me.
B.Sc IInd year
sanjay's Blog 