An Unpredictable Life of an Orphan
Chapter 1- Beginnings
I was born on 26th August 1987 in my hometown, Idukki,
India’s southern state of Kerala, in a small house in a scenic village. When I
was born I didn’t see my father and later came to understand, that he died
following a stroke. My mother worked as a cleaner of a hotel in Trivandrum,
which was far from our home. Even though my mother worked day and night there
every day, she didn’t make much for a living.
We were so poor that I skipped Kindergarten all the way to
3rdgrade. Luckily I covered it up with the help of my mother’s neighbor, who
took tuitions for a living. In the beginning, I didn’t recognize my mother
because of her worn out face till I was 3 ½ years old. Up until that I thought
she was my granny. When I became a bit older, I understood that she was not my
granny because I was her second son and my sister was almost 10 years old! My
mother loved me so much because she thought that I needed more attention and
that got my sister really jealous.
Whenever my mother asked her to take care of me, she did the
opposite of that. She pinched me and didn’t play with me. I still didn’t
complain to mom as I didn’t want to displease her. She was already unhappy
about my father’s demise and I didn’t want to displease her more.
Chapter 2- My School Days
When I was a little older I started going to a government
school, just 2 kilometers from our house. The fee, at Rs. 100 per year, was
affordable. Although the school began only at 10 a.m, the students had to reach
there at 8 a.m, on the dot. Initially I thought it would be a lot of fun and
the school would radiate happiness and joy, but I was wrong. The walls of the
school were dirty and dark-eyed chameleons were living in all corners of the
school. The classrooms were dirty and the students were constantly in a state
of fear, because of the teachers who were very strict, for punishment, even for
the slightest of mistakes was very severe.
The mess hall was the worst of all. The food was only soup
and the bowls were not clean, most of the time bugs stuck to the sides of hardly-washed
bowl! I also didn’t have many friends in my class as they were mean and used
bad language but I luckily managed to get a friend as he was kind and polite.
At lunch time we introduced ourselves. He asked me, “Hello, what’s your name?”
I replied, “I am Alvin and what’s yours?”
“I am Jeril.”He then started to talk about his life. Jeril’s
life turned out to be very difficult as well. A father struggling to find work,
an ailing mother and frail grandparents, were but a few of the worries he had
to live with. I was so happy that I got a nice friend who understood the
feelings of the poor. By that time the bell rang and we went back to our
classes.
Chapter 3- Discovering My Friend
The day after Jeril and I met and became friends, I started
to know something more about him. When I was eating lunch with Jeril, the
naughtiest boy in our class, Ansar put his head outside and pulled ugly faces
at a teacher standing in the corridor and quickly put his head in. The teacher
didn’t see his face as his eyes were weak but he realised somebody was making
fun of him. He barged into the class, very cross and shouted like a dragon and
asked, “Who made fun of me?” For a few seconds there was silence and then the
naughty boy jumped and screeched, “It is Alvin! It is Alvin! I saw with my own
eyes.” The teacher became crosser than ever and picked me up to his sleeve and
started hissing at me and beating me with a stick. He took me to the principal
of the school, Mr Grumpy Sukumaran, from his name you can understand that he
was a really grumpy man and his face was red all the time.
When the teacher told him of the incident, Grumpy became so
cross that his face turned to a royal purple and started beating me and hissed
at me. While he was doing all this, my friend, Jeril came and the principal
stopped beating me and dumped me on a chair. Mr Grumpy asked Jeril politely
what the matter was, as Jeril’s father was an acquaintance of Mr Grumpy’s. When
Jeril told him what had happened and that Ansar was the one who did it, Grumpy
went and punished the boy.
On leaving the office, I thanked Jeril for saving me. I
still remember that incident even today and wished I could see him again.
Chapter 4- Horrific Times
After school, on my way back home I saw a big teenager
rushing towards me. It was my sister. She was in a frightening mood. I asked
her why and she stammered, “Our m..m..mother is d..d..dead!” When I heard this
my blood froze. She asked me to follow her to the burial grounds and I followed
her tears gushing out of my eyes. At the burial grounds I saw my father’s
uncle, George, Aunt Julie and my favourite cousin Shorty, all crying. When I
saw my mom’s dead body my sister and I started crying uncontrollably. I
couldn’t imagine a life without my mother, but I had to face it.
While the priest was speaking about her death I came to know
many more things I never heard before about my mom. The priest was talking
about her kindness and generous nature. My mother, the priest said, would go
without food to feed the hungry and go the extra mile to take care of the
homeless. This explained the warmth with which she was received wherever she
went. Coming back home after the burial, all I could do was ask God to give me
the strength and courage to face life without my parents.
Chapter 5- College Life
The next few years were a struggle, getting used to my
mother not being around, studying and at times just living. Until I enrolled
for college, life just dragged along. After 12th , I wanted to join an
engineering course. Life at the government Engineering College was fun and an
experience I can never forget. The last semester of college was even more
exciting as there were a few scholarship seats up for grabs in international
universities. I cleared the test for an Australian University at Melbourne.
Through all this, it was Shorty, my cousin who encouraged
me, helped me, advised me, guided me, and in short was there for me all the
time.I set off to Australia, beginning a new chapter in my life.
Chapter 6- A Tough Find
I went to Sydney, one of the best cities in Australia
looking for a job. It was not that easy though. It was really hard to adapt to
Sydney as the houses there were big and shaped like a cylinder and jobs were
not easy to come by, despite the degrees we had. But luckily I managed to live
in a small hotel till I found a job and paid the rent using my scholarship
money. I tried and tried to find a job.
A couple of weeks later, one morning as I flipped through
the sections of the Wanted Job-page, I found an opening for a manager post. I
looked at the salary was astonished to read-50,000 Aussie Dollars per month.
But I told myself not to get excited as I should first apply for the job. I
contacted them and booked an interview.
The next day I went to their employment office which was a
tiny space. There were many people waiting to be interviewed but I still did my
best when I got interviewed. After the interview they told me to wait until my
results came and after a few hours the selected ones list were put on the
bulletin board. We all went and looked and guess what? I got the job.
I called my cousin Shorty and told him the good news. I
thanked God for giving me a job.
Chapter 7- First day
The first day of my job and I was excited. But when I reached
the entrance of the office, the office was so huge that I started to get
nervous. When I reached the office, it was really cool as I was given
privileges like getting the company car, company phone and whenever I asked
them for anything they would give me. It was one of the best things in my life.
The other best thing was that the Chairman of the company was my best friend,
Jeril. I saw him as he was walking with the President of Australia to show the
new project which me and my colleagues were working on.
After the tour around the project, Jeril looked at me as if
I was familiar to him. He then asked me “Are you Alvin? Were you the one
studying at the Idukki Government School?” I replied yes and he shed tears of
joy as he saw me after many years. I too shed my tears as I got reunited with
my friend once again.
Chapter 8- Difficult times
I then decided to leave for India and be with my sister. I
wanted to settle in Idukki to be with her.She was living in Shorty‘s house. I
booked a ticket for later that night and started packing my belongings. I
called Shorty and told him the news of my leaving the job and told him that I
would send my money to his bank account and later when I reached Idukki I would
create an account and put my money into my new account.
Chapter 9- Back Home
I stayed in Shorty’s
house for few weeks and as I was leaving I noticed a nice car outside their
house. I asked Shorty about the car. He told me it was a gift from him to me.
Shorty said it was just a way of saying thank you to my mother, who used to
help him a lot and shower him with a lot of affection and love. I couldn’t thank
him enough and as I drove away in the car, my eyes were clouded with tears as I
thought of my mother.
Chapter10- A Beautitful End
After leaving, I went back to my childhood home and I
renovated the house. I also turned a new leaf, which was helping anyone in
need. So, from that day on I started helping others in my locality and everyone
knew me so much that there was no one in our locality who didn’t know me. I was
also called to many charity organizations’ meetings to talk about helping the
poor. This kind deed helped me in many things in my life and the best thing was
this:
When I was sleeping, I got a call from my cousin Shorty,
saying that I got a job in his company at Trivandrum and told me I could go the
next day. Without an interview I was selected on my cousin’s recommendation. I
was really happy and I thanked God as I got a job once again. From that day on
I worked in the same company with a good salary and good life till my
retirement.
Author: Rizwan Nias( Age: 12)
