“As a parent, It’s unfair to bring children into this world if one doesn’t have the adequate finances to raise them well. And I can say with cent percent confidence as a kid who was sold for one lakh rupees, by his own mother.

Yes, that was the price tag put on me in exchange for lifetime slavery at a wealthier household. Poverty can take pretty nasty forms and this was definitely one of its extremes. Mom got married very young and with dad refusing to go to work, the whole pressure of raising the kids came onto her shoulders. And in due course, she felt her only way out was reducing the financial burden by selling me off and remarrying a ‘supposed’ hardworking man.

But much to her luck, none of the men she ever married were ready to take care of her. The kid count just kept growing and she was always under massive debt. As for me, life progressed pretty miserably in my new home where I was made to do all the household chores whilst simultaneously being beaten up even for the slightest deviation. I was only provided with two meals, mostly the remains of what the owners ate the previous night with no signs of remuneration and a lifetime of incurred obligation. It was too much for a 10-year-old boy to handle that I somehow plucked up the courage to run away from there and restart life from scratch when things hit rock bottom.

I knew going home wasn’t an option, for my mother had now even sent my younger sister and brother in, for all kinds of work. And this is where I’m grateful to life for introducing me to a compassionate Muslim family, where I was taken in as paid worker in their garage. They were into mechanical repairs, and I was taught all the necessary skills in the field, whilst being treated with care and love by the family.

So slowly but surely, life changed for the better when I was subsequently able to establish myself as an independent auto driver and free my siblings from the clutches of manual labor. It blossomed to new peaks after I met my wife, for I finally got a family I can call ‘mine’. I was no more just an unwanted commodity and I guess this transformation has truly been the highlight of my life! I’ll forever be grateful to god for taking me through this rollercoaster before showing me the things that truly matter!”

#life #journey #hardships #love #family #survival #chennai #HumansofMadras