Madhu

Madhu is a child we have known since he was in class two. He has now finished his undergraduate in the Tirupathi Government College and managed a MBA seat in a private engineering college. His fees are covered by the S.C. scholarship. But the bus charges up and down from the village is a heavy cost for his family. But his family is supporting him. His father is a landless labourer, who is doing cleaning work in Sulabh in Tirupathi, as one of the many who migrated due to the drought.

The shift from Telugu medium in his undergraduate to English medium in his MBA seemed unsurmountable, but with grit he passed all the papers. But beyond that, he realized that the MBA course was  substantially laptop based. A laptop was unthinkable for his father, and so he used to go to the cyber café in the next town at late hours when it was cheap, and get his PPT done. A friend gave him her old laptop and that helped him work harder.

Through his schooling in the village he used to study hard and work hard. With an exam the next day, he used to spend the night watering his sugarcane field. All holidays used to be spent at the field or grazing cows. He also used to have his fun in every inter village cricket match organized and he was very popular with the children his age.  He was also one of the most responsible and helpful children.

When Madhu was six years, his sister Mahita was three, they were sitting at the handpump when I had gone there for fetching water. They had just come back from a wedding and were discssing about the two of them getting married and getting a ‘tractor to take everyone for the wedding’  Their nine year old cousin Naresh came by, and aghast at this immoral talk, gave them both a cuff on their ears and sent them packing, howling !