Saravanakumaran

Esakki

It all happened in 1996 when Esakki was nine years old when he quit his studies due to lack of interest and ran away from his hometown of Tirunelveli, Tamilnadu and came to Bhandup, Bombay in shelter of his uncle with whose help he got a job in a washing centre for a salary of Rs.300/month.

After a year, he joined his uncle’s hotel as a waiter for a salary of Rs.1000/month. There were times when he had to graze cows to fill his stomach. After facing lots of problems from his uncle, he ran away from his uncle in the year 2000, after being cursed by his uncle that he’ll never get help from anyone else.

But Esakki didn’t lose hope and confidence. He was 13 years by then. He moved from Bhandup to Nerul where he started delivering milk packets. Then moved to Sector-35,  Kharghar and with the help of his friends, he started working as a paper delivery man. He faced a lot of problems like language, competitors, lack of money, waking up early at 5 am everyday and travelling in the cold to deliver papers. All these didn’t stop him from developing interests towards paper delivery and so he had to shell out extra money to expand his territory of paper delivery. He was successful and he established himself as an individual in Kharghar. Then he appointed 4 helpers for delivering papers and paid them Rs.1500/month. After all expenses and labour, he saved Rs.10000/month which was sufficient for him.

He is satisfied with his work now and has plans of buying a house in Kharghar. He is also saving money for his sisters’ marriage. I was surprised  when he said that he donates Rs.2500 to charity every two months.

When asked, he says that his uncle was the main reason for his growth as his uncle challenged him about that but now his uncle is no more to witness that. This satisfied salesman now works part-time at a street-side Dosa shop.

-          Contributed by Saravanakumaran A [RMM 022]