Piyush

My father is a primary school teacher and he is very strict about studies. When I was a child, I used to live in his terror. It’s the only reason I studied. I remember once he got me into tuition classes. One day, I bunked the class to go watch a cricket match at a friend’s house. Sometime later, his mother came and said that my father was calling me. I was petrified. I knew I had been caught. I saw him standing outside with one hand behind his back. The look on his face made me stop in my tracks. It put the fear of god in my heart. And I never took studies lightly after that.

Today, I don’t study because I am scared of my father. I study because I enjoy it. But that instance made me like this. Studies have always been treated with a lot of importance in my family. But not all families feel like this, especially the ones that own land. They rather their children not study and stay back to take care of the land, than step out into the world.

My mother on the other hand told me, “See child we don’t have anything. We don’t even have land to cultivate. You need to look towards your future and make something of yourself. The onus is on you.” That’s what drives me.

*Piyush is a student of VidyaGyan