Newindpress
Mysore, Jul 3: This is one story that President Abdul Kalam would love to showcase to prove his pet theory that today’s young India can dream big.
The story of Fathima Bibi Sheik from a nondescript slum in Visakhapatnam and the wife of a pushcart vendor who sold puffed rice and hot corn and a promise to a girl who had just crossed 15 summers to join him as a life partner.
Fathima is today undergoing training at the sprawling Infosys campus here.. in a world that is alien to her.
Out of sheer grit and courage and the support from her parents and husband, she was able to complete her engineering degree.
She got married to Silar, a pushcart vendor who eked out Rs 150 a day selling puffed rice. She was barely 15, had just done her SSLC and on the first night she was soaked in tears.
Silar wondered what mistake he had done. It was then that Fathima told him that she wanted to study further. And till she achieved her goal, no children. Only books and toil.
For the next few years, Silar pushed his cart and Fathima’s dream. He raised finance from moneylenders paying hefty interest.
She became the first in her family to cross the SSLC threshold and later went on to do her intermediate and engineering. All through, she came out with flying colours.
Her friends in college did not know that she was married or that her husband was a push cart vendor. All that they knew was a quiet girl who topped her class.
“My dreams are yet to come true. This is only a beginning. I want to encourage and inspire all those struggling to achieve their goal,” Fathima told this correspondent.
She is now undergoing training at the Global Education Centre of Infosys here. “My father Basheer worked as a helper in a canteen. He was my source of inspiration. He worked hard to feed me and my mother Raziya Begum while living in the bylanes of Seethampet in Vizag. But the biggest support I got was from my husband,” she says and stops to control her tears.
“He went round with his pushcart to earn Rs 150 a day and saved most of it for my studies. He had a tough time when financiers came knocking at our doors. He also agreed not to have kids till I achieved my goal.”
Fathima is today among the cream of top IT professionals, but has no inferiority complex or hesitation in recalling her difficult days or her husband’s business.
“Today I want to be self-sufficient and fund education for the poor. I will extend financial support to my husband to carry out his business till he calls it a day,” she said.
Her big day: When she got her first salary. Clutching her cheque, she called up her parents and husband in far-off Vizag.
“For the first time I did not have words. Only a choked voice. But I presume they understood the depth of my joy.” Her next goalpost : An MBA from one of the best institutes.