(2/3) “However I did not give up even though taking care of my father and my three younger brothers became my responsibility. I became like their mother. Father with his ego would not come to the kitchen. He would say it was no place for a man. He would toil in the fields all month but he would not do the household chores. So it was only me. With all the work of looking after three boys and the house, I still managed to continue school. And in the third attempt I passed my SLC. I was so happy that I remember I ran home to give news to my father but bluntly he had exclaimed, “What are you going to do? Go to college now?” I knew that it was a bitter sarcasm but I made up my mind that very day that I was going to go to college. I somehow managed to look after the work of the house and at the same time, I started going to college. But I knew that I had to leave home as I had found someone to talk to and share my troubles with. He was not a rich man but a man of hard work and principle. I knew that father would not let me leave home. Though my brothers were growing up to be able to take care of themselves, the night of the rainy Asaar night, 24 years ago, I made the most difficult decision in my life. Without telling anyone, I left home. He had said he would wait for me at the road. Before I left, I stopped to look back at my sleeping brothers whom I had raised like my own sons. As I stepped out into the darkness and walked towards the road, big tears rolled down my cheeks and the face of my dying mother flashed in front of my eyes.” #elevateddreams in collaboration with Trek To Teach