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Editors' Choice

The Hinduatan Times
04 December 2005 

MAKING A DIFFERENCE - ENDURING SPIRIT Hawker who toils
to buy books for his wife
 

Ashok Das
Visakhpatnam

ANYONE ELSE from a similar social background would have shown his wife the door to what they think is her natural abode, the kitchen. Not Silar, a semiliterate pushcart vendor, who religiously saves Rs 1,500 a month for his wife Fathima, an engineering student.

He wants her to join the Central government services after she graduates as an electrical and electronics engineer next year. Despite his monotonous work hours, Silar, 30, who sells puffed rice near Andhra University from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., has given a new meaning to love and hope ever since he married Fathima.

Fathima, the only child of a poor couple, was only 15 when they got married five years ago. Encouraged by Silar, Fathima continued her studies, passing class X with 89 per cent marks.

Though unlettered, Silar didn't want his wife's talents to go waste. He talked to her and they decided not to have any children till she achieved her goal.

Silar's mother wants to see a grandchild in the family before her time is up, but he is unrelenting. Fathima has been consistently securing above 75 per cent marks in the exams and hopes to land a good job. Fathima says her dream would have remained unfulfilled but for Silar's support. "I am proud of being his wife. Though he is a hawker, he has done what few could do," she says.

To reduce his expenses, Silar, who earns barely Rs 70-80 a day, has moved into the in-laws' two-bedroom house in the Hindu-Muslim colony.

In the single-minded pursuit to see Fathima come up in life, her family has sacrificed a lot too. Her father's monthly salary of Rs 2,000 goes towards paying up the Rs 1 lakh loan taken for the tworoom house. Fathima has borrowed Rs 50,000 from the Andhra Pradesh state Minority Finance Corporation in the past two years to pay her college fees (annual fees is Rs 22,000). 

 
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