A story shared on the popular page ‘Humans of Bombay’ has struck a chord with thousands of people. In his interview with ‘Humans of Bombay’, Mumbai resident Nitesh Jaiswal opened up about the struggles his parents faced to educate him and his brother. He spoke about how his “uneducated and underprivileged” parents worked hard to raise two medicos, despite facing financial as well as societal pressures.
“My parents are originally from Uttar Pradesh – they married young and moved to Bombay after in pursuit of a better life,” said Mr Jaiswal. They had barely any money to their names, but his father soon managed to find a job at an electrical factory. Within a few months, however, he lost three fingers in a mishap and was fired without any compensation.
To look after the family, Mr Jaiswal’s mother began to take up odd jobs while nursing her husband. “But her family tried hard to convince her to leave dad. They’d say, ‘You’ve only been married two years, it’s not too late to leave this disabled man,’ but mom refused,” says Nitesh Jaiswal.
He spoke about the sacrifices his parents made so their children could study. “They saved every penny to send me and my brother to an English medium school – there were days that they slept hungry, so we had a roti to fill our stomachs.”
The family moved to a rented chawl, where neighbours often taunted them, claims Mr Jaiswal. “Our neighbours and relatives would taunt dad and say, ‘You can’t even afford food, send them to a municipality school.’ But we studied hard- we’d be at the library in the day and burnt the midnight oil to avoid our neighbours; we always scored well,” he recalls.
Over the years, Mr Jaiswal claims, their neighbours would play loud music during their exams or start baseless fights to distract them. “It got worse when they found out we were both going to be medical professionals,” he says.
The day before his entrance exam, they started blaming the family for some water leakage. “They beat us up and as a result all of us were put in lock up,” says Mr Jaiswal. He had to take his entrance exam, so he begged for bail. He was finally allowed to leave at 2AM.
But he says that his parents’ struggles have paid off. His mother used all her savings to buy a piece of land and later sold it off to pay for her sons’ college. “But it’s all paid off – my brother has a Bachelors in Dental Surgery, and I’m working as a research associate for COVID right now,” says Nitesh Jaiswal.
“We’re finally in a place where we can take care of our family- we still live in the same chawl, but we’re saving to buy another flat so that we can finally move from here.”
He ends his interview with a touching tribute to his parents: “It’s genuinely not about where you come from, it’s about where you want to go in life, and my parents proved that; two uneducated, underprivileged parents can raise two medicos.”
The story of the Jaiswal family has garnered nearly 40,000 ‘likes’ on Instagram. In the comments section, many applauded the sons for making their parents proud, while others hailed the parents for their strength and resolve.
“Huge respect to the parents….. they must be very proud of you too,” wrote one commenter.
“Kudos to your parents and you both! Keep making them proud,” another said.