Khan’s daughter Rukhsar scored 66 per cent in HSC this year. Deepak Joshi
Financial obstacles and age cannot stop you from completing your education, proved 41-year-old Sharif Abdul Samad Khan, an autorickshaw driver and a father of five. Khan scored 61 per cent in the SSC examination, the result of which was declared on Tuesday. Incidentally, Khan’s daughter Rukhsar who appeared for her HSC board exam scored 66 per cent this year. The family plans a small celebration at their 8X12 feet home located in a dingy corner of a chawl in Babu Jagjeevan Ram Nagar at Mulund west. Khan has four daughters and a seven-year-old son. He now tells everyone he knows to take up education. “I advise everybody to take up education like me. Education is the key to change our lives and end our sufferings.”
Khan, whose family hails from Pratapgad in Uttar Pradesh, drives his autorickshaw for almost 8-10 hours every day, following which his daughter Rukhsar helped him study for his board exams. A school dropout, Khan had to crush his dreams of studying to start earning early in order support his father. “I had to drop out from a BMC school in Mulund in 1991-92, during the riots. Though the riots did not directly affect us, our family income cut down sharply. Since then I took up small jobs to support my father. Later I started driving an auto, married and had kids and there was no looking back,” he said.
It was his daughters who motivated him to take up studies again. “Meri betiyon ne mujhe samjhaya Padhai ki koi seema nahi hoti, koi umra nahi hoti (There is no age limit to take up education). I then submitted my form 17 and enrolled as an external candidate from Vikhroli Rajpal Vidyalaya… I thought it will be difficult for me to clear the exam, forget about scoring first class. After a long day and hard work, it was very tough for me to pick up the books and concentrate. However, my daughters supported me and I managed to do it,” said Khan.
My daughters have all studied from a Hindi medium school, I repent not enrolling them to an English medium school,” said Khan. Khan aspires to study further and says he will enroll as an external candidate for HSC.