Name: Muzaffar Hussain (picture left by Amit Datta)

Age: 58 years

Occupation: Sells meat from a shop opposite Ganja Park in Bhowanipore

Early choice: Muzaffar dropped out in Class IX and took charge of the family business to relieve his ailing father and enable his elder brother Ali Hussain to study at a German university. Thus, the 16-year-old, the second of four brothers, also gave up his dream of being a footballer.

For his son: But years of tiring work seem rewarding as Muzaffar watches his children receive their college degrees. He sent away his elder son Zainul to study in Germany when he was only 11. “I had to let go if I wanted a good life for my son,” says Muzaffar, who last met Zainul — now an architect in Frankfurt — more than 10 years ago..

Muzaffar sent his younger son Javed to Russia to study electronic communication. He had to work hard to collect $1,100 to support a part of the course. Javed is now in the final year of graduation at a Moscow university.

The fixed point: But Muzaffar refuses to go anywhere. He would rather be at the meat shop set up by his grandfather in 1903. He now wants to arrange for higher studies for his daughter Nasrin, a student at St Thomas Girls’ School.

And he looks at his shop with pride. Muzaffar has been running it for over 40 years and claims he was the first in the city to introduce an electronic weighing machine in a meat shop in 1984.

He realises that his children may not return. “Zainul has a Yugoslavian girlfriend. He’s used to a different life and I will be glad if he is happily married,” he says.